What is the Victorian Midday Power Saver?
The Victorian Midday Power Saver is a state government scheme that gives eligible households three hours of free electricity from 11am to 2pm, every day of the year including weekends. It was announced in March 2026 and starts on 1 October 2026, with tariffs regulated by the Essential Services Commission (ESC).
The idea is simple: Victoria's grid is flooded with cheap rooftop solar in the middle of the day, often pushing wholesale prices to zero or below. The scheme passes that midday glut on to households as free power, and encourages people to shift usage away from the expensive evening peak.
The key details at a glance
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Free window | 11am to 2pm, every day (same across all five Victorian distribution zones) |
| Start date | 1 October 2026 (first cycle runs to 30 June 2027, then set annually) |
| Fair use cap | 24 kWh per day free during the window; usage above the cap is charged |
| Eligibility | Victorian households with a smart meter, with a retailer that has 1,000+ customers. Renters included. No solar required. |
| How to join | Opt-in only. Contact your retailer from 1 October 2026. Retailers with 1,000+ customers must offer it. |
| Rates outside the window | Higher than the standard Victorian Default Offer, to recover the cost of the free window |
| Supply charge | Still applies every day |
| Controlled load | Not free (off-peak hot water circuits are charged normally) |
How the free window actually works
Between 11am and 2pm, every kWh you draw from the grid costs nothing, up to 24 kWh per day. To put that cap in context, the average Victorian household uses around 15 to 16 kWh across a whole day, so most homes will never touch it. The main exception is EV owners: a 7 kW home charger running for the full three hours draws 21 kWh, which gets close to the cap on its own.
Outside the window, you pay a Midday Power Saver tariff that the ESC sets based on the Victorian Default Offer, with a relative increase to the rates outside the free period. That is the trade you are making: free power at lunchtime in exchange for paying more in the morning and evening. Your daily supply charge is unchanged and still applies.
Signing up requires explicit informed consent. Your retailer must explain the bill impact, give you a dollar estimate where possible, and flag if another plan would suit you better.
How much can you save?
The Victorian Government's own modelling estimates savings of $149 to $428 per year for typical households, assuming they shift between 5% and 30% of their usage into the free window. Households with a home battery can do much better: charging the battery for free at midday and running the house off it through the evening peak adds an estimated $674 per year, for a total of up to $1,102.
Those numbers hinge entirely on the "shift" assumption. If you sign up but keep using electricity exactly the way you do now, mostly in the morning and evening, the higher rates outside the window can eat the entire benefit and leave you worse off.
Will free power actually save you money?
Run your own numbers in 60 seconds with our free power savings calculator, built for the Victorian scheme.
Calculate my savingsWho should sign up (and who should not)
Strong candidates: households with a home battery (the biggest winners by far), EV owners who can charge during the day, people home during the day who can run washing, dishwashing, pool pumps and pre-heat or pre-cool the house between 11am and 2pm, and homes with electric hot water on a timer that can reheat in the window.
Think twice if: everyone is out from 8am to 6pm and most of your usage lands in the evening peak, your total usage is low (the free window saves you little, and higher rates plus the supply charge dominate), or you have solar without a battery. On sunny days your panels already cover the 11am to 2pm period, so free grid power mostly displaces exports worth only a few cents per kWh. The government's own FAQ notes the biggest benefit for solar homes comes from pairing the scheme with a battery or EV.
Our take
This is a better-designed scheme than most commercial "free hours" plans, because the ESC regulates what retailers can charge outside the window. But it is still a time-of-use bet: you are buying free lunchtime power with more expensive mornings and evenings.
Our rule of thumb: if you can genuinely shift 5 kWh or more per day into the window, or you have a battery or EV, sign up. If you are a two-income household out all day with no battery, no EV and no timers, the maths rarely works, and a plan with low flat rates will likely beat it. Run the numbers before you commit, and remember the offer is opt-in, so nothing changes unless you ask.
How to sign up
From 1 October 2026, contact your electricity retailer and ask for the Victorian Midday Power Saver. Every retailer with 1,000 or more Victorian customers is required to offer it. You will need a smart meter; if you do not have one, ask your retailer to arrange an upgrade. Before you agree, ask the retailer for their dollar estimate of your bill impact and compare it against your current plan on Victorian Energy Compare.
Note that the scheme does not stop retailers offering their own free-power market deals, so it is worth checking whether a commercial offer (or a plain low-rate plan) beats the regulated version for your usage pattern.