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So, you have rooftop solar, you’ve got a battery, and you’re enjoying the benefits of generating your own energy. Nice one.
With Amber, you can take your savings to the next level while making sure your solar + battery are playing their part in accelerating Australia’s shift to 100% renewables.
Households with a home battery are the perfect fit for Amber’s wholesale electricity model. That's because most houses with a battery tend to only need power from the grid at off-peak times when energy demand is at its lowest and wholesale electricity prices are cheapest.
At times when wholesale electricity prices rise, Amber customers with a battery can use their stored
power to easily avoid higher prices, with no load shifting needed.
The battery benefits can get even better with SmartShift™, Amber’s newest technology that puts your battery on autopilot. Whether you have solar or not, SmartShift can optimise your battery so that it automatically charges from the grid when wholesale prices are low, and exports your solar energy to the grid when wholesale prices are high.
⬇️ By charging your battery when wholesale prices are negative and renewables are generating, you save on your everyday electricity costs and use even more green energy.
⬆️ By export when wholesale prices are at their highest and the grid needs more renewables, you’re getting the best price for the solar power you’re generating and helping to support Australia’s energy grid.
We’ve just finished a successful trial of SmartShift in South Australia, where Amber customers with SmartShift for batteries saw annual savings of a further $200-400 on their already reduced annual Amber energy bills.
Now we’re launching SmartShift™ to Amber customers with a Tesla Powerwall, or a LG Resu
battery with the Solar Edge inverter.
Amber's real-time FiT is designed to enable the future of rooftop solar in Australia. The wholesale FiT varies every 30 minutes along with the true market value of power in your local area. This means you'll earn more for your solar exports at times when the grid needs it most.
But this wholesale pricing model isn’t for everyone - and we like to be upfront about that. When the grid has enough supply, your real time feed-in tariff (FiT) will drop. The wholesale FiT that Amber passes onto its customers is typically lower than most retailers’ FiTs, which are subsidised using the markup retailers charge on customers’ energy usage.
In sum, if you’re a solar owner who uses more power from the grid than you export, Amber's likely to be a
good fit for you. If you have a larger solar system and export more power than you import, you may be better
off with a fixed retail feed-in tariff.
Throughout the year we'll pay you the true wholesale value of your solar exports, which can be lower or higher than the Victorian government minimum feed-in tariff depending on the times when you export. At EOFY we’ll apply our annual bill guarantee to make sure you’ve earned the government minimum for your exports.
Understand our annual bill guarantee
In sum, if you’re a solar owner who uses more power from the grid than you export, Amber's likely to be a
good fit for you. If you have a larger solar system and export more power than you import, you may be better
off with a fixed retail feed-in tariff.
Amber was founded by climate activist Dan Adams and techie mate Chris Thompson to solve the biggest problem holding Australia back from reaching 100% renewable energy: making it easier and rewarding for more Aussies to use more green energy and act on climate change. While other green energy providers focus on offsetting your fossil fuel energy use, we’re laser-focused on helping you reduce your fossil fuel use in the first place.
Right now, for anyone on a traditional retail energy plan - even a green energy plan - it’s very hard to actually use more green energy. We all draw power from the same grid and traditional plans don’t provide you with the tools you need - for example, live wholesale energy prices that drop when there’s more green energy in the grid, and the % of renewable energy in real time. Amber empowers you to make a choice.
All energy retailers buy their electricity from the same wholesale electricity market, where prices are set every 30 minutes by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). The wholesale price is the true price for your usage that Amber (and other retailers) have to pay to provide you energy.
It’s normal for the wholesale price to fluctuate up or down in each 30 minute period depending on supply and demand, encouraging more power generation when the grid needs it, and less when it doesn’t.
The wholesale price that Amber passes through includes wholesale energy costs (which vary every 30 mins), hedging costs (a small fee to cover the cost of offering our Amber price guarantee), the rates charged by your local network (who own the poles and wires), metering costs and regulated charges for environmental schemes and market operations. We also add on a carbon offset to make your energy use carbon neutral.
Amber makes nothing at all from your energy usage. Our $19/month subscription fee is our only margin for running Amber.
Check out this explainer to learn more about what drives the wholesale price up and down. You can find out more about what your bill with Amber would include here.
While Amber offers the same 100% Carbon Neutral and GreenPower plans as other electricity providers, our model goes a step further than the rest. For a $19 a month subscription, you get access to wholesale electricity prices and the Amber app which enable you to shift more of your energy use to when power is both greener and cheaper.
Unlike other energy retailers who charge a mark-up on the energy you use, Amber makes exactly $0 on your energy usage and empowers you to go beyond offsetting. We’re so committed to our mission that the monthly fee is the only revenue we generate to run the business.
