Best electricity plans for solar households

There is no national “best solar retailer”. There is a best whole-of-bill outcome for a particular roof, a particular meter and a particular evening habit. Households who chase the highest feed-in tariff skip that work and then wonder why the first summer bill is worse.

Self-consumed solar is usually worth the retail import rate. Exported solar is worth the feed-in, which in 2026 is often close to pocket money. Victoria’s regulated minimum is 0c/kWh for 2026-27. Some Victorian market offers advertised headline credits around 0–8c, frequently with a daily cap. Other states are in the same band. A plan that pays 8c to export and 38c to import after dark is not a solar plan. It is a peak-rate plan with a sticker.

The method below is the same discipline as comparing electricity plans generally, with solar exports treated as a real input instead of a pleasant surprise.

The four numbers that actually move the bill

Open a recent bill and write down four lines. If the bill hides them, read it properly first.

• Import usage and the rate that applies after sunset. This is the expensive electricity. Solar households still buy it.
• Daily supply charge. Panels do not cancel a supply charge. A low-use solar home can pay more in supply than in residual usage.
• Feed-in tariff and its conditions. Flat, time-varying, daily cap, “first X kilowatt hours only”.
• Export volume. Annual kilowatt hours sent to the grid. A 10 kW west-facing array and a 5 kW east-facing array do not have the same leftover.

Everything else — cashback, a football-club discount, a “solar specialist” badge — is decoration until those four are in a comparator.

A worked pattern, using rounded figures rather than a live retailer table. House A imports 4,000 kWh at 28c and exports 3,500 kWh at 5c, supply $1.20 a day. House B is offered 10c feed-in, 36c imports, $1.60 a day. House B’s extra export credit is about $175 a year. The extra imports and supply can easily eat $400. House B had the “best” feed-in and the worse bill.

Rank plans by estimated annual cost at your imports and exports. If a quote will not do that arithmetic, it is not a quote.

Single-rate versus time-of-use for a solar roof

A single-rate tariff is simple: one usage price all day. Solar still helps, because every self-consumed kilowatt hour avoids that price. Time-of-use splits the clock. In many networks the cheap window now includes the middle of the day — when the panels are already doing the job — and the expensive window is late afternoon and evening, when the house comes home and the array is fading.

Time-of-use is a gift if you can run the hot-water heat pump, the pool, the washer and an EV charger in the cheap window, or if a battery covers the peak. It is a penalty if the only thing the solar changed is the midday import you no longer have, while the 6 pm cluster is untouched.

Demand tariffs add a monthly charge based on a peak interval. Solar rarely deletes that spike, because the spike is the oven and the air-conditioner at 6.30 pm. Read demand tariffs before you accept a “solar” plan that is actually a demand assignment.

Smart-meter default assignment is a network decision. You can often ask for a different network tariff, but the retailer has to agree to sell you a matching plan. Do not assume the comparison site’s single-rate ranking is the product your meter will be billed on.

Export caps, time-varying credits and other fine print

The feed-in line on a comparison card is a headline. The fact sheet is the contract.

• Daily export caps. A generous rate on the first 5 or 8 kWh, then 0c, punishes a large array on a weekday when nobody is home. Annual exports of 4,000 kWh are not 4,000 kWh of premium credit.
• Time-varying feed-in. Higher in the evening, lower at noon. Good for a battery that discharges to the grid; irrelevant if you export only at noon.
• Benefit periods. The solar credit lasts 12 months. After that you are on whatever the retailer publishes next.
• GST and credits. Credits usually appear GST-inclusive on the bill in the same way usage does. Do not add GST a second time in your spreadsheet.
• Controlled load. A dedicated hot-water circuit has its own rate. Solar does not feed that circuit unless you have rewired it. Keep it in the comparison as a separate line.

None of this is exotic. It is why “best feed-in this week” tables go stale before lunch, and why this site will not publish one.

Solar Sharer is a different product

In Default Market Offer areas — New South Wales, south-east Queensland and South Australia — eligible smart-meter households can opt into the Solar Sharer Offer. It is a standing offer with a free midday window and a daily cap commonly described as up to 24 kWh. It is not automatic. It is not a Victorian product; Victoria has the Victorian Default Offer, not the DMO.

Solar Sharer can be excellent for a household that can move load into 11 am–2 pm (or noon–3 pm in South Australia): renters without panels, families with a pool, someone charging a battery or a car. It can be ordinary for a house whose array already covers that window and who then pays standing-offer rates from 4 pm.

Model it as its own plan. Do not add “free midday” on top of a market offer that is not Solar Sharer. The Default Market Offer page explains the framework the standing offer sits inside.

How to use the government sites with solar

Use Energy Made Easy outside Victoria and Victorian Energy Compare inside it. Enter the NMI, the import usage, and the export kilowatt hours. If you have a year of interval data, use it. If you only have one sunny quarter, say so in your own notes: the estimate will be optimistic.

Sort by estimated annual cost. Then open the fact sheets for the two or three cheapest and check:

• whether the feed-in in the estimate matches the fact sheet, including the cap
• tariff type
• supply charge
• any condition that the solar credit depends on a bundled gas account or a digital bill
• whether the plan is a standing offer, a market offer, or Solar Sharer

Retailer comparison tools are allowed to exist. They are not required to be on your side. If a call centre will not let you recreate the quote on the government site, end the call.

Western Australia and some regional markets will not appear on Energy Made Easy. Do not invent an east-coast solar plan for a Synergy meter.

Switching without giving the feed-in away by accident

A switch is a retail transfer. The panels stay. The inverter stays. The NMI stays. The feed-in does not travel with you unless the new retailer offers one.

Before you switch electricity retailers:

• Photograph the last bill that shows export kilowatt hours and the current credit.
• Confirm the new fact sheet’s feed-in, cap and tariff type in writing.
• If you are on a closed premium state scheme, read that scheme’s transfer rules. Many do not follow you.
• Tell the new retailer you have solar. Wrong meter configurations produce bills with no credit and a week of phone calls.
• If you have a battery or a VPP, check whether leaving the current retailer breaks the VPP contract.

Cooling-off on most unsolicited sales is still 10 business days. A shopping-centre solar-plan stall is unsolicited enough. Use the days.

Plans that look solar-friendly and are not

A short blacklist of patterns, not brands.

• High feed-in, high peak usage, high supply. The classic trap.
• A “solar” plan that is a demand tariff in disguise.
• A dual-fuel bundle that cheapens electricity only if you keep an expensive gas account. Compare gas separately if you still have a gas meter.
• A VPP plan that pays a credit you modelled as guaranteed when the contract says “up to” and requires dispatch you cannot refuse on the hottest evenings. Pair this with the battery guide before you sign both.
• Any ranking that does not ask for your export volume.

GreenPower is a residual-grid choice, not a solar-plan upgrade. If you want the imports you still buy to be matched with large-scale renewables, that is fine. It will not raise the feed-in.

The best electricity plan for a solar household is the one that makes the leftover night-time bill small, charges a bearable daily supply, and pays an honest, uncapped-or-clearly-capped credit for whatever you still export. That plan will not always have the largest number in the feed-in column. It will have the smallest number at the bottom of a year of real bills. Choose that number.