Three Hours of Free Electricity Sounds Great. The Other 21 Hours Matter More.

Free electricity. What’s not to like?

It turns out the answer depends entirely on what you do during the other 21 hours.

If you’re a renter or a homeowner without solar panels, this is a genuine opportunity. The scheme is designed to use more of Australia’s abundant midday solar generation. If you can move enough energy use into the three-hour window while avoiding expensive periods later in the day, you may save.

But the Solar Sharer Offer is not a gift. It’s a regulated standing-offer tariff. And while the middle of the day is free, the electricity you use outside that window is charged at elevated time-of-use rates. If you switch to this plan without changing how you run your home, your bill could actually go up.

Here is how the scheme works, what the catch is, and how to figure out if it’s right for you.

How the free window works

The rules are simple but strict:

• The window: The free period runs for exactly three hours every day. In New South Wales and South East Queensland, it’s 11 am to 2 pm. In South Australia, it’s 12 pm to 3 pm. Victoria is launching a similar scheme on 1 October.

• The cap: You get up to 24 kWh of free electricity per day during that window. That is a massive allowance, roughly what an average five-person household uses in an entire day. If you somehow use more than 24 kWh in those three hours, the excess is charged at the plan's cheapest rate.

• The eligibility: You need a smart meter, and you must live in a Default Market Offer region (NSW, SA, or SE QLD). You do not need solar panels, and you do not need a battery.

• The catch: You still pay your daily supply charge. You still pay for controlled-load appliances (like off-peak hot water) at their normal rates. And most importantly, electricity used outside the free window is charged at time-of-use rates, which can be higher than a competitive flat-rate plan.

You have to opt in. Your retailer won’t move you automatically. Embedded-network customers are not eligible, and retailers with 1,000 customers or fewer across the eligible regions are exempt from offering the regulated plan.

Will it actually save you money?

This is the only question that matters. To answer it, we have to look at a real-world example.

Energy Consumers Australia recently ran the numbers for an illustrative household in the Ausgrid network in NSW, comparing the regulated Solar Sharer Offer against Origin’s Variable Go market offer. The comparison assumed average use of 20 kWh a day. The flat-rate plan charged an illustrative 34 cents per kWh plus a $0.89 daily supply charge, producing an estimated annual bill of about $2,800 before switching. The Solar Sharer side used the AER’s regulated 2026–27 time-of-use settings: zero cents during the free window, with higher rates at other times.

The outcome changed sharply depending on when the same household used its electricity:

These are not universal savings estimates. They are published illustrations based on one network area, one comparison plan and assumed usage patterns. Your result will depend on your retailer, location, tariff and smart-meter data.

The lesson here is that free electricity is only half the equation. The real test is how little you can use during the expensive peak period.

The best ways to use your free three hours

If you want to beat the traffic, you need to shift heavy loads into the 11 am to 2 pm (or 12 pm to 3 pm) window.

A battery can improve the result, but it is not required. The economics depend on how much free energy it can store, how much is lost in charging and discharging, and what the household would otherwise pay later in the day.

The verdict

The Solar Sharer Offer is a brilliant idea for the grid, but it requires you to be an active participant in your home's energy management.

If you can charge an EV, fill a home battery, or run heavy appliances in the middle of the day, compare the complete Solar Sharer plan on Energy Made Easy using your NMI and recent smart-meter history where possible.

But if your house is empty all day and everything gets switched on at 6 pm, stick to a competitive flat-rate plan. Three hours of free power is never worth paying too much for the other 21.

The Weekly Pulse: What else happened this week?

Batteries are saving money, but complaints have doubled

The ACCC released a major report on 10 July, finding that home batteries are delivering real bill savings, while consumer risks are growing. Across the retailer data examined, solar-and-battery households had annual bills $329 to $909 lower than grid-only households, a reduction of 20% to 52%. Solar-and-battery households participating in Virtual Power Plants generally recorded larger savings, but reports to the ACCC about batteries and new-energy services rose 107% over the previous 12 months. Reported problems included unsuitable systems, faulty installations, poor performance and difficulty obtaining remedies. The regulator has proposed stronger consumer protections, including better safeguards around VPPs.

Rooftop solar is cooling slightly, but still heading for a record

After April’s exceptional spike, rooftop-solar registrations eased for a second straight month. Australia registered 322 MW in June, down 4% from May and 26% below April’s record, but it was still the strongest June on record. The January-to-June total was about 41% ahead of the same period in 2025, while SunWiz forecasts 2026 additions to rise 41% to a record 4 GW.

See you next Wednesday.