Tesla’s Selling Electricity Now. Naturally, I Read The Fine Print

Tesla is about to become an Australian electricity retailer – as first reported by Danny at ZeCar.

Its local entity, Tesla Energy Ventures Australia, has a plan called Tesla Electric Dynamic that is currently in testing, and I spent the evening pulling it apart.

I typed my address into Tesla’s plan finder and read every document it links to.

The way the export credits work makes it genuinely innovative. But there’s one question none of the paperwork answers.

What happens to your exports when the wholesale price goes negative, and Tesla can’t switch your solar off? I own a Powerwall 2, so that question is personal.

What Tesla is offering

Imports are fixed time-of-use rates. Exports earn a share of the live wholesale price. Here’s the plan I was offered in the SA Power Networks area:

You need a Powerwall 2 or Powerwall 3, the Tesla app, a Tesla Wallet with direct debit, and a smart meter.

Your Powerwall has to stay online at least 95% of the time, and you can’t sign it up to anyone else’s virtual power plant (VPP).

You also can’t just sign up yet. The fact sheet says it’s “By invitation only” and offers a $100 credit “for participation in the Pilot program”. The PDF sits in a folder named closed_beta.

What I like

Your downside is capped, and your upside isn’t

What you pay for imports is fixed by time of day. What you earn for exports floats with the market – and Tesla claims they’ll pay you 90% of the 5-Minute Settlement prices published by Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

So you are protected from crazy expensive imports, but still have the opportunity to milk high-priced exports. Nice.

The exit door is open

There’s no exit fee. If Tesla changes the non-price terms, you get 20 business days’ notice and can walk without penalty. Credits of $50 or more get paid into your bank account within 10 business days of asking.

Tesla does the driving

Tesla’s software decides when to charge and discharge. Tesla is very good at software.

What I don’t like

Tesla keeps the midday windfall

In the last three months of 2025, the SA spot price between 10am and 4pm averaged minus $33/MWh, according to AEMO.

At those times, the market pays participants to use electricity.

On this plan, you still pay 17.61c/kWh for anything you import in that window, including energy Tesla pulls from the grid to top up your Powerwall.

Grid charging only pays at high evening prices

Say Tesla charges your battery from the grid at 17.61c and sells it back in the evening. Roughly 10% is lost in the round trip, and Tesla keeps 10% of the export price. The spot price has to beat about 22c per kWh before that trade puts money in your pocket.

The grid services credit is a black box

The plan page lists a “Grid Services Credit” and calls it “Dynamic”. None of the three contract documents gives a rate, a formula, or the share Tesla passes on.

What they do say is that your Powerwall may go into standby while it provides frequency control services.

The warranty clause

This line in the Specific Plan Terms raised my eyebrow:

“You may affect Your manufacturer’s warranty if You don’t promptly install updates or if you manually override any control of Your Powerwall by Tesla.”

The next sentence says your Australian Consumer Law rights aren’t affected. Still, a retail electricity contract that warns you about your hardware warranty for taking back control of your own battery is new territory. I’d like to hear what the ACCC thinks of it.

The big unknown: negative prices and the Powerwall 2

90% of a negative number is still a negative number. Unless something in the contract puts a floor at zero, you’d pay to export whenever the price goes below zero. I read the General Market Terms, the Specific Plan Terms and the fact sheet. None of them mentions a floor.

Tesla’s answer only works on a Powerwall 3

The Specific Plan Terms give Tesla the right to:

“Curtail Your solar production if required. This is typically required during periods of negative wholesale electricity prices. This applies to Powerwall 3 only, and is not available for Powerwall 2.”

That makes sense. A Powerwall 3 has its own built-in solar inverter, so Tesla can turn your panels’ output down or off.

A Powerwall 2 sits beside a separate solar inverter, and Tesla’s software can’t tell that inverter to stop exporting. One way tech-savvy Powerwall 2 owners can protect themselves? Set the solar inverter to a zero-export timer between 10 am and 4 pm every day.

What about network charges?

Tesla’s documents don’t mention export network charges at all. On my local network provider, the network (SAPN) pays retailers 13.22c/kWh for exports between 5pm and 9pm, November to March.

If your battery pushes 8 kWh into the grid each summer evening. That’s about $1 a night in network rewards, or roughly $150 over the season. Your export credit is 90% of the wholesale price. Nothing in the paperwork says you get any of that network reward.

Questions for Tesla

If Tesla had a PR department, I’d send them these questions by email before publishing – but as Tesla famously doesn’t (officially) talk to the media – here’s what I’d like to know:

1. Is the export credit floored at zero, or do customers pay to export when the price is negative? 
2. How is the Grid Services Credit calculated, and what share of the revenue do customers get? Do customers see any similar evening export rewards from SAPN or other DNSPs?
3. When does the plan open to everyone, and will it ever be available without a Powerwall?

I’ll update this column if Tesla answers. Don’t hold your breath.

Disclosure

I founded SolarQuotes and sold it to Origin Energy. Origin is an electricity retailer that will compete with Tesla Electric. I also own a Powerwall 2.