Figures released by Western Australia’s Cook Government indicate the WA residential battery rebate has been popular. But more than half of buyers appear to be foregoing it or otherwise missing out.
How Many Home Batteries Have Been Installed In WA?
Since the program’s formal launch on July 1, 2025, more than 4,500 solar batteries have been installed under the WA Residential Battery Scheme according to a state government announcement released yesterday afternoon.
Furthermore, the program has received more than 18,000 applications since July 1. No further information on the status of those applications (such as pending, rejections and abandonment) was provided.
That’s a big difference in numbers and another government announcement back in late August indicated more than 5,500 systems were supposedly “already on their way to installation”.
Commenting on the installation figures, WA Energy and Decarbonisation and Manufacturing Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said:
“Our Residential Battery Scheme is the best in Australia, delivering real, ongoing cost-of-living relief through reduced power bills by enabling households to store and use more of their solar energy.”
Harshing The Cook Government’s Battery Rebate Buzz
Claiming the scheme is “the best” may be true, but is setting a very low bar in terms of state-based battery rebate programs as there’s no competition1.
The WA home battery rebate offers up to $1,300 for Synergy customers ($130 per kWh of capacity up to 10 kWh) and up to $3,800 for Horizon Power customers ($380 per kWh of capacity up to 10 kWh) for approved systems.
One of the catches is connection to a VPP (Virtual Power Plant) is compulsory and the prospect of a third party having control of their battery doesn’t appeal to some. Also, WA residents aren’t exactly spoiled for choice of VPPs at the moment.
On the plus side, the WA scheme is stackable with the federal government’s very generous Cheaper Home Batteries Program (CHBP) rebate2. But the WA incentive’s VPP requirement and other issues such as slow equipment approvals and related gotchas have been deal-breakers for some buyers, who have opted to just grab the national subsidy instead. Then there would no doubt be some who have decided not to bother with an installation at all.
Let’s take a look at the CHBP numbers to see what’s been happening there and how both compare.
According to Clean Energy Regulator (CER) data updated on 14 November 2025 and current to 31 October 2025, 10,575 batteries had been installed and commissioned in Western Australia since July 1 this year. That’s around 6,000 more batteries installed only with CHBP support.
The WA program is funded to support up to 100,000 installations. At this rate, it will take quite a while to reach that number. It’s a very different story for the national incentive, but we’ll have more on that soon3.
Looking at the bigger picture, it’s still a very good news story in that home batteries are being embraced in Western Australia regardless of the state program’s issues. And there’s a huge potential market, with more than 550,000 solar power systems installed across the state to date.
To discover everything you need to know about residential energy storage, including rebates, see SolarQuotes’ home battery guide.
Local Battery Manufacturing Program Launch
In other energy storage related news out of Western Australia, the Cook Government has also announced the state’s $50 million Local Battery Manufacturing Program is now accessible.
Local manufacturers of residential batteries and components can access $30 million in grants in total (maximum grant: $5 million) to grow their capacity. Grants need to be matched dollar-for-dollar by the proponent.
The program has two streams for grants.
- Production-Ready: up to $100,000 in matched funding for feasibility studies, prototype development and testing and accreditation.
- Production Scale-Up: up to $5 million in matched funding for existing battery manufacturers to expand their operations.
As well as the residential sector, the program will support qualifying industrial and commercial projects. The package also includes $20 million for low-interest loans; applications for which are to open before the end of the year.
“Now, we’re extending our support to manufacturers so that local businesses can also be involved,” said WA Premier Roger Cook. “This builds on my government’s efforts to decarbonise and diversify WA’s economy, including through the State Development Bill, and will help our State become a place that makes more things here.”
Footnotes
- Although NSW offers an incentive for joining a VPP after installing a battery. ↩
- Both of which are actually up-front discounts rather than rebates ↩
- Stay up-to-date on what’s happening by subscribing to the SolarQuotes newsletter. ↩
About Michael Bloch
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Can you do a story about the NSW VPP Bess 2 rebate about how the government pays up to a maximum of $1500 to join a VPP but the one of the big companies that do the admin for most of the VPPs only pay a maximum of $1015 to the consumer. In my opinion that is a big waste of incentive money being taken up by admin costs and profit when it could be used more effectively encouraging consumers to join a VPP.
The honourable Ms Sanderson seems to have hired Donald’s speech writer for that statement…
VPPs aren’t for everyone. My Powerwall 3 isn’t on Synergy’s Supported Solutions List, and who knows if it ever will be.
More importantly, a VPP feels like buying an expensive asset and then giving control of it to someone else. If Synergy needs guaranteed capacity, maybe they should install their own batteries.
The compensation during orchestration events seems fair, but it doesn’t account for situations where the homeowner planned to use that energy themselves. That complete loss of control is undesirable.
A better model would be something more flexible — for example, letting the grid operator access a set percentage of the battery (say 50%), provided they pay a fixed rate (e.g., 90c/kWh) for power taken. Setting this price would naturally regulate how much participation a customer had in the VPP program.
No way a paltry WA contribution to then take control of my system – why I didn’t apply. It was worth it at 5k and no expectation to join VPP but not when it was changed to 1.3k and a requirement to join VPP. All that change did was motivate me to increase battery capacity to try and stay out of their sights.
Agreed – what a speech writer!
I did end up signing up – I was considering forgoing the WA offer to avoid the VPP but they seem to be paying fairly for activation events and, while they are not promoting it clearly, the Synergy Battery Rewards contract is only for 2 years. I can’t find anywhere else where it says you are signing up for the life of the system.
I figure if I don’t like it after that I have the choice to not continue.
From Synergy’s website
2 year contract with capped activation events – 30 per year
Under Battery Rewards, Synergy would manage your battery for a two year term, with up to 30 activation events per year during peak demand periods when the energy system needs to draw on household energy assets, such as the hottest or coldest days of the year.
https://www.synergy.net.au/Your-home/Solar-battery-and-EV/Battery-Rewards
Has anyone seen anything that contradicts that view?
It’s true that you may leave the VPP after 2 years. By leaving, Synergy would no longer be able to force discharge your battery.
However, the VPP terms state that Synergy has the right to remotely control active power generation for the life of the system ie FOREVER. Active power generation refers to how much solar/battery output your inverter converts to AC power. The terms allow Synergy to throttle your inverter output at any time to as low as 0%, whether you’ve left the VPP or not. When power demand is low and supply is high (on a cloudless spring day), Synergy could theoretically throttle your inverter to 0%, turning you from an exporter of energy into an importer. If instead Synergy were only able to reduce active power generation to the point that exports are zero (and not beyond), this would be less of an issue.
Synergy have said (https://whrl.pl/RgRaWN) they won’t abuse their right to control active power. I think they should rewrite the VPP terms to allay this concern.
Synergy does not control the output of your inverter, they control the export to the grid. If your inverter is more than 5 kw they limit the export to 1.5 kw, which effectively means you cannot sell power.
I do not YET have a battery and do not live in W.A.
If I did, I’d like to 100% control my expensive battery myself.
I’ve just been talking to a friend who’s found that his battery is sometimes feeding the grid in the middle of a sunny day when price is negative (That’s when it should be either charging or doing nothing at all) and then charging in the evening when prices are sky high. (That’s obviously when it could/should be feeding the grid.)
I realise the technology is new, but that’s still a MASSIVE fail.
I’ll let others be the Guinea pigs.
I had paid a deposit for a battery as soon as the federal and WA rebates were announced where the WA rebate was originally $5000 for 20000 households. As soon as the WA rebate was reduced to $1300 and the terms and conditions updated I opted out. Thankfully I got all of my deposit back. Even though I do use a fair bit of power at night the federal subsidy alone does not make a quality battery financially viable for me to add to my existing solar. If I was installing a solar and battery system from scratch it would possibly be viable.