A packed room at Hardys Bay Community Club heard the case — and the catches — behind the new Solar Sharer Offer at Electrify Bouddi’s community forum on 23 July.
The Solar Sharer Offer (SSO) is a new tariff option now available from all major electricity retailers, giving customers three hours of free electricity every day between 11am and 2pm.
The idea behind SSO is simple: rooftop and grid solar now produce huge amounts of power in the middle of the day, well before the evening peak when most households actually use the most electricity. Shifting some of that demand into the sunny window — via EV charging, home battery top-ups, hot water systems, pool pumps, laundry or cooking — eases pressure on the grid at peak times, which keeps network costs down for everyone, solar owners and renters alike.
But the forum’s key message was “check before you switch.” Up to 24kWh is free in the window — a genuinely large amount of energy — but retailers typically offset this with higher peak-rate pricing outside the window and noticeably higher daily standing charges. Households with a battery, EV, or the flexibility to run appliances during the day stand to benefit most; those without much flexible daytime demand may end up worse off.
Attendees were encouraged to explore other tariff options using the Australian Government’s free Energy Made Easy comparison tool (energymadeeasy.gov.au) — using the NMI from a recent bill — to compare an SSO plan honestly against their current one, rather than relying on a retailer’s own marketing.
Missed the forum? You can see the slides here. A video of the night will be available shortly.