Victoria's free midday power, a month on: how it works

Since 1 October 2026, most Victorian households with a smart meter have been able to ask their retailer for the Midday Power Saver: electricity at $0 a kilowatt-hour from 11am to 2pm every day, up to 24 kWh a day. A month in, the offer is simple to describe and a little trickier to judge, because the free hours are paid for by dearer power at other times. Here is how to tell whether it suits your home.

The rules in plain terms

• Who has to offer it. Licensed retailers with 1,000 or more customers must make the Midday Power Saver available.
• Who can take it. Domestic customers with a smart meter. It is not for small businesses.
• You opt in. Apart from a few limited exceptions, your retailer has to explain the prices and the risk that you could pay more if your usage does not suit it, get your explicit consent, and let you withdraw within 10 business days.
• The cap. Up to 24 kWh is free in each daily window. Anything over that, inside the window, can be charged at no more than the solar soak rate.
• Controlled load stays as it is. An off-peak hot water or slab heating circuit on a separate tariff is not part of the offer.

The four time bands and the price caps

The Midday Power Saver splits the day into four periods. These are the maximum prices retailers may charge from 1 October 2026 to 30 June 2027 (including GST). Retailers can charge less.

If your bill shows Powercor as your distributor:

• Off-peak, 9pm to 11am: 24.62c per kWh
• Free, 11am to 2pm: 0c
• Solar soak, 2pm to 4pm: 19.39c per kWh
• Peak, 4pm to 9pm: 43.81c per kWh
• Supply charge: $1.3805 a day

If your bill shows Jemena:

• Off-peak, 9pm to 11am: 23.94c per kWh
• Free, 11am to 2pm: 0c
• Solar soak, 2pm to 4pm: 19.83c per kWh
• Peak, 4pm to 9pm: 39.75c per kWh
• Supply charge: $1.2712 a day

The government is upfront that prices outside the free window, and the supply charge, may be higher than on other offers. If most of your power goes on dinner, heating and the television, that matters more than the free hours.

If you do not have solar

This is the household the offer was built for, provided someone can move their usage into the middle of the day. Dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, electric hot water, pool pump and EV charging can all run on timers between 11am and 2pm, whether you are home or not. Working from home helps.

The Victorian Government's own estimate is that households could save between $149 and $428 if they shift 5% to 30% of their use into the free window. It is just as clear about the flip side: if you cannot shift your use, you may pay more, and another offer could be cheaper. Run your last bill through Victorian Energy Compare, the government's free comparison site, before you switch.

If you have solar but no battery

Your panels are already covering a lot of your midday use for free, so the window adds less than it does for a home without solar. Where it helps is on grey winter days, when the panels cannot keep up with the house.

The bigger question is what you are paid for exports. The government order that created the Midday Power Saver sets the usage prices; it does not set a feed-in tariff. Ask the retailer what, if anything, they pay for solar you send to the grid on this offer, and weigh that against your current plan. With the evening peak capped at 43.81c on Powercor, every kilowatt-hour you can move out of the evening counts.

If you have a battery (or are thinking about one)

This is where the offer gets interesting. On sunny days your panels fill the battery as usual. On cloudy days, you can top the battery up from the grid between 11am and 2pm at no charge, then run the house from it through the 4pm to 9pm peak. The government's own guidance points to exactly this use.

Two cautions:

1. The 24 kWh cap covers everything in the window. If the battery, the EV charger and the dryer all run between 11am and 2pm, they share the same 24 kWh before the excess rate applies.
2. Spread the big loads. The government advises staggering batteries, EV chargers and other heavy appliances across the three hours rather than running them together, to avoid tripping breakers. If your switchboard is older and has not had a safety check, speak to a licensed electrician first.

Check that your battery can be set to charge from the grid in a chosen window before you sign up. Not every system makes that easy.

What happens next

These prices run to 30 June 2027. From 1 July 2027 the Essential Services Commission will set the Midday Power Saver prices each year, and the 24 kWh cap stays unless the Commission decides otherwise.

If you want to know whether a battery would let you make proper use of the free window, start with our home batteries page.