Solar Sharer in NSW: 3 Hours of Free Electricity Explained

What is the Solar Sharer Offer?

The Solar Sharer Offer (SSO) is a federal scheme that gives households three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day, when rooftop solar floods the grid and wholesale prices regularly fall to zero or below. It was announced in November 2025 by Energy Minister Chris Bowen and went live on 1 July 2026 across NSW, south-east Queensland and South Australia, with the government flagging a possible extension to other jurisdictions by 2027.

Unlike the commercial "free hours" plans retailers have sold for years, the SSO is a regulated standing offer. It is mandated through the Australian Energy Regulator’s DMO 8 determination, and every retailer with 1,000 or more customers in DMO regions must offer at least one compliant plan. In NSW the free window runs from 11am to 2pm.

The key details at a glance

Feature	Detail
Free window (NSW)	11am to 2pm, every day. Fixed year-round, no daylight-saving shift
Start date	1 July 2026 (mandated via the AER’s DMO 8 determination)
Free cap	24 kWh per day during the window; above-cap usage billed at a "reasonable usage charge"
Eligibility	Residential customers with a smart meter. Renters and non-solar homes included. No smart meter? You can request one and your retailer must supply it
How to join	Opt-in only. Ask your retailer for their Solar Sharer plan
Rates outside the window	Priced like the DMO time-of-use tariff. ECA found peak rates over 60c/kWh on Ausgrid
Supply charge	Full daily supply charge still applies
Controlled load	Charged normally (not free)

How the free window works in NSW

Between 11am and 2pm, every kWh you draw from the grid is free, up to 24 kWh per day. That cap is generous: most NSW homes use less than that across an entire day, so in practice only EV owners get near it. A 7 kW home charger running for the full three hours draws 21 kWh, all of it free.

The window does not move with daylight saving. It is 11am to 2pm on the clock all year, which means in summer it sits slightly earlier relative to solar noon, but the free hours themselves never change.

Outside the window is where the trade-off lives. The SSO is priced like the DMO time-of-use tariff, so you pay materially higher rates in the morning and evening than a decent flat-rate market plan. Retailers are required to warn you the offer may not suit you before you sign, and the usual Better Offer check still lands on your bill every 100 days, telling you if a cheaper plan exists.

Will it actually save you money?

Energy Consumers Australia modelled the SSO for a typical Ausgrid household using 20 kWh a day with a bill of roughly $2,800 a year, and the results are a warning label. A household that shifts 30% of its usage into the free window but still keeps 40% of it in the 3pm to 9pm peak ends up about $320 a year worse off. The same household that shifts 30% into the free window and cuts peak usage to just 20% comes out about $210 a year better off.

In other words, the free hours are not enough on their own. What you do between 3pm and 9pm decides the outcome. ECA also points out that because the SSO is regulated standing-offer pricing, it is often dearer than competitive market plans anyway. As a July 2026 comparison, Origin’s Variable Go plan on the Ausgrid network charged a flat 34c/kWh with an $0.89 daily supply charge, against SSO peak rates north of 60c/kWh.

For context, the DMO 8 reference bills from 1 July 2026 fell across NSW: Ausgrid $1,899 (down 3.4%), Endeavour $2,328 (down 3.4%) and Essential $2,604 (down 5.0%). A falling benchmark makes it even more important to compare the SSO against ordinary market offers before opting in.

Who should sign up (and who should not)

Strong candidates: battery owners are the clear winners, charging for free at midday and running the house off the battery through the evening peak. EV owners who can charge between 11am and 2pm do well too. So do people home during the day who can run washing, dishwashers and pool pumps in the window and pre-heat or pre-cool the house before the peak begins.

Think twice if: your household is out from 8am to 6pm and most usage lands in the evening, because the ECA numbers above show exactly how that ends. Solar-only homes gain the least: your panels already cover midday usage, and the free window mostly displaces exports worth roughly 0 to 5c/kWh (the non-binding NSW IPART benchmark for 2026-27 is 3.4 to 6.5c). Low-usage households also struggle, because the supply charge and higher off-window rates dominate a small bill.

How to sign up, and which retailers offer it

Contact your retailer and ask for their Solar Sharer plan. As at July 2026, participating retailers include Origin (as "Origin Standing Solar Sharer"), AGL, Red Energy, Engie, Dodo, OVO, Sumo and Energy Locals. EnergyAustralia missed the 1 July deadline and is expected to launch around September 2026, after Minister Bowen threatened the "full force of regulation". You will need a smart meter; if you do not have one, request it and your retailer must supply it.

Before you commit, compare the SSO against ordinary market plans at your address on Energy Made Easy, the government comparison site. Also weigh the commercial free-power alternatives available in NSW: OVO’s "The Free 3" (11am to 2pm daily), GloBird’s FOUR4FREE (10am to 2pm), Red Energy’s free weekend hours (12pm to 2pm Saturday and Sunday), and Amber Electric’s wholesale pass-through, where midday prices are often near zero or negative. Commercial plans are unregulated outside the window, so read the full rate card before switching.