Falling feed-ins and new export tariff frustrate SA solar customers

Australia Broadcast Center

07-07-2025

For Genevieve Dawson and thousands of solar energy customers across South Australia, July 1 was a doubly frustrating day.
"We made a good investment when they were really pushing solar a few years back," Ms Dawson, who lives in Aldinga Beach, south of Adelaide, said.
"'Everyone get on board the renewable train', which we did and you know slowly but slowly it's gone downhill."
At the start of the month, Ms Dawson's energy company, Origin, announced an increase in energy charges and dropped its feed-in-tariff — the amount energy companies pay customers for their exported energy — from 4 cents to just 2 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).
On the same day, a new export charge was introduced by SA Power Networks (SAPN) that will see energy retailers — and potentially their customers — pay to export their energy to the grid in certain circumstances.
"I think it is unfair," Ms Dawson said.
"We're getting slugged more and more and little taxes get brought in like the export tariff.
"Supply charges are going up and we're getting less for our feed-in tariff.
"I'm not sure where it's going to end, is it going to go to zero at some stage? I don't see what the end game is here."
SAPN said the export tariff, which some solar customers have described as a "sun tax", is needed to fund an $80 million upgrade over five years of the state's electricity grid which, at times, had struggled to cope with the amount of solar energy being exported into the system.
"South Australia has the highest uptake of rooftop solar in the world, and that's great, but now we need smart and efficient investment in the grid to ensure that we can continue to connect customers' solar," SAPN's external affairs manager, Cecilia Schutz, said.
In a complicated calculation, agreed to by the Australian Energy Regulator, SAPN would calculate the amount residential and small business customers on smart meters should pay by charging between .75 cents to one cent kWh for any energy exported between 10am and 4pm above the first 9kWh sent to the grid.
SAPN estimated that for residential customers the average cost per month would be $1.50, while small businesses would pay $6 a month.
That charge would be paid by the electricity retail companies directly to SAPN. But SAPN doesn't know how or whether the export tariff would be collected from households.
"We're asking retailers to contribute based on how much their solar customers export, we think that's a fair and equitable way to share the cost," Ms Schutz said.
But Ms Schutz said she understood how customers would be concerned and frustrated about a new export charge.
"I think there have been mixed messages," Ms Schutz said.
"The energy landscape has been incredibly complex for customers, and I think it was easy for customers to be confused about what the benefits for solar were.
"The enduring benefit for solar has always been for customers to self-consume the solar that they generate."
The ABC contacted several electricity retailers to see how, or if, they would pass the charge onto consumers. Most did not respond.
In a statement, energy retailer Origin said:
"At this stage, we have not introduced export tariff charges for South Australian customers.
"We will continue to assess this policy change to better understand customer behaviour and impacts over the coming months."
In a statement, energy retailer AGL said it had "no plans to pass on SAPN's negative export tariff to our customers".
"As a result there will be no impact to customer bills," the statement said.
"We continue to monitor the impact of network tariff changes and will keep customers informed should anything change."
The South Australian Council of Social Services (SACOSS) said it was concerned that if solar customers were not charged the export tariff directly by their retailers, all customers would end up paying more for their electricity.
"There's absolutely no doubt that if the costs are just spread across everybody then those people who currently don't have access to solar or batteries will be paying for extra supplementation on our network business that isn't really their fault or their requirement," SACOSS CEO Ross Womersley said.
"We know that most of those households are more likely to be rental households and low-income households.
"It's important the retailers look very carefully at how they can target the cost."
Mr Womersley also dismissed the claim from some solar consumers that export tariffs amounted to a "sun tax".
"It's just nonsense … those of us who have solar and particularly those of us who have solar and battery are benefiting enormously," he said.
Mr Womersley said charging solar customers to upgrade the system was fair, unlike the way money has been collected for the state government's historic Feed In Tariff Scheme.
Under that scheme, solar customers who installed panels before October 1, 2011, have received a guaranteed minimum feed in of 44c/kWh. The scheme ends on June 30, 2028.
About 82,000 South Australian households remain on that scheme with $80 million paid approximately each year by all electricity households to subsidise those early solar adopters.
"Why should people on low incomes … be left holding extra costs in their bills in order to pay for a privileged group?" Mr Womersley said.
In response to a series of questions from the ABC, the state government said in a statement that "export charging" was approved by the independent regulator and was "outside the influence of government".
"This structure is not unique to South Australia," the statement said.
"It has been rolled out in New South Wales for the 2025-30 regulatory period and is being proposed in Victoria for the 2026-31 regulatory period."