If you have a home battery, you've probably heard about Virtual Power Plants (commonly referred to as VPPs). The promise is simple: connect your battery to a network, help the grid, and earn money in return. But here's where it gets complicated. Not all VPPs operate the same way, and the differences between them can mean thousands of dollars in savings and significantly more control over your own energy.
Let's break down how VPPs actually work, where traditional VPPs often fall short, and why Amber's approach delivers better outcomes for households.
Traditional VPPs like Origin Loop, AGL VPP, and EnergyAustralia's programs operate your battery as part of a fleet, prioritising the retailer's energy needs over yours. They often offer low fixed payments, and keep you in the dark about what your battery's actually doing.
Amber gives you direct access to wholesale energy prices with no markup, intelligent battery automation that puts your household first, complete transparency every time your battery interacts with the grid, and zero exit fees or lock-in contracts. You earn 100% of what your battery makes when it exports energy, not just a fraction.
What is a Virtual Power Plant?
A VPP connects home batteries across a region so they can work together like a single power station. When the grid needs extra electricity, the VPP can coordinate thousands of batteries to export stored energy simultaneously. When wholesale prices are cheap, it can tell batteries to charge. When wholesale prices are expensive, it can tell them to sell energy into the grid. In theory, it's brilliant: homeowners earn money, the grid gets stable, clean energy replaces fossil fuel generation, and everyone wins.
According to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), distributed energy resources like home batteries, solar panels, and electric vehicles already make up a significant portion of Australia's energy capacity. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency projects that by 2030, these household systems could provide 13% of the grid's total capacity during peak demand periods.
VPPs have been around in Australia since around 2016, when the first large-scale programs started connecting batteries in South Australia. Since then, major retailers have launched their own versions. The concept gained traction as battery costs dropped and wholesale energy prices became more volatile, creating clear opportunities for battery owners to profit from price swings while supporting grid stability. It has also proven to be even more valuable as the urgency of shifting to a low carbon economy grows, with coordinated consumer energy resources proving to be the cheapest way for Australia to push fossil fuels out of the grid and reach its climate goals.
How most traditional VPPs work
Traditional VPPs from the big energy retailers operate your battery as part of a fleet. When they need power from batteries to fulfil their own energy supply obligations or to participate in grid services markets, they direct your battery to export. When wholesale prices are low, they might charge your battery. But these decisions are made to benefit the retailer's position in the market, not your household's energy bills.
Programs like Origin Loop, AGL's VPP, and EnergyAustralia's battery offerings typically work the same way. They offer fixed payments that don't change based on wholesale market conditions or how much value your battery generates. When wholesale prices spike during grid stress, you receive the same payment as on an ordinary day, even though the retailer is selling your battery's energy for significantly more.
These programs participate in FCAS markets (Frequency Control Ancillary Services), which help keep the grid stable by providing rapid bursts of power or absorbing excess energy when frequency fluctuations occur. Your battery might be called on to provide these services, earning revenue for the retailer, but you only see a small, fixed portion of the income. The retailer keeps the majority of what your battery earns because they're acting as an intermediary between you and the wholesale market.
In a traditional VPP, you typically can't see real-time data about what your battery's doing or why. Most traditional VPP apps show basic charge levels and maybe monthly summaries, but detailed pricing information and export decisions remain hidden. Many traditional VPPs also have contract requirements that can make it harder to switch if you're not happy with the service.
Amber vs traditional VPPs:
How Amber's approach is different
Amber isn't a traditional VPP. We don't operate your battery as part of a retailer's fleet to serve our interests. Instead, we give you the technology and market access to operate your battery intelligently, in your own interest.
Our SmartShift automation watches wholesale prices, learns your household's energy patterns, and creates a daily plan for when your battery should charge, discharge, and export. That plan is built around maximising value for your household, not serving a retailer's supply obligations or market positions.
You receive 100% of what your battery earns when it exports energy, at actual wholesale rates, not fixed fees. When wholesale prices spike to $5, $10, or even $19/kWh during grid stress events, you capture that full value. Traditional VPPs might give you an extra dollar or two during the same event while they pocket the rest.
Direct access to wholesale prices - no middleman skimming your revenue
When your battery exports energy through a traditional VPP, the retailer sells that energy into the wholesale market at whatever the current price is. If wholesale prices are $2/kWh, they sell it for $2/kWh. Then they pay you your fixed monthly fee, usually around $5, regardless of how much you exported or what prices were doing.
With Amber, when your battery exports at $2/kWh, you receive $2/kWh. When prices hit $19/kWh during peak demand, you get $19/kWh. There's no middleman taking a cut.
This makes an enormous difference during volatile periods. In May 2024, when NSW experienced significant grid stress, Amber battery customers collectively earned over $525,000 from the wholesale market during a one-week period. That worked out to an average of $180 per customer. Traditional VPP customers in the same period would have received their standard monthly fee, maybe $5 to $8, regardless of the grid conditions.
Automation that works for you, while you stay in control
SmartShift learns your household's energy patterns. It knows when you typically use the most power, when your solar generates energy, and what your priorities are. Then it creates a daily plan: charge your battery when wholesale prices are cheap (often during solar abundance in the middle of the day), discharge to power your home during expensive evening peaks, and export strategically when wholesale prices spike.
This isn't a retailer controlling your battery remotely as part of a fleet. It's intelligent automation serving your household's interests. You can see the plan in your app every day. You can override it whenever you want. You can adjust settings to prioritise different outcomes, like maximising self-sufficiency versus maximising earnings.
Traditional VPPs give you none of that. The retailer operates your battery based on their supply needs and market positions. You have no visibility into why decisions are being made, and you can't override them.
See what your battery's doing (and earning)
In the Amber app, you can watch your battery in real time. You see when it's charging, when it's discharging, when it's exporting to the grid. You see the wholesale price at every moment. You see exactly what you've earned from exports and exactly what you've saved by avoiding high-price grid power.
SmartShift shows you tomorrow's plan before it executes, so you know what to expect. Historical data shows patterns over weeks and months, helping you understand how your battery responds to seasonal changes, weather events, and grid conditions.
Traditional VPPs typically show basic information: your battery's charge level, maybe a monthly summary of how much energy moved in and out. But wholesale prices, export decisions, FCAS participation, and detailed earnings breakdowns remain hidden. You're operating on trust that the retailer's managing things in your interest, with no way to verify.
Smarter use of price volatility – not just grid events
Traditional VPPs primarily respond to specific grid events: times when the market operator or the retailer needs batteries to export or absorb energy quickly. These events matter, but they're relatively rare.
Amber's automation responds to price changes every day. Wholesale prices vary throughout the day based on supply, demand, weather, renewable generation, and other factors. Even on ordinary days with no grid emergencies, you might see prices range from negative 5 cents to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour.
SmartShift captures that variation. It charges your battery when prices drop into negative territory (meaning you're paid to charge). It discharges when prices rise during evening peaks, even if there's no official "event". It exports during shoulder periods when prices are elevated but not extreme.
These daily optimisations compound. Over a year, responding to ordinary price volatility can deliver more value than waiting for occasional grid events.
Who can join Amber for Batteries?
Amber for Batteries uses our SmartShift automation, and is available to customers in New South Wales, South East Queensland, South Australia, and Victoria. You need a compatible battery system and a smart meter installed at your property.
SmartShift currently works with batteries from major brands including Tesla Powerwall 2 and 3, Sungrow, Sigenergy, SolarEdge, Fronius, Enphase, and many others. You can check if your specific model is compatible using our SmartShift compatibility checker.
Batteries aren't just a backup anymore. They're an active financial asset.
A decade ago, home batteries were primarily about backup power during outages. That's still valuable, but it's no longer the main reason to own one.
Today's batteries are financial tools. They store cheap energy and release it when energy is expensive. They provide grid services and earn revenue. They turn your home into an active participant in the electricity market, not just a passive consumer.
The economics have shifted dramatically. Battery prices have dropped by more than 80% since 2010. Wholesale energy prices have become more volatile, creating bigger spreads between cheap and expensive periods. Government rebates reduce upfront costs. And automation technology like SmartShift makes it easy to capture value without constant monitoring or manual intervention.
Customers using SmartShift typically save over $1,000 more per year compared to using a battery in its default mode or connecting to a traditional VPP. That's real money accelerating your battery's payback period.
How Amber puts households first
We're not a traditional energy retailer trying to maximise profit margins on your energy consumption. We charge a flat subscription fee and pass through wholesale prices with no markup. When you use less energy during expensive periods, we don't make more money. When your battery exports during price spikes, we don't take a cut.
Our incentives align with yours: we want you to get maximum value from wholesale market access and smart automation. That's why we provide the transparency, tools, and control that traditional VPPs withhold. Your battery should work for you, not for us.
FAQs: Amber vs traditional VPPs
Q1: Can I leave Amber's program if I'm unhappy?
Yes. There are no lock-in contracts and zero exit fees. You can leave Amber anytime without penalties. This is fundamentally different from traditional VPPs, which often require minimum contract periods of two to five years with exit fees ranging from $200 to over $1,000 if you want to leave early.
Q2: How much control do I have over my battery with Amber?
Complete control. SmartShift creates a daily plan based on wholesale prices and your household patterns, but you can override it whenever you want. You can adjust settings to prioritise self-sufficiency over earnings, or vice versa. You can manually control charging and discharging through your battery's app.
Traditional VPPs operate your battery remotely as part of their fleet. You can't override their decisions, and you often can't even see why your battery is charging or discharging at particular times. Some programs allow you to opt out temporarily during emergencies, but that's about it.
Q3: What's the difference between Amber and a VPP like Origin Loop or AGL?
The biggest differences come down to who benefits and how much transparency you get. Traditional VPPs like Origin Loop pay fixed monthly fees regardless of what your battery earns in the wholesale market or FCAS markets. Amber gives you 100% of wholesale rates when you export, including during price spikes that can reach $19/kWh.
Traditional VPPs control your battery as part of their fleet, making decisions based on the retailer's supply obligations and market positions. Amber's SmartShift automation makes decisions based on maximising value for your household.
Traditional VPPs provide limited transparency about battery activity and earnings. Amber shows real-time pricing, daily plans, and complete transaction history in your app.
Q4: Does joining Amber qualify for the NSW battery rebate?
Yes. If you're in NSW and installing a new compatible battery, you can claim the BESS1 rebate for battery installation. If you connect your battery to Amber's SmartShift automation, you can also claim the BESS2 rebate for VPP participation. Combined, these rebates can provide up to $4,000 in savings. More information about eligibility and how to claim these rebates is available on the NSW government's website and at help.amber.com.au.
Q5: Will Amber drain my battery during peak times?
SmartShift prioritises keeping your home powered first. It learns your household's energy patterns and ensures you have enough battery capacity to cover your needs. Only surplus energy beyond what you're likely to need is available for export.
You can adjust settings if you want to prioritise more self-sufficiency and less export, or vice versa. You maintain control. If you want to manually override the system for any reason, like an approaching storm when you want maximum backup power, you can do that instantly through your battery's app.
