Solar in 2026

Australia Solar Sharer Offer: EPC Guide to Midday Power

Shashank·Founder·July 15, 2026·9 min read

What the Solar Sharer Offer Is and Where Australian EPCs Stand Now

The Solar Sharer Offer is an opt-in standing offer for electricity, available to residential customers with smart meters in South East Queensland, NSW and South Australia, built around a designated three-hour free power period in the middle of the day, according to RenewEconomy, quoting the Australian Energy Regulator's fact sheet. The reform commenced on 1 July 2026, and plans carrying free daytime electricity became available from that date to anyone holding a smart meter in the three regions, as pv magazine Australia and SolarQuotes both reported.

It is a residential product, full stop. Small businesses have been excluded from the offer, according to SBS News, so if you quote small commercial rooftop jobs in these states, none of the Solar Sharer arithmetic below applies to that customer — quote it on the underlying retail plan alone. The offer also does not currently extend to the ACT, which sits outside the DMO framework and runs its own separate market arrangement, per L Energy.

Crucially for a design conversation, rooftop solar ownership is not a condition of eligibility. A household with no panels at all still gets the free window if it has a smart meter, according to University of Queensland researchers writing in pv magazine Australia. That matters for how you frame the offer to a prospect: it is not a solar incentive, it is a retail tariff structure that happens to line up with when panels produce. What it does to an existing solar owner's bill depends entirely on which plan they are moved onto — which is the part the consumer explainers skip.

Eligibility, Windows and the Retailers Who Must Offer It

Who Actually Qualifies

To be eligible, a household needs to live in one of the three regions, hold a household smart meter, sit with a retailer required to offer the plan, and not be supplied through an embedded network, according to SBS News. L Energy's rate guide spells out that embedded-network exclusion in practical terms: most apartment blocks and retirement villages run on an embedded network and are shut out. If you quote multi-dwelling or retirement-village rooftop work in these states, flag this early — it is a common project type where the Solar Sharer pitch simply does not apply, regardless of how good the roof is.

No smart meter means no Solar Sharer, but a customer can request one and the retailer is required to supply it, per RenewEconomy. Worth checking at the point of quote rather than assuming — a customer on an older meter needs that swap done before any Solar Sharer plan can be activated.

Which Window Applies Where

The free window is 11am to 2pm in NSW and South East Queensland, and 12pm to 3pm in South Australia, and none of those times move under daylight saving, according to both RenewEconomy and L Energy. That's a real difference to put in front of a customer in SA versus NSW: the SA window starts and ends an hour later, which shifts which loads it is realistic to schedule into it.

The free electricity is capped at 24 kWh a day. There is no penalty for exceeding it — usage above the cap during the window is simply billed at a "reasonable usage charge" in cents per kWh, on top of the ordinary usage charges and daily supply charge that apply outside the window, according to SolarQuotes and RenewEconomy. For context, that 24 kWh sits at the upper end of average daily household use in NSW, which is said to range between 13 kWh and 22 kWh a day — meaning a typical household would need to run most of its whole day's electricity through that three-hour window to hit the cap.

Who's Required to Offer It, and What the Customer Has to Sign

Every retailer with more than 1,000 customers in the DMO regions — NSW, Queensland and South Australia — has to make at least one Solar Sharer plan available, according to both RenewEconomy and L Energy. Retailers below that threshold are exempt. Signing up requires an opt-in customer agreement, and retailers are required to warn customers the offer may not suit every household — for instance one that cannot shift enough load into the middle of the day. Under the Better Bills Guideline, retailers also have to tell every customer at least every 100 days (or in line with the billing cycle, if that cycle runs longer than 100 days) whether a better offer is available to them, regardless of which plan they're on.

The Rate Card Arithmetic That Decides the Payback

This is the section a consumer explainer never reaches. The published rate cards from AGL and Origin, both current as at early July 2026, are what actually move a solar quote's numbers — not the three free hours on their own.

AGL's Solar Sharer Rates

AGL's Solar Sharer plan gives free power for the first 24 kWh used between 11am and 2pm, with peak rates applying 3pm to 9pm daily — but only in summer (1 November to 31 March) and winter (1 June to 31 August), according to L Energy. Outside those months the household sits on off-peak rates for the rest of the day. The catch for an existing solar owner: AGL's Solar Sharer plan pays a 0 c/kWh feed-in tariff. A household that exports solar power gets nothing for it, against up to 8 c/kWh on AGL's standard Solar Savers plan. And the peak rate itself runs around 37% higher on the Solar Sharer plan than on AGL's standard solar plan.

Put together: an AGL customer who switches to Solar Sharer trades away their feed-in payment entirely and pays roughly a third more for evening peak power, in exchange for free midday electricity they may already be self-consuming from their own panels. That is the arithmetic that belongs on the quote, not the marketing line.

Origin's Solar Sharer Rates

Origin took a different pricing path. Its Solar Sharer plan keeps paying a 3.0 c/kWh solar credit — against 8.0 c/kWh on its standard Solar Soaker plan — and charges 27.6 c/kWh for any usage above 24 kWh inside the free window, according to L Energy. That 3.0 c/kWh is a real loss versus the standard plan's 8.0 c/kWh, but it is not the zero AGL pays. Worth noting too: Origin's own standard Solar Soaker plan already prices the midday window at 12.4 c/kWh, discounted but not free. That is the actual baseline "free" is competing against on Origin — a rate already discounted from the standard tariff, though the source data doesn't specify by how much.

EnergyAustralia's Late and Different Rules

EnergyAustralia had not launched its own Solar Sharer plan as at early July 2026, with reports suggesting a September 2026 start, and the federal energy minister told affected customers they have the right to switch to a retailer that already complies, per L Energy. Where it differs on design: EnergyAustralia has said its 24 kWh cap will be averaged across the whole billing period rather than reset strictly every day — its own example uses 14 kWh one day and 34 kWh the next, both staying within the cap. That is materially more forgiving for a household whose midday load varies day to day, and worth flagging to a customer weighing retailers.

One unrelated but easily confused data point: supply charges across AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia have reportedly risen recently, with many customers seeing increases of around 30% in the past week or so as of early July 2026, across standard and Solar Sharer plans alike. That rise happened regardless of which plan the customer is on — do not let a customer (or a competitor) blame it on Solar Sharer.

The Solar Sharer Timeline an EPC Needs on the Quote

1 July 2026 — the Solar Sharer Offer reform commenced; smart-meter households in NSW, South East Queensland and South Australia could sign up from this date.
Early July 2026 — AGL and Origin had both launched their Solar Sharer plans; EnergyAustralia had not, and supply charges across all three retailers reportedly rose around 30% for many customers around the same time.
September 2026 (reported, not confirmed) — the date reports suggest EnergyAustralia may launch its own Solar Sharer plan.
1 October — the deadline for Victorian households to contact their retailer and sign up for the separate Victorian scheme.
October — Victoria's own free-power scheme, described by RenewEconomy as the Midday Power Saver plan, is due to be introduced, running 11am to 2pm every day.
By 2027 — the federal government's stated target for extending the Solar Sharer Offer nationally, in partnership with Western Australia and Victoria.

What EPCs Should Do on Every Quote From Now

Ask about the customer's current plan before quoting a feed-in tariff. If the household is already on, or considering, a Solar Sharer plan, the feed-in tariff you build into the payback could be 0 c/kWh (AGL) rather than up to 8 c/kWh — a change the customer may not have connected to their solar quote at all.
Split the recommendation by system type. A solar-only household with a decent-sized system and no battery is likely to be better off without a Solar Sharer plan, because it probably already uses little grid electricity during the free hours; a battery household can use the plan to charge with up to 24 free kilowatt-hours on cloudy winter days when the system's own output is minimal.
Model the peak rate, not just the free window. On AGL's rate card, the peak rate is around 37% higher on Solar Sharer than on the standard solar plan — that is the number that erodes any saving from the free hours if the household's evening consumption is high.
Government modelling puts roughly $150 a year of appliance spend that could move by shifting about 10% of usage into the window, rising to around $400 a year in actual savings for a one-person household shifting 25-30% of usage — dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, pool pump and EV charging scheduled into the window. Anchor the customer conversation to their actual load, not the three-hour headline.
Confirm the smart meter and the retailer's threshold before promising eligibility. A retailer needs more than 1,000 customers in the region to be obligated to offer a plan, and a household needs a smart meter — check both before telling a customer they qualify.
Treat multi-dwelling and embedded-network sites as out of scope for this pitch. Most apartment blocks and retirement villages sit on an embedded network and are excluded from the offer — unless the individual dwelling has its own direct smart meter connection bypassing the embedded network, in which case it can still be eligible.

At Reslink, our own design tool automatically traces roof geometry from aerial imagery and produces hour-resolved shading, annual yield and payback outputs plus a customer-ready proposal — it does not model Solar Sharer or Australian tariffs directly, so this rate-card arithmetic has to sit alongside it as a manual overlay on the quote rather than something the software will surface for you.

Exports, Two-Way Pricing and Why the Battery Case Is the Real Story

The same July that started Solar Sharer also brought a second, separate change that cuts the other way on the same roof: export charging. In the Ausgrid network, a two-way pricing tariff applies a 1.2 c/kWh charge on solar exported between 10am and 3pm, and pays a 2.3 c/kWh credit for exports during the 4pm to 9pm peak. For a solar-only household in that network, midday hours are now a period where the household can see its feed-in tariff cut sharply (to zero on AGL's Solar Sharer plan) and can be charged for exporting the surplus it isn't using — two separate mechanisms pointing the same direction, toward storing rather than exporting midday generation.

South Australia and Victoria are handling the same midday-surplus problem with control rather than price. SA Power Networks is rolling out dynamic solar exports where inverters may be throttled remotely based on network conditions, and Victoria is moving the same way, requiring all new inverters to be capable of remotely and dynamically adjusting export limits. In South Australia specifically, the Dynamic Export Limits Requirement has applied since 1 July 2023 — most new and upgrading exporting solar systems there must already be capable of remotely updating their export limits, which is a spec question to confirm on every inverter you select for an SA install, Solar Sharer or not.

South Australia has also been pricing for midday consumption longer than Solar Sharer has existed. Since July 2020, its residential time-of-use network tariff has offered a "solar sponge" rate from 10am to 3pm, priced at a quarter of the normal network tariff — a wider window than the SA Solar Sharer retail window of 12pm to 3pm, and a separate, older mechanism sitting underneath it. An SA customer may already be getting cheap midday network pricing before they ever sign up to Solar Sharer, which is worth checking before promising a customer the retail offer is their only lever.

Victoria's own scheme, arriving in October, is structured differently again: a free window every day between 11am and 2pm, no state restriction to the DMO framework, and government savings estimates of between $139 and $429 a year for a household, with EV owners charging in the window said to save an additional $674. The federal government has said it is working with Western Australia and Victoria to extend the Solar Sharer Offer nationally by 2027, so an EPC operating across state lines should expect the eligibility map to keep changing.

Awareness is still low enough that most customers will need the arithmetic explained rather than assumed. A University of Queensland survey found that, as of March 2026, less than half of the people surveyed had even heard of the scheme, with no higher awareness in the states getting the rollout. Most people surveyed only plan to shift low-consumption devices like the washing machine or dishwasher into the window, and are less willing or able to move higher-consumption activities like EV charging or hot water — and only a few are actively planning to use timers or scheduling apps to actually capture the window. That combination — low awareness, and an intention to shift only small loads by hand — is exactly why the $400-a-year modelled saving requires deliberate scheduling that most households are not yet planning to do, and exactly why a battery, which shifts the load automatically, is the more reliable way to capture the offer's value on a quote.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Does an existing solar customer automatically lose their feed-in tariff by signing up to Solar Sharer?

It depends on the retailer, not the scheme itself. On AGL's Solar Sharer plan the feed-in tariff drops to 0 c/kWh, against up to 8 c/kWh on its standard Solar Savers plan, so an AGL customer loses their export payment entirely. On Origin's Solar Sharer plan the credit falls to 3.0 c/kWh rather than to zero, against 8.0 c/kWh on its standard Solar Soaker plan. Always check the specific retailer's current rate card before telling a customer what will happen to their export payment.

Q2. Is the Solar Sharer Offer worth it for a household that already has solar panels but no battery?

Usually not, according to SolarQuotes: a household with a decent-sized solar system and no battery is likely to be better off without a Solar Sharer plan, because it probably already uses little grid electricity during the free hours in the first place. The value only appears if the household can genuinely shift meaningful load — not just self-consume its own solar — into the window.

Q3. What free window applies in South Australia versus NSW and Queensland?

NSW and South East Queensland get 11am to 2pm; South Australia gets 12pm to 3pm. Neither window changes under daylight saving. South Australia separately runs its own "solar sponge" network tariff from 10am to 3pm, a quarter of the normal network tariff, which is a different and older mechanism sitting underneath the Solar Sharer retail offer.

Q4. Can a customer on an embedded network, like an apartment block, sign up?

Usually not. Embedded networks — which cover most apartment blocks and retirement villages — are excluded from the Solar Sharer Offer, unless the individual dwelling has its own direct smart meter connection bypassing the embedded network. If you quote a multi-dwelling development on an embedded network in these states, check for a direct meter connection before ruling the pitch out.

Q5. What happens if a household goes over the 24 kWh daily cap?

There is no penalty. Usage above 24 kWh during the free window is billed at a "reasonable usage charge" set by the retailer — Origin's published rate is 27.6 c/kWh for usage above the cap inside the window. EnergyAustralia has said its cap will be averaged across the whole billing period rather than reset strictly each day, so a household can go over on one day if it stays under on another.

Q6. Does a household need rooftop solar to get the free power?

No. The offer is available to any eligible household with a smart meter, whether or not it owns a rooftop solar system, according to University of Queensland researchers writing in pv magazine Australia. This is why the offer should be framed to customers as a retail tariff change, not a solar-specific incentive.

Q7. How much can a shift in usage actually save a household?

Government modelling from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water estimates a one-person household shifting around 10% of usage into the free window could move roughly $150 a year of dishwasher and similar appliance spend, rising to around $400 a year if the household shifts 25-30% of usage by scheduling the dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, pool pump and EV charging into the window.

Q8. Is Victoria's scheme the same as the Solar Sharer Offer?

No. Victoria sits outside the DMO framework and is introducing its own separate scheme, described by RenewEconomy as the Midday Power Saver plan, from October, with a free window every day between 11am and 2pm and a sign-up deadline of 1 October. The Victorian government estimates savings of $139 to $429 a year for a household, plus an additional $674 for EV owners charging in the window — different figures and a different structure from the Solar Sharer Offer in NSW, SEQ and SA.