{"id":97151,"date":"2026-01-10T06:18:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=97151"},"modified":"2026-01-13T09:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:06:43","slug":"the-feed-in-tariff-is-dead-long-live-the-feed-in-tariff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/the-feed-in-tariff-is-dead-long-live-the-feed-in-tariff\/","title":{"rendered":"The Feed-In Tariff Is Dead. Long Live the Feed-In Tariff."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"peopleFor years, solar owners had it easy. You looked for the highest solar feed-in tariff. You checked the usage rate and the daily charge were not silly. You picked the winning tariff and moved on.<\/p>\n

That world is gone.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Daytime solar feed-in tariffs are racing towards zero. In some places, they already are. And for households with solar and batteries, that number barely matters anymore. A new number has taken its place. The evening battery feed-in tariff.<\/p>\n

That is increasingly the number solar\/battery owners compare. And it is quietly reshaping how people choose retail plans and how batteries are configured and used.<\/p>\n

Until the rebate, most home batteries were 10 to 15 kWh bought by early adopters, generally with efficient houses. Those homes used most of their own energy, barely touched the grid, and paid very small bills. People grumbled about low solar feed-in tariffs, but life was good.<\/p>\n

Big batteries were rare. If you had one, you paid a lot and knew what you were signing up for, often joining Amber and playing the wholesale price game. Others joined Virtual Power Plants<\/a> (VPPs) to get a large upfront discount. I did exactly that. My Powerwall 2 cost under $4,000 because I signed up to a five-year VPP in 2017.<\/p>\n

Battery-specific retail plans barely existed.<\/p>\n

Then the battery rebate hit.<\/p>\n

Now there are 30, 40, even 50 kWh batteries sitting in garages all over the country. People are no longer asking how to save money. They are asking how to earn money. For years, the answer was: “Join a VPP!”<\/p>\n

But VPPs without a giant upfront bribe, have always been a hard sell. Most people think the issue is loss of battery-control. That matters, but it is not the showstopper. VPPs can be designed to give the consumer control. Amber is the perfect example1<\/a><\/sup>. The showstopper is the tech.<\/p>\n

The installer of your large, inexpensive battery typically has little interest in spending hours setting up software, testing comms, and ensuring the battery responds properly to VPP signals. When it doesn’t work, the retailer receives the support call. Sometimes the manufacturer and DNSP do too.<\/p>\n

Amber integration is often even harder. It relies on reliable battery control and on-demand solar curtailment. If the install is rushed or sloppy, the battery software is buggy, or the internet connection is flaky, the whole setup becomes fragile.<\/p>\n

The Rise Of Battery Retail Plans<\/h2>\n

But there’s an alternative to VPPs that gives the consumer 80% of the benefits with almost none of the tech headaches – battery-specific retail plans with:<\/p>\n