Three free hours.

01What it is

The Midday Power Saver is an electricity offer the Victorian Government has asked most retailers to make available from 1 October 2026. On it, electricity from the grid costs nothing between 11 am and 2 pm, every day of the week, up to 24 kilowatt-hours a day.

You need a smart meter, and you need to ask for it. Nobody is moved onto it automatically, and a household that tries it and changes its mind can leave without an exit fee.

02The other twenty-one hours

The government is plain about the other side of it. On this offer, the price of electricity outside the window, and the daily supply charge, may be higher than on other plans. A home that can't move much of its use into the middle of the day may end up paying more, and a different plan may be cheaper for it.

Retailers have to tell you the rates that apply outside the window before you sign up, and where they can, what the change is likely to do to your bill. It is worth ten minutes on the government's Victorian Energy Compare service with a recent bill in hand, whatever you decide.

Three hours are free. The other twenty-one are where to look.

03What it does for a battery

Until now a home battery was filled by one thing: the sun your roof had left over. The Midday Power Saver gives it a second source. A battery can be set to charge from the grid during the window, at no cost, and carry that into the evening, when electricity is dearest.

How much it can take is simple arithmetic. A battery charges at the rate its inverter can carry, for three hours. An inverter that charges at five kilowatts moves fifteen kilowatt-hours in the window. A larger one moves more, up to the 24 kilowatt-hours a day the offer allows, less whatever the rest of the house is using at the time.

Not every battery system is set up to charge from the grid, and some need a setting changed to do it. It is a question to ask before you count on it.

Three hours, at whatever your inverter can carry.

04Does it change how much solar you need?

It can. A battery that relies only on the roof needs the roof to have something spare, and in a Melbourne winter a modest array often doesn't. One answer has been a larger array than summer needs, sized so the battery still fills in July.

If the grid can top the battery up for nothing on the dull days, that reason for extra panels is weaker. The government makes the same point for homes that already have solar: charge the battery or the car in the window on days when your own generation is low.

It doesn't make the panels unnecessary. They run the house for the rest of the daylight hours, and they go on doing it whatever plan you are on. An electricity offer can change; the prices for this one are due to be set again from 1 July 2027. A roof is there for decades. We would size a system that still makes sense if the offer were different.

05If you already have solar

A home with solar is already making its own electricity at midday, so the free hours matter less on a bright day. Where they help is on a grey one, and for anything large you can time: a battery, a car, the hot water.

Whether that is worth the rates outside the window depends on how much you buy from the grid in the evening and overnight. That is on your bill.

06Spread the load

Free power is a reason to run everything at once, and that is the one thing to avoid. A battery charging, a car charging, hot water and the dryer together are a great deal for one switchboard. The government's advice is to spread large loads across the three hours, and to have an older switchboard looked at by a licensed electrician first.

It is also why we ask for a photo of your switchboard before we design anything.

07Is it for you?

It suits homes that can use power in the middle of the day: someone home, appliances on timers, a battery, a car that is parked at lunchtime. It suits a home that is empty all day with nothing to schedule much less.

If you are on it, or thinking about it, tell us in your project brief. It changes what we would recommend.