The trade you are actually making
Every free power offer, whether it is the regulated Victorian Midday Power Saver, the federal Solar Sharer Offer or a commercial plan like OVO Free 3, works the same way underneath. You get a daily window (usually three hours in the middle of the day) where grid electricity costs nothing, up to a fair use cap of 24 kWh per day. In exchange, the rates you pay outside that window are set higher than a comparable standard plan, and your daily supply charge is completely unchanged.
Nothing about the deal is hidden, but the framing does a lot of work. "Free electricity" is the headline; "you will pay more from 3pm to 9pm" is the fine print. On the Solar Sharer standing offer, peak rates can top 60c/kWh, roughly double a decent flat-rate plan. If your household keeps using electricity exactly the way it does now, that higher peak rate quietly eats the free window and then some.
The rule of thumb: shift 5 to 6 kWh a day, or walk away
SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock has a useful shortcut: to come out ahead on a free-hours plan, you need to shift roughly 5 to 6 kWh or more per day into the window. Less than that and the higher rates outside the window are likely to swallow the benefit.
What does 5 to 6 kWh look like in practice? A dishwasher cycle, a load of washing, a full electric hot water reheat and a couple of hours of pool pump gets you there on a busy day. A battery or an EV charging during the window blows past it without any effort at all, which is exactly why those households dominate the winners column below.
What the independent modelling shows
Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) modelled the Solar Sharer Offer for a typical Ausgrid household using 20 kWh a day with an annual bill of about $2,800. The results cut both ways:
- A household that puts 30% of its usage in the free window but 40% in the 3pm to 9pm peak ends up around $320 a year worse off than on a competitive market plan.
- The same household that keeps 30% in the window but trims peak usage to 20% comes out around $210 a year better off.
Same house, same total consumption, a $530 swing. The difference is entirely in when the electricity gets used. That is the whole game.
Winners and losers
| Likely winners | Likely losers |
|---|---|
| Battery owners — charge free at midday, discharge through the evening peak. Victorian estimates run to $1,102/yr all up. | Out-all-day, evening-heavy households — the higher peak rates hit exactly when you use power. |
| EV owners home during the day — a 7 kW charger takes on 21 kWh free in a three-hour window. | Low-usage households — supply charges dominate small bills, and the free window barely moves the needle. |
| Work-from-home households — naturally high midday usage, easy to schedule appliances. | Solar-without-battery owners — panels already cover midday; free grid power mostly displaces exports worth 0 to 5c/kWh. |
| Pool owners and electric hot water on timers — big, flexible loads that shift with a timer. | Anyone who will not change habits — if nothing shifts, you just bought higher rates. |
Regulated schemes vs commercial plans
There are now two families of free power offer, and the difference matters. The regulated versions are the Victorian Midday Power Saver (11am to 2pm, from 1 October 2026) and the federal Solar Sharer Offer (live 1 July 2026 in NSW, south-east Queensland and SA). Their outside-window rates are overseen by the Essential Services Commission and the Australian Energy Regulator respectively, which caps how hard retailers can claw the free window back.
Commercial plans came first and set their own terms: OVO Free 3, GloBird FOUR4FREE (10am to 2pm), AGL Three for Free in SA (10am to 1pm) and Red Energy weekend free hours. Some are genuinely competitive, but nobody regulates what they charge outside the window, so the whole plan has to be judged rate by rate, not on the free hours alone.
Both families share the same guardrails: a 24 kWh daily cap on free usage, a smart meter requirement, and opt-in only sign-up. Retailers offering the regulated schemes must also warn you if the plan is unlikely to suit your usage. Take that warning seriously; it exists because the maths genuinely does not work for a lot of households.
Run your own numbers first
Our free power savings calculator estimates whether a free window beats your current plan, based on how much you can realistically shift.
Calculate my savingsFive questions to ask before you switch
- Can I shift at least 5 to 6 kWh a day into the window? Be honest. Delay-start buttons and timers count; good intentions do not.
- What are the rates outside the window? Ask for the exact peak and shoulder rates and compare them to your current plan, not to the default offer.
- What share of my usage lands between 3pm and 9pm? Check a recent bill or your retailer app. Above about 30 to 40%, the ECA modelling says be careful.
- Do I have solar without a battery? If so, the free window mostly duplicates what your panels already do, and displaced exports are only worth 0 to 5c/kWh.
- Does a cheap flat-rate plan beat it anyway? Often it does. In July 2026, Origin Variable Go on the Ausgrid network was around 34c/kWh flat with an 89c daily charge — hard to beat if you cannot shift much.
Our take
Free power windows are a genuinely good deal for a specific kind of household: one with a battery, an EV, or big flexible loads and someone home to run them. For everyone else, they are a time-of-use bet dressed in better marketing.
If you cannot confidently name 5 kWh of daily usage you will move into the window, skip the free hours and get the cheapest flat or time-of-use rates you can find. Check your options on Victorian Energy Compare or Energy Made Easy before signing anything, and remember these offers are opt-in, so nothing changes until you ask.