With limited details about the announced New South Wales solar battery rebate, many solar shoppers are left wondering if their home is eligible.
At Penrith Solar Centre, we’ve been installing solar batteries for years. We understand the ins and outs of the industry, including the upcoming NSW battery rebate. It’s what we do.
In this article, you will learn:
- What is the NSW Battery Rebate?
- Who is Eligible for the NSW Battery Rebate?
- Who is NOT Eligible for the NSW Battery Rebate?
- How to Receive the NSW Battery Rebate
By the end of this article, you’ll know if you’re eligible for the rebate and how to collect it.
What is the NSW Battery Rebate?
Starting November 1, 2024, homeowners and businesses in New South Wales (NSW) will have access to new battery rebates under the Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS). This is great news for anyone looking to install a new battery or connect an existing battery to a Virtual Power Plant (VPP).
How the NSW Battery Rebate Works
When you install a battery that helps reduce or shift energy use during peak times, it earns what’s called a Peak Demand Reduction Certificate (PRC).
For every 0.1 kW of energy saved during peak hours, you earn one PRC. These certificates can then be sold to energy retailers. Those retailers need to buy these certificates to meet their yearly environmental obligations.
Essentially, the more energy your battery helps save, the more PRCs you can generate, and the more valuable your battery becomes over time.
The rebate incentive is not given to you directly. Instead, it’s applied as an upfront discount by Penrith Solar Centre.
Additional Rebate/Incentive
Even if you don’t qualify for the upfront NSW battery rebate, you might still be eligible for another incentive. For example, connecting your battery to a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) could qualify you for the VPP rebate, which offer rewards based on the energy your battery provides back to the grid during high-demand periods. Your VPP provider handles all this.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about the specs of the upcoming solar battery rebate, you might want to check out the following article titled, Everything You Need to Know About the Home Battery Rebate for NSW.
Who is Eligible for the NSW Battery Rebate?
Under the new scheme, you can earn PRCs if you install batteries in the following ways:
- Installing a brand-new battery at your home, even if it’s not connected to a Virtual Power Plant (VPP).
- Installing a new battery that is connected to a VPP.
- Connecting an already installed battery to a VPP for the first time.
The focus here is on creating more battery storage at new locations. While that might feel a bit unfair to early adopters with ineligible batteries, the goal of the scheme is to encourage more homes and businesses to get onboard with battery storage, helping the grid reduce peak energy demand.
To qualify for the battery rebate, new battery installations must meet these requirements:
- Only customers who already have a solar system or are installing one can apply.
- The property must not currently have a battery installed, and eligibility for each address is determined by the National Meter Identifier (NMI).
- The battery needs to be on an approved product list (still pending).
- Eligible batteries must have a capacity between 2kWh and 28kWh.
- The battery must be able to connect to a Virtual Power Plant (VPP).
- There must be at least 6 years left on the battery’s warranty to collect the VPP rebate.
NSW has announced that customers could potentially save up to $2,400 off the upfront cost and get as much as $400 as a cashback incentive for connecting to a VPP. VPP customers with a battery are eligible for this rebate again after three years.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about VPPs, you might want to check out the following article titled, What is a Virtual Power Plant (VPP)?
Who is NOT Eligible for the NSW Battery Rebate?
It’s important to know that the rebate is only available for new battery sites. So, if you already have a battery and were hoping to get a rebate for adding another one, you won’t qualify under this scheme.
So, for folks who have a battery and are really excited about adding on another, they’re actually not eligible to claim the rebate. It’s for new battery sites only, which we think is really disappointing.
The scheme was designed to get more storage on the network, and they’ve looked at it as storage per street address. We feel they should have looked at it from a capacity point of view. That’s how we would have approached it.
It’s extremely disappointing for these early adopters. With such strict limitations around the rebate, opportunities are lost for people who already have a battery. It’s going to close doors for many and make a lot of people salty who did the right thing by investing in batteries early.
The priority is getting Australia to Net Zero by 2050, and tightening conditions when they should be loosened is a step backward. So, that’s going to be a bit of a challenge in this scheme.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about the benefits of solar batteries, you might want to start with the following article titled, 7 Benefits of Adding a Battery to Your Solar System.
Wrapping Things Up: How to Collect the NSW Battery Rebate
If you’re considering installing a new battery in NSW, now’s a great time to take advantage of these new battery rebates under the PDRS. Make sure to talk with an installer like Penrith Solar Centre, who can make sure you get the most out of these incentives.
Whether you’re installing a new battery or connecting an existing one to a VPP, these rebates can help you save money and support a more sustainable energy future.
If you’d like to learn more about Tesla products, we recommend you check out the following article titled, Tesla Powerwall 3 Review: An In-Depth Look at Tesla’s New Solar Battery.
