On Monday 12 October, wholesale electricity prices in NSW surged to $23.11 per kilowatt hour (kWh), just shy of the market price cap of $23.20/kWh. For Amber battery customers, it created a huge opportunity.
Over 80 minutes, our NSW customers exported more than 218,000kWh of electricity to the grid, earning a combined $2.12 million. It's a powerful example of what can happen when home batteries access wholesale electricity prices, rather than the fixed feed-in tariffs offered by traditional retailers or flat-rate credits paid by most VPPs.
It also shows how households can be rewarded for supporting the grid and Australia's renewable energy transition.
Amber works differently from a traditional VPP, passing through wholesale electricity prices with no markup, so customers keep 100% of their export earnings. Amber’s only margin is a $25 monthly subscription fee.
$2.12 million earned in 80 minutes
Between 3:15pm and 4:35pm AEDT, Amber customers in NSW:
- Exported 218,247kWh of electricity to the grid
- Earned a combined net total of $2.12 million
- Received an average export price of $10.80 per kWh
Our top five SmartShift enabled earners each made more than $500 in 80 minutes.
For comparison, some VPPs offer customers a fixed $1/kWh for electricity exported during major price events. At that rate, the same 218,247kWh of exports would have earned customers around $218,000, compared with $2.12 million through Amber.
That's nearly $1.9 million in additional earnings for Amber customers, highlighting how much value battery owners can miss out on when VPPs pay fixed rewards rather than passing through wholesale earnings.
Households on traditional energy plans could miss out on even more, with lower feed-in tariffs and batteries that may not be automated to export when wholesale prices spike.
A $532 surprise for a Southern Highlands battery owner
For Stevan, who lives on a farm in Wildes Meadow in the NSW Southern Highlands, Monday's price spike brought an unexpected reward. His 96kWh Sigenergy battery exported 43.2kWh of electricity to the grid, earning him $532.13 in 80 minutes.
“I was with a bunch of friends when you called, and they could hear how happy I was,” Stevan said. “I thought you were going to tell me I'd made $50. So when you said more than $500, that was a real surprise.”
Stevan installed his battery earlier this year while building a new home, aiming to make the property as self-sufficient as possible. Already an Amber customer at his Sydney home, he chose Amber for the farm after a recommendation from his solar installer, RenewCo Solar.
For Stevan, the benefits go beyond a single afternoon's earnings. Having access to wholesale electricity prices has encouraged him to rethink how his household uses energy and become more conscious of when electricity is cheapest.
“My behaviour has changed. I'm monitoring to become more and more efficient over time,” he said. “I'm reconditioning the whole house around when we use electricity, even down to when we run the dishwasher.”
With 75% of Australian battery owners not on a dedicated battery energy plan, Stevan has some straightforward advice for those who haven't switched to a plan like Amber.
“You have to do your homework. You're basically locked into an inefficient structure that doesn't maximise the benefit of having the batteries.”
Why did electricity prices spike?
Wholesale electricity prices change throughout the day depending on how much electricity people need and how much power is available. According to energy market analysis from WattClarity, several factors contributed to an unusually volatile afternoon in NSW.
Hot weather pushed up demand. Higher temperatures meant more electricity was needed, particularly for cooling. There were also unusually sharp changes in market demand, contributing to rapid price movements.
Some coal generators were unavailable. Several coal-fired power station units were offline, reducing the amount of generation available to meet demand. It's a reminder of the role household batteries are playing in reducing our reliance on coal.
Network limitations added pressure. Constraints affecting electricity flows between parts of the grid also contributed to the conditions.
Together, these factors helped push NSW wholesale prices close to the market price cap. At 3:20pm AEDT, the price reached $23.11/kWh. Just five minutes later, it dropped to around 67c/kWh, before jumping back to $23.11/kWh at 3:30pm.
It's a clear example of how quickly wholesale electricity prices can change, creating opportunities for battery owners to earn more from the energy they've stored.
How Amber batteries respond when prices spike
With Amber, your battery can do more than store excess solar for later. Access to wholesale electricity prices means it can respond to changing prices throughout the day.
SmartShift, our battery automation technology, helps make the most of those changing prices without you needing to watch the market all day. It builds a personalised plan around forecast wholesale prices, your expected solar generation and your household's energy needs, updating that plan every five minutes.
That means your battery can charge when electricity is cheaper, power your home when prices rise and export stored energy when it's worth more.
And the benefits go beyond individual households. By charging when abundant renewable energy pushes prices down and exporting during periods of high demand, home batteries can help balance supply and demand as Australia transitions to more renewable energy. Across those 80 minutes, our NSW customers exported an average of approximately 164MW of power, helping support the grid during the price spike.
Making the most of changing electricity prices
Spring can bring big swings in wholesale electricity prices. Abundant solar generation can push wholesale prices down during the day, creating opportunities for batteries to soak up cheap renewable energy before exporting it when prices rise. For battery owners, that creates opportunities to store energy when it's cheap and export it when it's worth more.
While events like Monday's don't happen every day, smaller price movements throughout the year can also create opportunities for battery owners.
How much a battery earns depends on factors like its size, how much energy it has stored, household electricity use and export limits.
And because wholesale prices can also rise when you're buying electricity from the grid, SmartShift helps plan around those costs too. Customers can still override their battery's plan through the Amber app whenever they want.
Could your battery be doing more?
Monday's price spike shows what's possible when households can access the true value of their energy. By exporting electricity when the grid needed it most, Amber customers earned millions of dollars, showing how household batteries can provide valuable power traditionally supplied by large generators while helping support Australia's renewable energy transition.
Already have a home battery? Check if it's compatible with SmartShift, then get a quote to see how Amber could help you get more from it.
