With state home battery incentives suddenly vanishing or slashed and federal rebate ‘stackability’ issues remaining, what now in terms of quotes already accepted and deposits taken?
The New South Wales government has announced it will end its battery rebate, ending any hope that people can stack it with the upcoming federal home battery rebate.
And as we reported recently, the WA Residential Battery Rebate has been greatly boosted in terms of the number of rebates available; from 20,000 to 100,000. But while it has been confirmed it will be stackable with the national subsidy, the maximum state rebate levels will be slashed from:
- Up to $5,000 for Synergy customers ($500 per kWh of battery capacity up to 10 kWh).
- Up to $7,500 for Horizon Power customers ($750 per kWh of capacity up to 10 kWh).
to:
- Up to $1,300 for Synergy customers ($130 per kWh of battery capacity up to 10 kWh).
- Up to $3,800 for Horizon Power customers ($380 per kWh of capacity up to 10 kWh).
This has understandably not been well-received by some. Nor has a change in the requirement for a battery to be just Virtual Power Plant (VPP) capable to WA rebate recipients being *required* to join a VPP.
Added to all this, Victoria’s solar battery loans are no more, and the Northern Territory government has just (quietly) announced its super-generous up-to-$12,000 battery rebate has ended due to reaching the program’s funding cap.
These situations have left some rethinking their planned purchase. But some have already accepted quotes and paid a deposit, such as commenter Adam from Western Australia; who said:
“I’m one of those who has already paid a deposit. I did so due to the state rebate originally only being available to the first 19000 applicants and I didn’t want to miss out knowing that these would likely be snapped up quickly. I also did it on the understanding that I would get both the state and federal rebates which would have made my purchase financially viable for me. With this major change it is now not financially viable for me (marginal at best) and I’m hoping that I can get my deposit back.”
I asked SolarQuotes’ resident-fact checker Ronald Brakels about his views on the status of quotes and deposits given the changes and the following is Ronald’s opinion. It’s in relation to the WA rebate specifically but would have relevancy in various other scenarios:
Start Ronald’s Opinion ——-
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Any opinions I give or conclusions I draw are only based on what I’ve read about consumer law over the years:
If a customer accepts and signs a quote, they enter into a contract.
Both the federal and WA battery rebates go to the installer, who then uses them to offer a lower price to customers.
If an installer has assumed the state battery rebate would be available and offers a quote at a lower price as a result, they can be required to install at the quoted price.
I assume installers would be wise enough to state that the quoted price is conditional on the rebate(s) being received. But they have to be clear about it. Just including it in the small print on a quote may not be enough. Ideally, they should inform the person verbally about the condition, and it should also be featured prominently on the written quote.
Consumer law says companies must live up to any promises made about products or services. I think that if an installer puts a price on a quote that includes rebates, but also clearly states it’s conditional on the rebates being received, then I think it was reasonable for the customer to think that was at least there was a chance the rebates would be received; and if they aren’t then the quote doesn’t apply.
If the quote didn’t include rebate(s) in the price but had a provision saying the price would be less if rebate(s) were received that would be different.
A quote is a contract and on ending contracts the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACC) says:
“A consumer can generally end a contract with no charge if:
- the business has said anything false or misleading about the goods, services, terms or conditions
- a service has not met a consumer guarantee
- the consumer is in a cooling-off period.”
I would say that if a quote includes rebates in its price, and then these rebates turn out not to be available, it fails to meet consumer guarantees and so the contract can be ended without penalty. But this doesn’t mean the installer has done anything wrong — provided the conditions were made clear to the customer.
To sum up, in my opinion, if a person can’t get a rebate that was included in the quoted price, they should be able to get out of it without penalty. It’s the installer who’s more at risk of having to install at a low price if they only mentioned that the quoted price was conditional on rebates being received in small print.
—– End Ronald’s Opinion.
The WA Government also has some related words of warning for suppliers and installers; among it:
“Companies who have taken deposits and promised specific equipment, delivery times, prices, or access to the rebate and are unable to fulfil these promises once details are confirmed may find themselves dealing with Consumer Protection.”
An information for industry page concerning the WA battery rebate can be found here.
This article has been updated to include the news that NSW is ending its state rebate.
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The whole WA situation is a pretty good wake up call to industry.
Having seen how the promised WA scheme has changed between promised and final wording, any installers offering a contract based on the Federal battery rebate system as “promised” before it to is cast in stone, is really taking a big risk.
You would want some bullet proof get out jail clauses in there, that is for sure.
Surely the NSW government could give an update on their progress – it’s been about a month to change some wording in their legislation. Either make a change or not. Either way, they should make a decision to end the uncertainty like the other states have.
I’m also hanging in here waiting for the NSW govt to confirm, or update. Will be going ahead anyway, but they do like to take their time dotting I’s and crossing Ts
Yes it is annoying enough being a customer waiting to see if NSW will stack and the finer details.
Can’t imagine how frustrating the wait is for installers
I can confirm, it is very annoying. We are one of those who avoid misleading marketing and false promises.
Every other week, we send an email to our July (onward) customers saying we still can’t give them a final pricing.
To see the competition go wild, advertise idiotic prices/practices just to ask for forgiveness if things don’t go their way… how to put it nicely…
I have just been notified by my battery instalation company that they have recieved a statement that the NSW battery rebate an Federal Government battery rebate will not be able to be stacked. I can claim one or the other. Has anyone else heard this yet ?Disappointed but not surprised..
Yes same here and I’ve paid a deposit. There’s a contract signed with the original price minus the NSW and federal rebates stacked . No mention on the contract that this NSW rebate would be revoked and no mention in person . Is the company therefore required to honor the contract price? If not seems very misleading. Surely the NSW government knew this was going to happen and didn’t warn either the installers or customers. Not sure what’s to do next as now the battery price has more then doubled and out of my budget.
Hi Sean,
If you have a contract and the deposit is paid then the bottom line is what you’re expected to pay after the installer has offered the incentives as an up front discount.
If they’ve made an error doing the paperwork you shouldn’t be liable. Same goes for them making an error in calculating the discount, they’ve rung up the sale and they’ve taken your money, you should be able to hold them to that price.
However I’m not a lawyer.
If they are no longer claiming the PDRS incentive there’s a saving in compliance they’ll make. Maybe they could offer some optional extra, and you can split the difference on a hot water control circuit or something else?
The NSW government has trumped the WA government in stupidity stakes it seems…
They’re canning the rebate as of 30 June and you cannot stack with the Federal rebate. I received an email this morning point to this site – https://www.energy.nsw.gov.au/households/rebates-grants-and-schemes/household-energy-saving-upgrades/install-battery
Look for the info block near the top…
NSW DCCEEW has spoken … and the news is NSW won’t offer PRDS incentives from 1 July 2025 onwards. It will double the rebate to join a VPP, i.e. BESS2.
So it seems NSW is winding back on its incentives in light of the “Albo discount”.
News available here:
https://www.energy.nsw.gov.au/households/rebates-grants-and-schemes/household-energy-saving-upgrades/install-battery
Here’s the update:
Battery discount update from 1 July 2025
This NSW battery discount is available for battery installations up until Monday 30 June 2025. It cannot be combined with the Australian Government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program discount, which starts from Tuesday 1 July 2025.
From Tuesday 1 July 2025, this NSW battery installation discount will no longer be available.
However, from Tuesday 1 July 2025, the NSW Government incentive for connecting your battery to a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) will nearly double. This Virtual Power Plant incentive can be combined with the Australian Government’s battery discount.
https://www.energy.nsw.gov.au/households/rebates-grants-and-schemes/household-energy-saving-upgrades/install-battery
Email received today:
Suspending the NSW battery discount incentive
The NSW Government battery discount can be claimed for battery installations up until Monday 30 June 2025.
This discount cannot be combined with the Australian Government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program discount which starts from Tuesday 1 July 2025.
From Tuesday 1 July 2025, this NSW battery installation discount will no longer be available.
The incentive to connect your battery to a Virtual Power Plant will increase from Tuesday 1 July 2025.
This will almost double the upfront incentive you’ll receive. For example, the payment you receive for a 27 kWh battery will increase from around $800 to around $1,500.
This incentive can be combined with the Australian Government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program discount.
I think the WA government should take some ownership in this – and it seems to me they’re getting off scot-free. They took this to the state election well before any promises were made at a federal level.
There was clearly no doubt in anyone’s mind that they were promising the full amount irrespective of any federal subsidy and they’ve simply used this as an opportunity to screw us over.
No doubt a trend we can expect in the future.
Personally, I was about to get a battery, but now the payback period is too long to make it palatable.
Same here. My primary reason was to have plenty of power available for an outage, but the combination of a much, much lower subsidy, AND the compulsory VPP connection, totally destroys the viability of getting one.
Even though I could forgo the WA subsidy, the Federal one on its own doesn’t make it worthwhile.
So ‘stacking’ doesn’t refer to battery modules then.
https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=1930809479471505575
This sentence spell it out nicely;
“Companies who have taken deposits and promised specific equipment, delivery times, prices, or access to the rebate and are unable to fulfil these promises once details are confirmed may find themselves dealing with Consumer Protection.”
Isn’t it a pity that consumer rules never seem to apply to our politicians (of any colour), who can promise the world until they have your vote.
I felt hoodwinked, and have given my thoughts to the local MLA. Last minute changes like these are so unprofessional!
Exactly, WA State Govt continued to spruce their rebate long after the election as well as the Federal rebate, then to last week change the goal posts well after people had committed and signed contracts. The WA Govt representative had no sympathy for those caught up in this mess, accept to say the consumer should have waited.
Also got to feel sorry for the Solar industry, every time Govt announces some type of incentive with a forward date to commence (ie: March election promise with a 1 July start date), all consumers strop purchasing waiting on the new benefits/subsidy to kick in, the Solar industry is left 3-4 months without any firm sales or installations.
Ken Eastwood – Perth
I agree wholeheartedly with Jason’s earlier comments as I am sure we were all hood winked by Rodger Cook’s Labor government – at least the decision should have been restricted by limiting the numbers to the first 19,000 purchasers as first offered well before both the State Election and the Federal Election. Neither was there any condition mentioned re compulsory VPP connection.
How does the State Gov’t compensate the owners of small business’s – many of whom will be faced with the major problem of now paying for batteries they thought they had sold.
Not a nice way to win Government Mr Cook.
NSW is phasing out the PDRS incentives offered on new home battery systems from 1 July 2025. It is increasing the incentives to sign up as a VPP… whoop-de-doo!
See: https://www.energy.nsw.gov.au/households/rebates-grants-and-schemes/hous
Well this is only the start Off broken promises by Government (where is my $275 cheaper power bills ) I Have invested in solar 10.65kWh and 10kWh battery and I am a retired Person but no sun no energy and the electricity companies’ are cutting back the feed in tariffs by 50% and power to rise up to 10% in different areas’ also WE are such a rich energy country and have one off the highest power prices OH WELL Solar works good when the sun shines
Has the NSW Govt fixed the clause which effectively means if you exceed 28kw of storage you get no NSW rebate at all? I understand that you now have to sign up to a VPP to get a max $1500, but is the cap at 28kw still in place?
As someone involved in sales for a large and reputable NSW company I just want to say how difficult the State Govt has made our industry two years running. We effectively had five months of barely any installs last year after a hastily announced rebate with a huge lag time. This year again we have had a similar thing happen but in this case the enquiry level and volume has been significantly higher. I understand the disapointment towards pushy salespeople but alot of good companies and long term passionate solar people only followed what was intimated by many federal and state politicians.
We had no choice but to try and sell – another quiet winter after last year was not an option. We have all been misled and to compound it in NSW the time between election and announcement has been too long. Manufacturers all verblise they prefer products off VPPs to maximise long term output – yet Govt again is ramming them down our throat. Its turmoil out there for many
I might be one of the lucky ones.
My solar and battery were installed on the 2nd of May but the battery will be turned on 1st of July, I just wanted to check wether I will still be eligible for the Federal rebate the Finbot says i’m o.k but just wanted to check with anybody who knows because the rebate is $6000 which is a considerable amount to loose if not the case.