If you have a home battery, the electricity plan you choose can make a big difference to the value you get from it.
Most electricity plans give your battery a relatively limited job: store your solar, avoid expensive grid imports, or participate in a VPP on someone else's terms. Amber is built differently. By giving battery owners access to real-time wholesale electricity prices and using SmartShift to automatically respond to them, Amber gives your battery more opportunities to buy, store and sell energy when it makes sense.
So, what should you look for when choosing an electricity plan for a home battery? Here are four common approaches, how they compare, and why we think Amber is the best choice for battery owners who want to get more from their hardware.
1. Flat-rate electricity plans with a fixed feed-in tariff
A standard flat-rate electricity plan is the simplest model.
You pay a set usage rate for electricity you draw from the grid, plus a daily supply charge. If you have solar or a battery and export energy back to the grid, you're generally paid a set feed-in tariff.
For battery owners, this model is most naturally suited to self-consumption. Your solar can charge your battery during the day, then the battery can power your home later instead of you buying electricity from the grid.
The limitation is that fixed prices don't reflect changes in the value of electricity throughout the day.
If your feed-in tariff is fixed, for example, your retailer may pay you the same rate for an export in the middle of a sunny afternoon as it does when electricity is in much higher demand in the evening.
That doesn't stop your battery from saving you money. It simply limits the price signals it can respond to.
Who can a flat-rate plan suit?
A household looking for simple, predictable electricity pricing and primarily using its battery to increase solar self-consumption.
What should battery owners watch for?
Don't look at the feed-in tariff alone. Check your usage rate, supply charge, network tariff and whether the plan's rates change after an introductory period.
It's worth checking regularly. The ACCC found in December 2025 that customers who had been on the same electricity plan for more than three years were paying an average of $221 more per year than customers on newer plans.
2. Time-of-use electricity plans
Time-of-use plans recognise that electricity isn't equally valuable throughout the day.
Instead of charging one usage rate, they split the day into periods such as peak, shoulder and off-peak, with different prices for each.
For a battery owner, that creates more opportunities to shift energy.
A battery might charge from solar or cheaper grid electricity during an off-peak period, then power your home during a more expensive peak period. Depending on your tariff and battery setup, that can reduce how much expensive electricity you need to buy from the grid.
The trade-off is that time-of-use windows are predetermined.
Your battery is responding to a tariff schedule rather than the actual wholesale electricity price at that moment. If wholesale prices unexpectedly fall very low during the day or rise sharply one evening, your retail tariff doesn't necessarily change with them.
There are also newer variations on this model. From July 2026, for example, the Solar Sharer Offer provides eligible customers in parts of Australia with a three-hour period of free electricity in the middle of the day.
Who can a time-of-use plan suit?
Households that can reliably shift a significant amount of electricity use away from peak periods, particularly if their battery can charge cheaply and cover the home's more expensive periods.
What's the limitation for a battery?
The battery can optimise around the tariff you've been given, but the tariff doesn't necessarily reflect what electricity is worth in the wholesale market at that moment.
3. Virtual power plant plans
A virtual power plant, or VPP, connects household energy devices such as batteries so they can be coordinated as a larger fleet.
There are many different VPP models in Australia, so it's important not to treat them as interchangeable.
Under some VPP offers, customers receive a set payment, bill credit, special tariff or other incentive in return for allowing the provider to control their battery during certain events. How often the battery is used, how much control you retain and how you're rewarded varies by provider.
For some households, that's an appealing trade-off: you get a defined benefit without needing to think much about electricity markets or when your battery should export.
But it is worth understanding how the economics work.
If your provider controls when your battery exports, ask how much of the value created by those exports comes back to you. A fixed VPP reward isn't the same thing as receiving the market value of the electricity your battery sells.
Who can a VPP suit?
Battery owners who want a relatively simple way to participate in a coordinated battery program and are comfortable exchanging some control for the incentives being offered.
What should you compare?
Look beyond the headline incentive. Check who controls your battery, whether you can override that control, how exports are rewarded and whether the provider keeps any of the value your battery generates.
4. Wholesale electricity plans with battery automation
A wholesale electricity plan works differently.
Instead of fixing the energy component of your electricity price for long periods, it gives you access to wholesale electricity prices as they change.
For a battery, that opens up a different optimisation opportunity.
Rather than only charging to cover your own evening usage or following predetermined tariff windows, compatible battery automation can take changing electricity prices into account when deciding when to charge, hold energy or export it.
This is the model Amber uses.
Amber passes through wholesale electricity prices rather than adding a retail margin to the energy you use. Amber's margin is its flat monthly subscription.
For customers with a compatible battery, SmartShift uses forecasts of household electricity use, solar generation and wholesale prices to build a personalised battery plan. It continually updates that plan as conditions change.
If electricity is cheap and prices are forecast to rise later, for example, SmartShift can charge or hold the battery so that energy is available when it is more valuable. When wholesale export prices rise, it can sell stored energy back to the grid.
Wholesale feed-in prices can reach $19/kWh during price spikes.
That doesn't mean every export earns $19/kWh, or that wholesale prices are always high. Most of the time they aren't. The advantage is that the battery can respond when those opportunities do occur rather than receiving the same fixed feed-in tariff regardless of market conditions.
SmartShift also takes more than the wholesale price into account. It forecasts your household usage and solar generation and can account for relevant network tariff structures when planning how to use your battery.
Why Amber is built for battery owners
A battery gives your home flexibility. You can choose when to buy energy, when to store it and when to sell it back to the grid. Amber is designed to put that flexibility to work.
Wholesale pricing means your battery can respond to changing electricity prices rather than being limited to a fixed feed-in tariff or predetermined time-of-use window. SmartShift then automates the hard part, forecasting your household usage, solar generation and wholesale prices to work out when your battery should charge, hold or export.
That combination is what makes Amber particularly powerful for battery owners. You're not just using your battery to avoid buying electricity from the grid. You're giving it more opportunities to respond to what energy is actually worth.
How do the four electricity plan types compare for a home battery?
So, what is the best electricity plan for a home battery?
If you've invested in a home battery, we think your electricity plan should be built to make the most of it.
Flat-rate plans can help you save by storing your solar for later. Time-of-use plans give your battery different price periods to work with. VPPs can put your battery to work as part of a larger fleet.
Amber goes further.
With Amber, compatible batteries get access to wholesale electricity prices and SmartShift automatically optimises when they charge, hold and export energy. When wholesale export prices rise, you get the wholesale value of the energy your battery sells back to the grid.
That's why we think Amber is the best electricity plan for battery owners who want to get more from their battery. Instead of fitting your battery around a traditional electricity plan, Amber's model is built around the flexibility a battery gives you.
You've already invested in the hardware. The right electricity plan can help you make more of what it can do.
What does that look like for Amber battery customers?
Chris, who lives in Paddington in Sydney, previously had flat electricity pricing and a 5c/kWh feed-in tariff with AGL.
Since moving his SolarEdge battery to Amber and using SmartShift, he says his quarterly electricity bills, which previously reached around $1,000 in winter, have fallen to around $100. In summer, some months have been as low as $10, with occasional months where he has been paid rather than receiving a bill.
He estimates his battery will pay for itself in around eight years, compared with roughly 15 years under his previous 5c/kWh feed-in tariff.
Anthony, in Sydney's inner west, has 9kW of solar and two SolarEdge batteries totalling 19kWh.
Before Amber, he says he was exporting 70 to 80kWh a day in summer for 5c/kWh while paying 35c/kWh for electricity at night.
Since switching to Amber, he says his system earns between $1,200 and $1,600 a year, typically around $100 to $200 a month. During one wholesale price spike, his battery earned $375 in a single day.
After two and a half years, Anthony estimates his household is around $10,000 better off and that his system is on track to pay for itself three years earlier than originally planned.
Their hardware didn't suddenly become more capable when they changed retailer. What changed was the electricity pricing and automation sitting behind it.
Does the Default Market Offer matter when choosing a battery electricity plan?
The Default Market Offer (DMO) is useful as a consumer protection and electricity plan comparison benchmark, but it doesn't tell you everything you need to know about how a plan will work with a battery.
The Australian Energy Regulator sets the DMO as the maximum price retailers can charge customers on standing offers in New South Wales, South Australia and South East Queensland. It is also used as a reference price when retailers advertise market offers.
Fewer than 10% of households in those regions are actually on the DMO.
For battery owners, the bigger question is what sits behind the advertised annual price.
Does the plan have a fixed or variable feed-in tariff? Does it use time-of-use pricing? What network tariffs apply? Can your battery respond automatically to electricity prices? And who receives the value when your battery exports?
Those details can matter more to a battery household than simply choosing the plan advertised at the largest percentage below the DMO.
What should you compare when choosing an electricity plan for a battery?
Before switching electricity plans, check these six things.
1. How are battery exports paid?
Check whether you receive a fixed feed-in tariff, a time-dependent rate, a VPP incentive or the wholesale export price.
2. Can the plan optimise when your battery charges and exports?
A battery creates more options than simply storing solar for later. Find out whether your plan and battery setup can respond to changing electricity prices automatically.
3. Who controls the battery?
If you're joining a VPP or automation service, understand when the provider can control your battery and whether you can override it.
4. What happens to the value your battery creates?
If your battery exports when electricity is particularly valuable, find out how much of that value reaches you.
5. What other tariffs and charges apply?
Feed-in tariffs are only one part of your bill. Compare usage rates, daily supply charges, demand tariffs, two-way network tariffs, subscription fees and any other applicable charges.
6. Is your battery compatible?
Battery automation depends on the hardware and integration available. If you're considering Amber, check whether your battery or inverter is compatible with SmartShift before switching.
Get more from your home battery with Amber
A home battery gives you more control over when you buy, store, use and sell energy. Amber is built to make the most of that flexibility.
With Amber, compatible batteries get access to real-time wholesale electricity prices, while SmartShift automatically works out when to charge, hold and export based on your household energy needs, solar generation and what's happening in the market.
That means your battery isn't limited to a fixed feed-in tariff or a predetermined schedule. It can respond as the value of energy changes, and when it exports, you get the wholesale value of the energy you sell back to the grid.
If you've invested in a home battery, choose an electricity plan designed to get more from it. Check whether your battery is compatible with SmartShift and see what it could do with Amber.
