How to Choose an Electricity Plan for Your Setup

Buyers Guide: A Six-Break-Point Framework for Choosing Tariff Types by Home Setup

Last Updated: 2026-08-09

Key Takeaways

Start with the hardware and the household routine when you choose an electricity plan — six break points decide which tariff types are worth comparing.
An electricity plan for solar and battery homes depends on self-consumption and on when the battery discharges, plus a virtual power plant (VPP) decision on top.
A time of use tariff repays the effort only if your load profile can move. The 2026-27 Victorian structure prices peak (4pm–9pm), solar soak (11am–4pm), and off-peak windows very differently.
A flat rate tariff remains a defensible choice for a household with an unpredictable usage pattern, or with no appetite for timers and scheduling.
An electricity plan for EV owners is worth modelling once annual driving is high. Overnight rates near 4.5–8 c/kWh (reported in Victoria, early-to-mid 2026) often sit beside higher rates elsewhere on the bill.
If the property still runs a legacy dedicated circuit, such as off-peak hot water or a controlled load circuit, treat any switch as a gate. Once given up, those tariffs cannot be applied for again.
This framework picks a plan structure. Ranking two offers of the same structure is a separate calculation on the three bill components.

What to Consider when Comparing Electricity Plans for Your Home Setup

Six features of a home decide which tariff types are worth comparing at all. They are solar, a battery, an EV, midday occupancy, your appetite for scheduling, and any legacy dedicated circuit. Answer those six break points first, and a list of forty Victorian offers usually collapses to two or three plan structures.

Why Plan Choice for a Victorian Home Is a Matching Problem

Comparison sites rank offers on a single estimated annual total. That ranking is useful, but only after you know which plan structure suits your house.

The Three Parts of Every Domestic Bill

Daily supply charge: a fixed daily connection charge that you pay whatever you consume.
Import charges: the per-kWh price of energy you draw from the grid, which may vary by time of day.
Export credit: a solar feed-in credit, if the home has solar and exports to the grid.

Every tariff type arranges those same three parts differently. The break-point framework chooses the arrangement. It does not rank two offers that already share one.

What the Break-Point Framework Decides — and What It Does Not

It decides plan structure: whether you shop for a flat rate tariff, a time of use tariff, a plan with an EV window, or a plan with a free-hours window.
It flags the gates: a controlled load or other legacy dedicated circuit can make a switch irreversible, so check it before you compare anything else.
It does not rank individual offers: to separate two plans of the same structure, weigh the daily supply charge, import rates, and export credit against your own volumes — the subject of our guide to weighing up electricity bill components.
It does not need a year of homework: five of the six answers are facts you already know about your own home.

What the Tariff Types Actually Are

Five structures cover most Victorian residential offers as of mid-2026. The rates below are indicative ranges from the Victorian Default Offer 2026-27 and from comparison-site reporting. Read your own numbers off the Energy Fact Sheet for the offer in front of you.

Tariff type	How it prices what you import	Indicative Victorian rates (mid-2026)	Tends to suit
Flat rate tariff	One rate per kWh, all day, every day	About 26–28 c/kWh, plus a daily supply charge near $1.19–$1.38	Unpredictable or peak-heavy households, and anyone unwilling to schedule loads
Time of use tariff	The rate changes by clock window — peak, off-peak, and a solar soak band	Peak (4pm–9pm) about 38–48 c/kWh. Off-peak roughly 40–50% below peak. Solar soak (11am–4pm) around 15–20 c/kWh below peak	Households that can move a real share of consumption out of the evening
Controlled load	A separately metered circuit on its own lower rate, energised only in set hours	About 17–22 c/kWh where the circuit exists	Homes with hardwired off-peak hot water, slab heating, or a pool pump
EV plan	A deep overnight window layered on an otherwise time-varying structure	Overnight windows reported at 4.5–8 c/kWh (Victoria, early-to-mid 2026)	High-kilometre EV households that can charge after midnight
Free-hours plan	A capped block of free energy inside a fixed midday window	Victoria's Midday Power Saver: the window and daily cap are reported as 11am–2pm and 24 kWh/day, and the intended start is 1 October 2026 (all subject to change)	Homes that can genuinely run large loads in the middle of the day

The Essential Services Commission dropped residential demand tariffs from the 2026-27 Victorian Default Offer structure. Some market offers may still price partly on peak demand, so check the Energy Fact Sheet before you assume otherwise. Everything below matches one of the five structures above to a particular household.

The Short Version, in Plain English

This section is the whole framework in six plain questions, for a reader who wants the branch without the detail. Answer them in order. The branch you land on is the plan structure to shop for.

Does the house have solar? If yes, midday electricity you use yourself is usually worth more than midday electricity you sell. Look for offers that price midday imports cheaply.
Is there a battery? If yes, you can move evening consumption off the grid. You then have a second decision about whether to let a retailer use that battery.
Is there an EV? If yes, the home has one large flexible load, and a deep overnight rate becomes worth pricing.
Is anyone home in the middle of the day? If yes, midday-cheap and free-hours offers have something to work with. If no, they mostly do not.
Will you run timers and schedules? Answer honestly. A plain single rate can beat a clever plan that nobody in the house operates.
Is there an old dedicated circuit, such as off-peak hot water or a climate-saver air-conditioning circuit? If yes, stop and check what a switch would cost permanently before you compare anything.

Break Point 1 — Does the Home Have Solar?

Solar changes which hours matter. A home without solar buys every kilowatt-hour, so the shape of the day depends purely on when appliances run. A home with solar buys mainly at the edges of the day, when generation is low or absent.

Self-consumption therefore sits at the centre of plan choice for a solar household. Victorian feed-in rates were widely reported below 10 c/kWh in mid-2026, against import rates near 26–28 c/kWh. On those numbers a kilowatt-hour used at home can be worth several times one exported.

Questions to Answer on the Solar Branch

How much do you export against what you import? A household that exports heavily has a different plan problem from one that self-consumes nearly everything.
Does the offer price the midday window separately? The 11am–4pm solar soak band in the 2026-27 structure prices below peak, which rewards hot water, dishwashers, and heating at midday.
Is the feed-in rate flat or time-varying? Reported Victorian examples in mid-2026 ranged from a flat 3 c/kWh to time-varying rates that pay far more inside narrow export windows.
Is a higher feed-in rate worth chasing at your system size? A small array that exports a few kilowatt-hours a day may see only a modest annual difference from a large rate change.
Which grid hours are left? On many solar-only homes the residual import lands in the evening peak, which is the most expensive band on any time of use tariff.

Break Point 2 — Battery, and Do You Want a Virtual Power Plant (VPP)?

A battery moves the evening peak off the grid, which changes what a time of use tariff is worth. Once stored energy covers the 4pm–9pm window, a wide peak-to-off-peak spread starts to work in your favour rather than against you.

The sub-branch is whether to enrol that battery in a virtual power plant. In a VPP, a retailer or aggregator can discharge your battery into the grid at times of system stress, in exchange for a credit. Reported residential VPP credits in Victoria ranged from roughly $150 to $600 a year as of mid-2026, and some programs quoted more.

Questions to Ask Before You Join a VPP

How much of the battery does the program control? A reserve you hold back for your own evening use is not available to earn credits.
What is the credit paid on? Some programs pay per event or per exported kilowatt-hour, and others pay a flat annual amount. The two behave very differently through a quiet season.
What happens if you leave? Terms differ between programs and may affect benefits earned to date, so get the exit conditions in writing before you sign.
Does the underlying plan still suit you? A VPP is an overlay on a tariff, so the peak, off-peak, and solar soak rates still decide most of the bill.
What does the battery do in a bad week? Winter generation gaps and inverter export limits can leave less surplus to trade than a summer estimate suggests.

Choose the tariff structure that suits the battery first, then assess VPP offers within that structure. A plan chosen for its VPP credit alone can lock in peak and off-peak rates that cost more than the credit returns.

Break Point 3 — Is There an EV in the Household?

An EV is usually the largest single flexible load a home can have, which is why an electricity plan for EV owners deserves separate modelling. The question is not whether the overnight rate looks low. It is whether the rest of the bill stays competitive beside it.

Estimate the load: 15,000 km a year at roughly 18 kWh/100 km is about 2,700 kWh of driving energy.
Add charging losses: allow around 10%, which gives roughly 2,970 kWh drawn from the grid.
Find the rate gap: reporting put Victorian overnight EV windows at 4.5–8 c/kWh in early-to-mid 2026, against flat rates near 26–28 c/kWh under the Victorian Default Offer 2026-27.
Treat the gross figure with caution: a 20 c/kWh gap across 2,970 kWh looks like about $594 a year, but that ignores what the same plan charges for everything else.
Net it out: comparison-site modelling in mid-2026 put the realistic saving nearer $148 a year, once higher peak and shoulder rates elsewhere on the bill were counted.
Test the whole bill: price your full annual consumption, house and car together, under both structures before you switch.

A second EV branch exists that overnight-focused comparisons often skip. Where the home has solar and the car sits in the driveway during the day, charging into surplus generation can be the cheapest kilowatt-hour available. That pushes the decision back toward a plan with a cheap midday band rather than a deep overnight one.

Break Point 4 — Is Anyone Home During the Day?

This break point decides whether midday-cheap structures have anything to work with. Many household load profiles are bi-modal: a morning ramp around 7–9am, a midday trough, and an evening peak between 6pm and 9pm. Weekends are usually flatter than weekdays.

Household usage pattern	Where the kilowatt-hours land	Structures worth shortlisting	What to check first
Both adults out 9–5, no solar	Sharp morning and evening peaks, very little midday	Flat rate tariff, or time of use if loads can run overnight	Whether hot water and laundry can run overnight without disruption
Both adults out 9–5, solar and battery	Midday generation stored, evening drawn from the battery	Time of use tariff with a wide peak-to-off-peak spread, and a VPP worth assessing	Whether the battery reliably covers 4pm–9pm through winter
Someone home most days	Consumption spread across the middle of the day	Time of use with a cheap solar soak band, and free-hours plans worth pricing	Whether large loads can move into the middle of the day
Shift worker or night-heavy household	A large share of load overnight	Time of use tariff, or a plan with a deep overnight window	How much consumption sits inside the off-peak period, measured rather than guessed
All-electric home with EV, someone home by day	Large movable loads across heating, hot water, and charging	Time of use plus a midday free-hours window, if you will schedule	Whether daily midday consumption could approach the reported 24 kWh free cap

Victoria's Midday Power Saver scheme is the current test case for this branch. The scheme is set by the Victorian Government rather than by your retailer, and as of mid-2026 it is announced rather than in effect — the intended start is 1 October 2026. The terms reported for it are three hours of free electricity daily, in a window given as 11am to 2pm, with a daily cap given as 24 kWh, opt-in and requiring a smart meter. Those hours and that cap are scheme settings that may change before or after the start date, so confirm the current terms before you plan around them. The state savings estimate spans about $149 to $1,102 a year (Source: Victorian Government, energy.vic.gov.au). That range is wide because it depends on load shifting, and a home that is empty at midday sits at the bottom of it.

Measurement settles this branch better than recollection. Your smart meter interval data shows how many kilowatt-hours fall in each window. Our guide to how to interpret your smart meter data explains what the registers mean, and the NEM12 Smart Meter Data Analyzer charts the daily shape without any spreadsheet work.

What Your Interval Data Settles on This Branch

Which branch you are on: your interval data answers the midday-occupancy question directly, rather than from memory of a typical week.
Where the load actually sits: chart the usage pattern, and the 4pm–9pm block either dominates the day or it does not.
How much is movable: the size of the hot water, laundry, and charging loads shows what a midday window would have to work with.

Try our NEM12 Smart Meter Data Analyzer Tool

Break Point 5 — How Much Automation Will You Actually Run?

Every time-varying structure is a bet on behaviour. A time of use tariff, a free-hours window, and an EV overnight rate all return money only when consumption genuinely moves. Timers, schedules, and habit do the moving.

An Honest Automation Audit

Hot water: a heat pump or resistive system on a timer is the easiest large load to move into a midday or overnight window.
EV charging: most chargers and most cars can schedule a start time, and a solar-diverting charger goes further by following surplus generation.
Pool pump or slab heating: high consumption, easy to schedule, and often already on a dedicated circuit.
Laundry and dishwashing: delay-start functions are common, but they only help if the household uses them reliably.
Space heating and cooling: pre-heating or pre-cooling before the 4pm peak can move real load in a well-insulated home, and much less in a leaky one.
Nobody wants to think about it: a legitimate answer. In that case a flat rate tariff may cost less in practice than a time of use tariff operated badly.

Break Point 6 — Legacy Dedicated Circuits: The Switch-Carefully Gate

Some older Victorian properties still run a hardwired dedicated circuit on a legacy tariff. Off-peak hot water is the common one, alongside climate-saver air-conditioning circuits and slab heating. Legacy dedicated-circuit tariffs, once given up, cannot be applied for again.

Check this before you compare anything: if your bill shows a separate controlled load or dedicated-circuit line, a switch that removes it is a one-way door. Confirm what that circuit costs you now, and what the same kilowatt-hours would cost on the main rate, before you move.

Which legacy tariffs are closed to new connections is a separate subject, and this framework treats the branch as a gate rather than a trade-off. Your bill is where the evidence sits. Our guide to how to interpret your electricity bill shows where a controlled load line appears on the paperwork.

Visualise Your Smart Meter Data to Confirm the Branch

Putting the Branches Together

Most homes land on a combination rather than a single branch, and combinations can pull in opposite directions. A solar-and-battery home with an EV has both a reason to want cheap midday imports and a reason to want a deep overnight window.

Settling a Conflict Between Two Branches

Rank the branches by volume: whichever load moves the most kilowatt-hours a year decides the structure, and the smaller load is scheduled around it.
Price the loser on the winning structure: a car charged inside a solar soak band rarely matches a deep overnight rate, but the gap may be smaller than the peak-rate penalty you avoid.
Let the gates settle ties: a legacy dedicated circuit or a scheme eligibility rule can close the argument before volume does.
Measure rather than recall: the split of your annual import across peak, off-peak, and midday is the figure that decides it.

Independent analysis of a year of interval data turns those judgements into a measurement. You can do that yourself with the free online tools, which run in the browser and keep the file on your own computer. It is also the first step of an energy assessment, where the same interval data informs solar sizing, battery sizing, and the tariff structure together.

Try our NEM12 Smart Meter Data Analyzer Tool

Practical Features to Look For

Once the framework has narrowed you to a structure, these specifics decide whether a particular offer fits the home you actually have:

Practical Features Checklist

Tariff structure: flat, time of use, or time of use with an EV or free-hours window, matched to the branch you landed on.
Peak window definition: the hours the plan calls peak, and whether they coincide with the hours your household actually draws power.
Solar soak or midday band: whether an 11am–4pm rate exists, and how far below peak it sits.
Off-peak depth: how far the overnight rate falls, which decides what a shift of hot water or EV charging is worth.
Controlled load treatment: whether an existing dedicated circuit is still priced separately after the switch.
EV window terms: the exact hours, whether the rate is promotional, and what the plan charges outside the window.
Free-hours conditions: the daily cap, the eligibility requirements, and whether the scheme is a trial subject to review.
VPP terms: reserve settings, how the program calculates credits, and the exit conditions.
Feed-in rate and its conditions: flat or time-varying, and whether the headline rate applies to all exports.
Distribution zone: regulated rates differ across the five Victorian zones, so a benchmark from another suburb may not apply to yours.
Your own load profile: annual consumption split across peak, off-peak, and midday, measured from interval data rather than estimated.
Total annual cost: the single derived figure that ranks two offers of the same structure, calculated identically for each.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I choose an electricity plan for my home setup? Answer six questions about the home — solar, battery, EV, daytime occupancy, automation appetite, and any legacy dedicated circuit. Let those answers pick the tariff type before you compare individual offers.
What are the main tariff types available to Victorian households? Flat rate, time of use, controlled load on a separate circuit, EV plans with an overnight window, and free-hours plans with a capped midday block are the structures most residential offers use as of mid-2026.
What is a flat rate tariff? It is a plan that charges one per-kWh import rate at every hour, indicatively around 26–28 c/kWh in Victoria under the Victorian Default Offer 2026-27, alongside a daily supply charge.
What is a time of use tariff? It is a plan where the import rate changes by time of day. The 2026-27 Victorian structure uses a 4pm–9pm peak window, an 11am–4pm solar soak band, and off-peak hours around them.
Is a time of use tariff better than a flat rate tariff? Neither wins universally. A time of use tariff can repay a household that reliably shifts consumption out of the evening peak, while a flat rate may suit an unpredictable or peak-heavy usage pattern.
Do I need timers and schedules to benefit from a time of use tariff? Usually yes, because a time of use tariff, an EV window, and a free-hours block all return money only when consumption actually moves. A household with no appetite for scheduling may do better on a flat rate tariff.
Which electricity plan suits a house with solar and a battery? An electricity plan for solar and battery homes usually rewards a wide peak-to-off-peak spread, because stored midday energy covers the expensive evening window. Assess the VPP question on top of that structure.
What is a virtual power plant (VPP)? It is an arrangement where a retailer or aggregator can discharge your home battery into the grid at times of high demand, in exchange for a credit or a per-event payment.
How much do VPP credits pay? Reported residential VPP credits in Victoria ranged from roughly $150 to $600 a year as of mid-2026, and some programs quoted more. The actual amount depends on battery size, program terms, and how often the program calls discharge events.
Should I join a VPP before or after I choose my tariff? Assess the tariff first, because the peak, off-peak, and solar soak rates decide most of the bill. A VPP credit may not cover a poorly matched underlying structure.
Is an EV plan worth it for my household? An electricity plan for EV owners is more likely to repay the switch at higher annual driving distances. Weigh the overnight rate against what the same plan charges for the rest of the house.
Is it cheaper to charge an EV overnight or from solar? Where a home has solar and the car is parked during the day, charging into surplus generation can beat an overnight rate, because self-consumed solar avoids an import rate that is usually well above the feed-in rate.
What is a controlled load? It is a separately metered circuit, most often electric hot water, billed at its own lower rate and energised only during set hours.
Can I get a legacy dedicated-circuit tariff back after I switch away? No. Legacy dedicated-circuit tariffs, such as off-peak hot water and climate-saver air-conditioning circuits, once given up, cannot be applied for again.
What is the Midday Power Saver scheme? It is an opt-in scheme set by the Victorian Government, not by your retailer, and it is intended to start on 1 October 2026. The terms reported as of mid-2026 are free electricity in a window given as 11am to 2pm, with a daily cap given as 24 kWh, for households with a smart meter. The window, the cap, and the start date are scheme settings that may change, so confirm the current terms before you enrol (Source: Victorian Government).
Will a free-hours plan save money if nobody is home at midday? Probably very little, because the savings depend on a shift of real consumption into the free window. An empty house during the scheme's midday hours captures little of the advertised range.
Why does my distribution zone affect which electricity plan I choose? Regulated rates are set separately for each of the five Victorian distribution zones. The Victorian Default Offer 2026-27 flat-rate benchmark spans about $1,481 to $1,748 a year at 4,000 kWh depending on the zone, so a figure quoted for another suburb may not apply to yours.
What is a load profile? A load profile is the pattern of how much energy a home uses across the hours of the day. Time-varying tariffs price those hours differently, so the profile decides which structure costs least.
How do I find my own usage pattern? Your smart meter records it as interval data, which splits consumption into 30-minute or 5-minute blocks — see our guide on how to interpret your smart meter data.
Once I know the tariff type, how do I rank the individual offers? Compare the three bill components — daily supply charge, import rates, and feed-in credit — against your own annual volumes, as set out in our guide to weighing up electricity bill components.

Try our NEM12 Smart Meter Data Analyzer Tool

Printable Checklist for Comparing Electricity Plans by Setup

Electricity Plan by Home Setup — Decision Checklist

Feature	Specification / Value	Your Notes / Assessment
Identification
Retailer
Plan name
Offer type Market offer / Victorian Default Offer
Energy Fact Sheet date Rates change — note the version
Distribution zone Powercor / United Energy / AusNet / Jemena / CitiPower
Your Six Break Points
Solar installed Yes / No — system size kW
Battery installed Yes / No / Planned — usable kWh
VPP wanted Yes / No / Undecided
EV in household Yes / No — km per year
Someone home 11am–2pm Most days / Some days / No
Automation appetite Timers and schedules — willing / unwilling
Legacy dedicated circuit Off-peak hot water / climate saver / none
Your Load Profile
Annual import (kWh)
Annual export (kWh)
Share of import in peak 4pm–9pm
Share of import 11am–2pm
Share of import overnight Off-peak period
Shiftable load identified (kWh/day) Hot water, EV, pool, laundry

Plan Structure Offered
Tariff type Flat / Time of use / EV window / Free hours
Daily supply charge ($/day)
Flat import rate (c/kWh)
Peak rate and window (c/kWh)
Shoulder rate (c/kWh) If the plan defines one
Off-peak rate and window (c/kWh)
Solar soak rate (c/kWh) 11am–4pm window, if offered
Controlled load rate (c/kWh) Survives the switch? Yes / No
EV overnight rate and hours (c/kWh)
Free-hours window and cap Hours + kWh/day, as offered
Solar feed-in tariff (c/kWh)
Demand charge Yes / No — check the Energy Fact Sheet
VPP Terms (if applicable)
Credit basis Per event / per kWh / flat annual
Indicative annual credit ($)
Reserve you keep (%)
Exit terms
Overall Assessment
Promotional rates and expiry
Exit fees or lock-in terms
Total annual cost ($/year) Supply + import − export credit
Structure matches your branch Yes / No / Partly

Tariff Types Compared for Common Home Setups

The table below summarises which structures each branch of the framework tends to lead to, with indicative Victorian figures reported in mid-2026. Before you read it, the chart shows how much the regulated benchmark alone varies between distribution zones.

How to Use the Comparison Table Below

IMPORTANT: We have no affiliation with and do not recommend or endorse any of the Brands listed below. And the Specifications and Prices of these Models (although correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication) are subject to change at any time by Manufacturers and Retailers. So please take these as a Starting Point for Your Own Research ...

How to Read the Table

Tariff type: the plan structure rather than a specific product, because several retailers offer each one.
Indicative rates: ranges reported for Victoria in mid-2026, including Victorian Default Offer 2026-27 benchmarks. Treat them as a scale, not a quote.
Setups it tends to suit: the branch of the framework that leads here, as a starting point for a shortlist rather than a verdict on your household.
Requirements and gates: metering, circuits, or scheme conditions that must be satisfied before the structure is available to you.
Examples reported: retailers and schemes named in mid-2026 reporting to illustrate the structure. Their inclusion is factual, not a recommendation.
Read across, never down: rows describe different structures, so you cannot rank them against each other without your own load profile applied to all of them.

Tariff type	Indicative Victorian rates (mid-2026)	Setups it tends to suit	Requirements and gates	Examples reported (mid-2026)	Notes
Standard structures
Regulated benchmark Flat rate tariff	About 26–28 c/kWh. Daily supply charge about $1.19–$1.38. VDO annual cost $1,481–$1,748 at 4,000 kWh by zone	No solar, unpredictable usage pattern, or no appetite for scheduling	No meter change and no behaviour change required	Victorian Default Offer 2026-27 (Essential Services Commission)	A comparison floor rather than a market product. A defensible choice where load cannot move.
Time-varying Time of use tariff	Peak (4pm–9pm) about 38–48 c/kWh. Off-peak roughly 40–50% below peak. Solar soak (11am–4pm) around 15–20 c/kWh below peak	Solar, a battery, shiftable loads, or someone home at midday	A smart meter, and a household willing to move consumption	AGL, Origin Energy, EnergyAustralia and others offer flat and time of use variants	The 2026-27 structure moved to three periods and dropped residential demand charges.
Separate circuit Controlled load	About 17–22 c/kWh where the circuit exists	Homes with hardwired off-peak hot water, slab heating, or pool pumps	The physical circuit must already exist. Legacy dedicated-circuit tariffs, once given up, cannot be applied for again	Most Victorian retailers price it separately where the circuit is present	Treat as a gate. Confirm a new offer still prices the circuit separately before you switch.
Setup-specific structures
EV window EV plan	Overnight windows reported at 4.5–8 c/kWh. Rates outside the window are often above average	High-kilometre EV households that charge after midnight	A smart meter, and a charger or vehicle that can schedule a start time	OVO reported at 4.5 c/kWh midnight–6am, and AGL at 8 c/kWh (promotional, Victoria, early-to-mid 2026)	Model the whole household bill, not the EV load alone. Higher peak rates can fund the window.
Free hours Free-hours plan	Free energy inside the window, with the Victorian scheme's daily cap reported as 24 kWh/day (subject to change)	Homes occupied at midday with large shiftable loads	A smart meter, opt-in enrolment, and a scheme intended to start 1 October 2026 and subject to review	Midday Power Saver (Victorian Government; window reported as 11am–2pm). Solar Sharer (federal, not initially available in Victoria)	The state savings estimate spans about $149–$1,102 a year, and depends on load shifting.
An overlay, not a tariff
Battery overlay Virtual power plant (VPP)	Reported residential credits about $150–$600 a year. Some programs quote higher	Battery households comfortable with a retailer discharging stored energy	A home battery and a compatible grid-connected inverter. Program eligibility varies	Around eleven retailer and network programs reported as active in Victoria in mid-2026	An overlay on a tariff rather than a replacement for one. The underlying rates still decide most of the bill.

Sources and currency: flat, time of use, and controlled load benchmarks come from the Essential Services Commission Victorian Default Offer 2026-27, effective 1 July 2026. EV overnight rates, VPP credit ranges, and retailer examples come from comparison-site and industry reporting between February and July 2026, and we have not verified them against each retailer's Energy Fact Sheet. Midday Power Saver details, including its window, its daily cap, and its intended start date, come from the Victorian Government (energy.vic.gov.au), May to June 2026, and remain subject to change. Rates and scheme terms change, so confirm current figures before you switch.

Glossary

Controlled Load: A separately metered circuit controlled by a signal from the DNSP. These circuits typically contain a single specific appliance or type of appliance - eg. an Electric Hot Water Service (and historically Air-Conditioners or Electric Slab Heating). They are typically billed at a discounted rate and often run only during off-peak hours. They appear on a separate Meter Register on an Electricity Bill. See also: Dedicated Circuit.
Daily Supply Charge: The fixed amount an electricity or gas plan charges for each day a property is connected to the network, whatever amount of energy the household uses. Also called a Daily Connection Charge.
Demand Tariff: A tariff that bills partly on the highest rate of power draw recorded in a billing period, usually measured over a half-hour interval, rather than on total energy consumed.
Distribution Zone: The network area operated by a distribution business (in Victoria: Powercor, United Energy, AusNet Services, Jemena, or CitiPower). Regulated supply and usage rates differ by zone.
Energy Fact Sheet: A standardised summary a retailer must supply for each offer, listing the daily supply charge, usage rates, and feed-in rate. It does not estimate an annual bill.
Essential Services Commission: Victoria's state regulator for essential services, including electricity retail pricing. It sets the Victorian Default Offer and, until 1 July 2025, set the state's minimum solar feed-in tariff.
Feed-in Tariff: The rate a retailer credits you for electricity your system exports to the grid, usually counted per kilowatt hour.
Flat Rate Tariff: A tariff charging a single per-kilowatt-hour import rate at every hour of the day, with no peak, off-peak, or midday distinction. Also called a single-rate tariff.
Interval Data: Energy readings recorded at fixed time steps — typically every 30 minutes (but sometimes 5 or 15 minutes on newer meters) rather than as a single billing total. This allows charging different Tariffs at different times of day or days of the week. See also: Time-of-Use (TOU) Tariff.
Kilowatt Hour: The unit of energy an electricity bill counts, written kWh. One kilowatt hour is the energy a 1,000-watt appliance uses in one hour.
Load Profile: The pattern of a site's electricity use over time, derived from its interval data. The granularity or resolution of the Profile is the Interval Length (eg. 30 Minutes, Hours), and is typically based on averages for a longer period (eg. Months, Seasons).
Load Shifting: Moving discretionary electricity use, such as a dishwasher or an EV charge, to a chosen time of day — usually out of a peak tariff and into an off-peak tariff or sunniest solar generation hours — using timers, schedules, or habit.
Midday Power Saver: A Victorian state-government scheme offering a free midday electricity window to Victorian households, announced with a planned start on 1 October 2026.
NMI: National Metering Identifier — the unique 10-digit identifier for an electricity connection point (11 with the Check Digit), permanent to the property. Note that the electricity connection point identified by the NMI, typically has multiple NMI Suffixes, and can have multiple Physical Meters. See also: Check Digit, NMI Suffix.
Off-Peak Period: The lowest-priced window on a time-of-use tariff, typically overnight and into the morning — commonly 9pm–11am under Victorian 2026-27 structures.
Peak Period: The highest-priced window on a time-of-use tariff, typically the evening — commonly 4pm–9pm in Victoria, when demand is high and solar generation is falling.
Self-Consumption: The share of the electricity generated by your own solar panels that your household uses on site, rather than exporting it to the grid.
Shoulder Period: The middle-priced window on a three-part time-of-use tariff, sitting between peak and off-peak. Not every plan defines one.
Smart Meter: An electricity meter that records consumption and export in fixed intervals and reports them remotely. Time-varying tariffs and free-hours schemes require one.
Solar Soak Period: A midday window — 11am–4pm in the 2026-27 Victorian structure — priced below peak to encourage consumption while rooftop solar output is highest.
Time-of-Use (TOU) Tariff: A tariff with different prices at different times of day or days of the week (Peak, Shoulder, Off-Peak).
Victorian Default Offer: A mandated maximum electricity price set by the Victorian Government that all Electricity Retailers in Victoria must offer to Households and Small Businesses. Acts as a safety net for consumers who do not shop around.
Virtual Power Plant (VPP): A pooled network of home batteries that a retailer or aggregator can discharge into the grid at times of high demand, paying participating households a credit or per-event payment.

Try our NEM12 Smart Meter Data Analyzer Tool