The New Baseline: The Solar Sharer Offer (SSO)

This is a subtitle for your new post

Instead of hunting for rare promotional plans, any major energy retailer operating in the Default Market Offer (DMO) regions is now mandated to provide an opt-in Solar Sharer plan if they have more than 1,000 customers.

• The Free Window: 3 hours of zero-cost power every single day.
• South-East Queensland & NSW: 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
• South Australia: 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM
• (Note: Victoria is launching its own version, the "Midday Power Saver," on October 1, 2026).
• The Cap: To keep things fair, the free power is capped at a generous 24 kWh per day (which is plenty for standard household needs).
• Requirements: You must have a smart meter and explicitly call your provider to opt-in; it doesn't switch over automatically.

How It Works Specifically for Solar & Battery Owners

If you already have a rooftop solar system and a home battery setup, these new midday free plans change the optimization game entirely.

1. Grid-Charging Your Battery for Free

Traditionally, your home battery only charges from your own rooftop solar panels or cheap off-peak overnight grid power. Under the new SSO plans, you can legally top up your battery straight from the grid at $0 cost during the 11 AM–2 PM window.

• The Overcast Benefit: On rainy, stormy, or heavily overcast winter days when your solar panels are barely producing, you can pull free power from the grid to fill your battery completely.
• The Peak Shaving Strategy: You "soak up" the grid's free power at midday to ensure your battery is at 100% heading into the expensive evening peak period (usually 4 PM–9 PM), ensuring you don't pay a cent for evening usage.

2. Preserving Your Own Solar Generation

On perfectly sunny days, your panels will naturally cover your home load and charge your battery anyway. However, because the grid electricity is completely free during this window, any heavy appliances you run (like pool pumps, air conditioning, or EV chargers) won't deplete your battery or cut into your self-generated solar pool.

3. The Feed-in Tariff (FiT) Trade-Off

The catch to watch out for is that wholesale power prices are often negative during these midday hours. When you opt into a Solar Sharer plan, retailers typically structure the plan with a very low or $0 Feed-in Tariff during that specific 3-hour window. Since you aren't getting paid much (or anything) to export power at midday anyway, it makes mathematical sense to prioritize absorbing the free grid power into your battery or heavy appliances instead.

Which Providers Offer It?

Because it is a regulated framework under the market amendments finalized earlier this year, all major tier-1 and tier-2 energy retailers in South-East Queensland, NSW, and SA now feature this specific standing offer.

Providers like Red Energy, Origin, AGL, and EnergyAustralia have launched dedicated "Solar Sharer" options. When comparing plans, the key is to look closely at the daily supply charge and the peak/off-peak rates applied outside of that 3-hour free window to ensure the overall plan aligns with your nocturnal power usage.