Energy Consumers Australia has just published a report on why Australians are buying batteries in droves, but signing up to virtual power plants in dribs and drabs. If you've ever looked at a VPP offer and thought "hang on, why would I hand my battery over for that?", the data says you're in good company.
In their survey, only 7% of battery owners were in a VPP as at April 2026, and across three survey waves it hasn’t risen above 10%. But 64% say they're interested in the idea.
So it’s clear that people don't hate the thought of their battery doing more. Some are turning down a specific offer, a lot more have never seen one, or don't know enough about how VPPs work to say yes.
What's actually stopping people
ECA asked battery owners who hadn't joined a VPP why not. The answers are revealing.
- 36% didn't know enough about how VPPs work
- 29% were worried about losing control of their battery, or how their stored energy gets used
- 27% had never been offered the chance to join one
- 26% didn't trust energy companies or providers to manage their battery
- 20% were worried about what it'd do to their equipment or battery life
The reasons change depending on how keen people were. Among those who'd ruled VPPs out altogether, losing control topped the list at 42%, with distrust of energy companies right behind at 40%. A third reckoned the financial benefits wouldn't be worth it. The interested ones simply couldn't get in the door: 37% didn't understand how VPPs work and 31% had never been offered one.
Fair enough on all counts. Saving money is the top reason people buy or consider a battery (77% of you), followed by leaning less on the grid (59%) and to keep the lights on in a blackout (51%). A VPP that empties your battery at lunchtime doesn't do much for the last two.
Every one of those objections is really a question about the deal. Who decides when my battery runs? Who keeps the money it makes? Can I check? Amber was built with different answers to all three.
"I don't want to lose control of my battery"
The single biggest reason people say no, and the most reasonable one on the list.
With Amber, SmartShift decides when your battery buys, sells and stores energy every five minutes, built around your home and your bottom line rather than a grid operator's dispatch schedule. You can set and forget it, or take the controls yourself whenever you feel like it. Nobody is draining your battery to 5% because it suited them that afternoon.
That matters because it happens. ECA cites an ABC story about an AGL VPP customer whose battery was remotely discharged to a 5% reserve, who then copped a demand charge. From the grid's point of view that was cheap clean power arriving right when the system needed it. From the customer's, it cost them money they hadn't budgeted for.
"I don't trust them to run it in my interest"
Traditional retailers buy energy wholesale, add a markup and sell it to you. The wider that gap, the better they do. Your battery sits in the middle of that, and the incentives point the wrong way from the day you sign up.
Amber doesn't work like that. Wholesale prices and network costs get passed straight through, and our only margin is the flat monthly subscription. We earn exactly the same whether prices are at zero or at the market cap, so there's no gap for us to widen and nothing to gain from your battery doing less than it could.
ECA is blunt about how murky this gets elsewhere. There's often little stopping an operator keeping the lion's share of what your battery earns, and you'd struggle to work out whether that's happening. One of their recommendations is that governments step in to make sure households get a fair cut. With Amber there's no cut to work out, because we don't take one. You keep 100% of your export earnings.
"I'm not convinced the money's there"
For a lot of VPP deals, that scepticism is well founded. ECA looked at ACCC data and found VPP households received credits worth a median of about $55 a quarter. Roughly $220 a year for your battery running to someone else's schedule.
Now look at what that battery is sitting on top of. In NSW between December 2025 and April 2026, wholesale prices were below $150/MWh in 98% of five minute intervals. The action is in the other 2%. On 25 November 2025, just after midday, a big cloud rolled over Sydney, rooftop solar output dropped off a cliff and NSW spot prices hit the market cap of $20,300/MWh.
A battery in self-consumption mode sleeps straight through moments like that. On a fixed credit, you get your $55 regardless. With Amber, spikes like that flow straight through to you.
ACCC deputy commissioner Anna Brakey's numbers back this up. She recently said battery owners typically save 20 to 50% on their bills using their battery for themselves, and that those on a VPP tend to save more again, around 60%.
Over a full year it adds up. A typical Amber for Batteries customer saves more than $1,000 per year than they would with a traditional retailer or VPP, and last year a third of Amber SmartShift users earned more from their energy than they paid for it.
So is Amber a VPP?
Amber is similar to a VPP but it works for you. Nobody here takes your battery off you, runs it to suit our dispatch schedule and hands you a fixed credit for the trouble.
But when it comes to the government rebates, Amber counts as a VPP. So if there's battery money going for signing up with one, you still get it with us. You get the rebate, you keep the control and you keep everything your battery earns.
Compatibility is the final barrier ECA flagged, and it has nothing to do with what you want. Of the 16 most popular battery brands installed under the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, ACCC analysis found some worked with only a handful of VPPs and some worked with none of the ones they sampled. Plenty of people aren't opting out. They're locked out.
Where we land on it
ECA's recommendations make sense. If you're handing a third party the keys to your battery, you should be protected and be able to see exactly what you're getting paid. We back all of that.
But you don't have to wait for the rules to catch up. Everything battery owners told ECA they wanted, control over their own gear, a provider whose incentives match theirs and money worth the bother, is available today.
See what you could earn on Amber’s battery plan with SmartShift here.
