Australia’s 4.4 million [1] solar homes and over 600,000 [2] of them with home batteries, are doing the heavy lifting on Australia’s shift to clean energy, stabilising our energy grid and bringing down wholesale electricity prices, but extra electricity supply charges now threaten to undermine these households’ private investment.
Solar Citizens CEO Heidi Lee Douglas said:
“It is a world-leading achievement that the Cheaper Home Batteries Program has driven 75% of home battery uptake with 450,000 home batteries, of the 600,000 total, installed in the last year receiving the federal government's incentive. [3]
“But energy networks and retailers need to recognise and not punish solar households that are sharing their cheap, clean rooftop solar with their neighbours during the day, and battery-owners who are stabilising the grid and replacing expensive gas and coal at peak energy use times at night.
“It is extremely concerning that Energy retailers Origin and AGL have notified NSW customers that from 1 July the fixed charge component of their bill will increase, wiping out the decrease in usage charges for solar and battery homes: undermining their return on investment. [4]
“In one case sent to Solar Citizens, we’ve seen the daily fixed charge will increase by 100%.
“We applaud Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen’s action of asking the energy and competition watchdogs, the Australian Consumer & Competition Commission and the Australian Energy Regulator, to investigate whether electricity retailers have breached misconduct laws by trying to push through huge increases in daily supply charges. [5]
“We can’t see the billions of dollars Australians have invested in rooftop solar and batteries being undermined.
“The Australian Energy Market Commission heard the voices of thousands of consumers who reacted angrily to their proposal to increase fixed charges, and modified their final Electricity Pricing Review, to acknowledge the important role of a third of Australian households who are now ‘pro-sumers’ - both producers and consumers of electricity. [6]
“We should be celebrating the way rooftop solar backed by storage is transforming our energy system, stabilising the energy grid, replacing expensive gas at peak times and bringing down electricity prices for everyone. [7]
“Marrying Australia’s rooftop solar success story with energy storage solutions means we can run our homes and cars on sunshine, day and night. This lowers energy and transport costs, provides greater energy security and resilience. And reduces carbon emissions. That’s a five-fold win for Australian consumers.”
We need further action to fully realise the benefits of the battery boom:
Extending the benefits of home batteries
To spread the bill-busting benefits of batteries even further we need the Federal Government to:
-
Push Standards Australia to pass an Australian standard for plug in, portable home batteries - that are widely used in Europe and the UK. This would enable renters and apartment owners to store cheap daytime energy for use during evening peaks and reduce their energy bill.
-
Make VPPs fairer and more attractive by requiring energy retailers to make their contracts more transparent, share the profits of energy trading equally, and provide clear comparison information on VPP providers.
-
Remove barriers to EVs being ‘batteries on wheels’ - work with EV car manufacturers to change their warranties that currently block Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) enabled cars
“The success of the battery rebate shows the power of centring consumers in the energy transition. Smart policies help regular Australians make smart investments, reduce their power bills and contribute to a cleaner electricity grid with less emissions.
“Now it’s time for the government to take the next steps and unlock solar for renters, apartment dwellers and unlock the full capability of new technologies like V2G, and plug-in batteries,” concluded Ms Douglas.
On a playful note, it’s also the One Year Wedding Anniversary of our mascots Ms Solar Power and Mr Battery! They couldn’t be happier with the fruitfulness of their union and the abundance of home batteries bringing down energy prices for everyone.
Osher Guinsberg as the Celebrant at the Wedding of Ms Solar Power & Mr Battery - 1 July 2025
Wedding Photos Wedding Video via YouTube
NOTES
[1] Small-Scale Installation Postcode Data, Clean Energy Regulator, 16 June 2026
[2] 2026 Integrated Systems Plan (ISP), AEMO, 25 June, 2026 and RenewEconomy 25/6/26
[3] Office of the Minister for Climate Change & Energy, from Clean Energy Regulator pending and validated battery installation data.
[4] Electricity prices were supplosed to be coming down, think again. AFR 18/6/26
[5] Bowen calls in watchdogs to probe surprise power price rises, AFR 23 June, 2026
[6] The Pricing Review: Electricity Pricing for a Consumer Driven Future AEMC, ‘On 11 December 2025, we published a draft report. We received 2,724 submissions to this process’
[7] Quarterly Energy Dynamics: Q1 2026, AEMO, April 2026
AEMO’s Quarterly Energy Dynamics report in April revealed that the enormous growth in both household and utility batteries in 2025 and early 2026 shifted about three times as much power from the daytime, when solar power is plentiful, into the evening, when demand is high. This caused gas-fired generation to drop by more than a quarter from the same time last year, recording the lowest average for any quarter since 1999.