Solar export limits by region
Back in April of 2024 we tracked down the solar export limits for every region of Australia to figure out how much solar homes are actually allowed to sell to the grid. For some its a lot!
Sam Bendat
Updated: August 20, 2024
How much solar energy is a home allowed to sell for credits?
In each part of the country homeowners are limited to the amount of solar energy they can export back to the grid.
Solar energy export limits by region
In each region the distributors cap how much energy can be sold for credits. A distributor is the company that owns the poles and electrical wires on your street.
These distributors cap your solar energy exports into the grid at certain levels, trying to balance the huge electrical grids we're connected to.
Below I tried to encapsulate the almost infinite variations in export limits into a simple cheat sheet for each distributor in the country, excluding WA and NT.
A single phase means you have one single electrical circuit in your home. Most homes are single-phased, and you'd probably know if you had more. Most distributors will allow you to export more energy the more phases you have.
The most common is that a single phase is limited to 5kW, and then a three-phase is limited to 15kW. Two-phase homes are possible as well.
The export limits are constantly changing as the energy grid evolves. States continue to pass rules and regulations on what is and isn't allowed when it comes to export limiting. VIC just passed a new rule that allows up to 10kW per phase!
But be careful. Some distributors currently don't allow homes with more phases to export more solar energy! Looking at you, Essential and Powercor.
Almost no two councils and cities in a region are the same
There are a lot of caveats that come with the above data points, a lot of homes with the same distributor will have totally different limits set. It depends on where you are and what your distributor will allow.
For example, homes within the Essential Energy region can be wildly different. In talking to a few people, I found some homes are capped at 0kW, as they can't export anything. Other homes are allowed to go up to 5kW. Then even some homes with three-phased homes are also capped at 5kW!
So, if you think that there is a chance you are going to hit your export limits with your solar system, make sure you do your homework and ask your installer!
In many regions, homeowners need to submit applications to increase their solar export limits, which can become a very case-by-case situation.
Export limits don't matter too much so don't get too scared
In the grand scheme of your solar system and the energy usage of your home the odds of you hitting the export limit often are small. Also, if you do hit your limit, it will be a small marginal portion of your total solar energy.
That's not to say you should buy a huge solar system without considering the export limits. Just be mindful that limits exist.
Any decent installer should be up to date with the distributor's limits and help you plan accordingly.
Forecasting your solar energy with the export limits built in
Soon, the SolvingZero app will have options to set the export limit on a proposed solar system for your home. We can also automatically set this for you without the need to guess!
This will help homeowners forecast how much solar is too much solar before they install the system.
This could save homeowners thousands on their solar system, helping them install the solar system that suits their wants and needs.
We haven't built this feature yet, but we have it on the roadmap! If it's something you're interested in, let us know, and we can move it up the list!
Right now, we can use the data from your smart meter in your home to read your energy consumption and then use that to forecast what home energy upgrades would be best for your home.
Reach out to get access to the app and your data, and let's chat!