1. SCT Certificates – federal government (~$17,000)

The discount is claimed by your installer, and taken off your installation bill.

This is the federal battery rebate program. You can claim these for up to 50kWh of batteries. If you get over 50kWh of batteries you can still claim, but it’s capped at 50 kWh. It’s called the ‘Cheaper Home Batteries Program’

https://www.dcceew.gov.au/energy/programs/cheaper-home-batteries

e.g. 2026. 8.4 STC/kWh, $35-$40 per STC

2. Virtual Power Plant incentive ($1015)

This must be claimed within 90 days of first connecting to a VPP in NSW.

(Only for batteries under 28kWh)

This is a one off payment of up to $1015 when you first connect to a VPP. You don’t need to stay with the VPP. After you receive the rebate you can change VPP or cancel your VPP.

This rebate is only available if your batteries are under 28kWh. If you get over 28kWh of batteries you cannot claim any rebate. (If you get 28kWh of battery, the rebate is $1015. If you get 29 kWh of battery, the rebate is $0).

3. VPP connection (~$200 one off)

This comes from your provider off your Bill.

This is the money an electricity provider pays you for being able to control your battery and take some power during peak times. They usually pay an annual fee for you to be connected to their VPP. This is what they pay you to be connected to their VPP, even if you export nothing. It’s like a subscription fee for them to subscribe to power form you.

Some Example Prices as of Feb 2026.

Origin Loop $200 credit

AGL $200 Credit plus $20 per quarter.

Engie $200 credit plus $20 per month

Energy Australia $15 per month

4. VPP Export Bonus (~$200 yearly)

This comes from your provider off your Bill.

Some providers also pay you a bonus for the electricity you export while on a VPP. Note: depending on the plan and time of day, you may get a feed in tariff for the power you sell, e.g. 6 cents per kWh. This is a bonus on top of that rate.

Origin $1/kWh during ‘Loop Events’ (capped at $200).

AGL $1/kWh (Capped at $250)

5. VPP Incentives ($300 – $600 yearly)

This comes from your provider off your Bill.

Some providers provide incentives to not use power during certain periods, eg if your overall usage is 0 during a time period.

AGL $600 bill credits if you overall export between 5-9pm.

GloBird ZeroHero $1 per day if you overall export between 6-8pm

Summary. There are 5 different kinds of payments you get for VPP, Government rebate on signup, provider bonus on signup, ongoing payment from company for staying connected, payment when you export in certain times, payment for not using any power in certain times. This is on top of any payment you already get for your feed-in tariff. It sounds a lot, but overall I’ve found they barely cover the monthly supply cost, if at all.

6. Referral Credits

This comes from your provider off your Bill.

This is an interesting one. When I went to sign up for Amber Electricity, it asked me for a ‘promo code’. I did a google search and found a code that gave me a discount of $10 per month off my bill.
But then when I signed up to Amber, they gave me a code that I could share with others. I don’t like flooding the internet with referral codes, so I didn’t post it to my facebook! But I did post it to the forum where I got my code from here, the Aussie referral links page on Reddit. I made back $80 on my bill. (9 people used my link!)

Amber $10 per month (Your own link is only available in the Amber app) e.g. https://mates.amber.com.au/MEQWVKKP

Globird $50 one off https://www.globirdenergy.com.au/refer/

Origin $50 one off https://www.originenergy.com.au/rewards/refer-a-friend/

7. Family Energy Rebate ($180)

Apply Online through Service NSW

For completeness I’ll list these even though they are not for battery. If you get Family Tax Benefit, there’s a rebate of $180 per year available off your electricity bill here:

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-for-the-family-energy-rebate-retail-customers

7. Low Income Help ($285)

Apply though your electircity provider.
If you hold a Health care card there is a $285 Household Rebate upon giving your Centrellink CRN to your electricity provider.

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-for-the-low-income-household-rebate-retail-customers

Very nice installation by green.com.au and I’d recommend a solar install from them. We got 4x 13kW Alpha ESS battery modules. Ring ‭0485 977 502‬ and talk to Jack.

No affiliate links or commissions, I just love their work.

It’s very hard today to find contractors who take pride in their work and do the best job they can. These installers went above and beyond. I’m very happy with the professionalism of their install.

Problem with the NSW regulations

It’s the second day of my battery and I tried to set it up to charge during the day, then discharge back into the grid at night so as to boost the grid in the evening. It would not work. A quick search revealed this is the same case for everyone. From what I can work out, this feature is disabled in Australia so that you cannot set your battery to discharge during certain hours. It will only discharge when you are using it, you cannot set it to discharge into the grid. Very disappointing.

A kind of Solution: VPP

Today I signed up to Amber Energy, they supposedly allow you to discharge into the grid under a VPP (Virtual Power Plant) system. I’d prefer to retain control and charge and discharge when I want, but this seems to be the only way to do it You sign up to a VPP and they take control of your battery. I’ll post here as to whether it works or not.

In case it’s good, here’s a code I got to make $10 if I refer other people and they also get $10 off a month. If you use Amber feel free to use it.
HD3JGM7T
Give me a few days and I’ll let you know if it’s worth it.