Rebates & Policy
Victoria scrapped the minimum feed-in tariff. Now what?
For fifteen years Victorian solar owners could count on a regulated floor price for exports. Since 1 July 2025 there is none. Here is what changed, why, and what to do about it.
Published 24 September 2026 · Facts last verified 24 September 2026
Key points
- Victoria has had no minimum feed-in tariff since 1 July 2025: retailers set their own rates, which cannot go below zero.
- In 2023–24, the last time-varying minimums set by the Essential Services Commission ranged from 3.9 to 11.3 cents per kWh, depending on the time of day.
- A regulated minimum reflects what midday power is worth, and four million solar rooftops have made midday power worth roughly nothing.
- With a near-zero feed-in tariff, the value is in using your own solar: shift usage into daylight, or store the surplus for the evening.
The Essential Services Commission no longer sets a minimum feed-in tariff in Victoria. Following an amendment to the Electricity Industry Act, from 1 July 2025 retailers set their own feed-in rates — the only rule is that a rate cannot be below zero. Some retailers pay a cent or two per kilowatt-hour; some pay effectively nothing.
How we got here
| Era | What exports earned |
|---|---|
| Early premium schemes (closed to new entrants long ago) | Generous legacy rates, for a shrinking group of early adopters |
| 2023–24 (last time-varying minimums) | 3.9 to 11.3 cents per kWh, set by the ESC |
| 2024–25 | The final year a minimum applied |
| From 1 July 2025 | No minimum — retailer-set, floored at $0.00 |
Why it happened
Not politics — physics and arithmetic. A feed-in tariff reflects what daytime electricity is worth in the wholesale market, and four million solar rooftops have made Australian middays the cheapest electricity in the market’s history. In the December 2025 quarter, minimum-demand records fell across the grid — Victoria’s demand hit a record-low 1,287 MW — and wholesale prices routinely go negative in the middle of sunny days. A regulated minimum was floored at what midday power is worth, and midday power is now worth roughly nothing.
What to do about a near-zero feed-in tariff
- Compare feed-in rates, but do not chase them. A retailer paying 2 cents more on exports while charging 4 cents more on usage is not a better deal. Compare the whole plan.
- Shift usage into daylight. Dishwasher, washing, hot water timers, pool pumps, EV charging — every kilowatt-hour moved to noon is bought from your own roof at zero instead of the grid at peak.
- Store the surplus. This is the change that made batteries a different conversation: the same exported kilowatt-hour that earns nothing saves the full retail rate when used at 7pm. We run that arithmetic honestly here.
A battery is not automatically the answer — it has to fit your evening usage, not the rebate. But the feed-in change is the single biggest reason the answer is yes more often than it used to be.
One caution: any pre-2025 article, calculator or sales pitch quoting a “Victorian minimum feed-in tariff” is describing rules that no longer exist. Check the date on anything you read about this — including ours, which is why the verification date is at the top of this page.
Sources: Essential Services Commission — minimum feed-in tariff · AEMO — Q4 2025
Every figure on this page is checked against its primary source before publication. If a program or market figure changes, this page is updated and the verification date above moves with it.
Work out where your exports should go
Two minutes with the eligibility check covers the battery programs; the configurator sizes storage to your actual evenings.
