Once you own a home battery, a Virtual Power Plant is the obvious next question: someone is offering to pay you for the energy sitting in it. The catch is that every plan pays differently, takes a different amount of control, and nearly all of them want you to switch electricity retailer. Below is every plan we could verify from the provider's own pages in September 2026, in one table, then a plain-English way to narrow it down.
10 plans, checked Sep 2026
Every figure below comes from the provider's own plan pages, terms or plan documents.
Where a provider does not publish a number, we say so rather than guess. VPP payments
are always a separate number from the federal battery discount and any state incentive.
Every VPP plan, compared
Scroll sideways on a phone. Tap a plan for the full breakdown, including who it suits, the fine print and a worked example where the provider publishes enough to build one.
| Plan | States | How it pays | Sign-up bonus | Lock-in / exit | Switch retailer? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AGL VPP AGL | NSW, QLD, SA, VIC | Per kWh exported in events. $1 per kWh your battery charges from or discharges to the grid in events, up to 250kWh a year, paid annually, plus a quarterly credit ($20, or $45 in SA per AGL's help page). | $200 welcome credit on your first bill | 12 months, auto-renewing. 30 days notice to leave and no exit fee on the bring-your-own offer. | Yes. You must be an AGL electricity customer. |
| Amber SmartShift Amber Electric | NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, ACT | Wholesale-linked. Exports earn the live 30-minute wholesale price (which can go negative); imports cost wholesale plus network charges. $25 a month membership; SmartShift itself is free. | None from Amber. A referral gives each person $10 a month off for 12 months. | No lock-in contract and no exit fees. | Yes. Amber must be your electricity retailer, on its wholesale-price plan. |
| Diamond WATTBANK Diamond Energy | SA, VIC, NSW, QLD | Credits plus event payments. A fixed annual credit by system block ($250 to $450 inc GST), plus a 30c per kWh Battery Usage Credit for exports between 6pm and 8am. | None. There is a $68 establishment fee (waived if you finance through Plenti). | No lock-in contract and no exit fees. $68 establishment fee to join. | Yes. You must be a Diamond Energy customer on its standard market offer (it can't be combined with promotional plans). |
| GloBird ZEROHERO GloBird Energy | VIC, NSW, SA, QLD | Credits plus event payments. $1 a day for near-zero imports 6pm to 9pm, a top-up to 10c per kWh on the first 15kWh exported 6pm to 9pm, free power 12pm to 3pm, and $1 per kWh exported in critical peak events (VPP add-on). | None | No contract term, no fees and no exit fees. | Yes. You must be a GloBird customer on ZEROHERO. |
| Horizon Community Wave Horizon Power | WA | Boosted feed-in. No per-event payment. Members get Buyback Bonus export rates set by town and season, from 3c off-peak up to 55.99c per kWh in the 3pm to 9pm peak. | None. Free to join. | Free to join. You can opt out of the Renewable Rewards by calling Horizon, but your system stays energy managed. We found no published contract term or exit fee. | You need to be a Horizon Power customer, which in its regional towns you already are. |
| Origin Loop Origin Energy | NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, ACT | Per kWh exported in events. $1 per kWh your battery discharges to the grid in events, up to 200kWh a year, on top of your normal feed-in. | $200 credit for first-time Loop customers | No lock-in, 20 business days notice. Exception: claim the NSW VPP incentive and a 3-year minimum term applies. | Yes. You must be an Origin electricity customer, but any Origin plan qualifies. |
| Plico VPP Plico | WA, NSW | Per kWh exported in events. WA: "3x your energy costs", at least 99c per kWh exported in events, as Synergy bill credits (about 6 events a year on average). NSW: 50c per kWh. | None. Plico-supplied systems get a $1,500 VPP discount on the system price. | WA VPP-only contract: 3 years. Exit fee terms not published; check the current offer. | You do not switch to Plico, but you need a specific retail plan: a Synergy plan in WA, or the Alinta Energy SunShare plan in NSW. |
| Powershop VPP Powershop | VIC, QLD, SA, NSW | Fixed credit. A flat monthly bill credit by battery size: $10 (under 10kWh), $25 (10 to 15kWh) or $40 (over 15kWh). Exports earn your normal feed-in. | None | No lock-in contract and no exit fees. | Yes. You must be a Powershop electricity customer. |
| Synergy Battery Rewards Synergy | WA | Per kWh exported in events. 70c per kWh (GST free) of net exports during activation events, capped each event at your battery's installed kWh, plus an Energy Offset Credit. Up to 30 events a year. | None published | 2-year initial term, then 20 business days notice to leave. No exit fee mentioned in the terms. | Yes. You must be a Synergy customer on the A1, K1, Midday Saver or EV Add-On tariff. |
| Tesla Electric Tesla | NSW, ACT, SA, QLD | Wholesale-linked. 90% of the live 5-minute wholesale price for every kWh exported, plus unpublished extra credits when your Powerwall provides grid support services. | $100 Pilot Program credit (per the Ausgrid plan document) | No fixed term and no exit fee listed in the plan document or fees page. 10 business day cooling-off period. | Yes. Tesla must be your electricity retailer, on the Tesla Electric Dynamic plan with fixed time-of-use import rates. |
How to choose, in plain English
Skip the "who pays the most" headlines. Work through these in order and most people end up with two or three real options, sometimes one.
- Start with your battery. If your exact battery and inverter are not on a provider's approved list, nothing else about that plan matters. The brand table below is the fastest way to rule plans in or out.
- Then your state and network. Most plans run only on the eastern grid, and some only in certain network areas (South East Queensland but not regional Queensland, for example). Western Australia has its own grid and its own short list.
- Decide how much market risk you want. Wholesale-linked plans pass through the real market price, so a hot week can pay well and a mild month can pay next to nothing, and the provider usually runs your battery day to day. Fixed per-event or per-kWh plans pay a known rate for a limited number of events and leave the battery to you the rest of the time.
- Compare the whole bill, not the VPP line. Almost every plan requires you to move your electricity account to that retailer. A generous VPP credit on top of pricey usage rates can leave you worse off. Put your current bill next to the plan's published rates.
- Read the lock-in and the reserve. Check whether leaving early costs you anything (bundled or subsidised batteries are where exit fees live), and how much charge the provider promises to leave you for a blackout.
- Only then look at the sign-up bonus. A one-off credit is the smallest number over the life of the battery. Nice, but not a reason to pick a plan.
Which plans take your battery?
Matched from each provider's own compatibility list. A brand appearing here does not guarantee every model, inverter or firmware version qualifies, so confirm your exact system on the plan page and with the provider.
Which plans run in your state?
State-level battery incentives are covered separately on our state rebate pages, and they are never added to VPP income here. Some states tie their incentive to joining an approved VPP, which is noted on each plan page.
| State | Plans available |
|---|---|
| NSW | AGL VPP, Amber SmartShift, Diamond WATTBANK, GloBird ZEROHERO, Origin Loop, Plico VPP, Powershop VPP, Tesla Electric |
| VIC | AGL VPP, Amber SmartShift, Diamond WATTBANK, GloBird ZEROHERO, Origin Loop, Powershop VPP |
| QLD | AGL VPP, Amber SmartShift, Diamond WATTBANK, GloBird ZEROHERO, Origin Loop, Powershop VPP, Tesla Electric |
| SA | AGL VPP, Amber SmartShift, Diamond WATTBANK, GloBird ZEROHERO, Origin Loop, Powershop VPP, Tesla Electric |
| WA | Horizon Community Wave, Plico VPP, Synergy Battery Rewards |
| ACT | Amber SmartShift, Origin Loop, Tesla Electric |
| TAS | None of the plans we verified operate here. Ask your retailer directly. |
| NT | None of the plans we verified operate here. Ask your retailer directly. |
Plans that have closed or changed
VPP lists go stale fast. These all still turn up on comparison sites, but when we checked the providers' own pages in September 2026, none was a current option for a battery owner:
- Tesla Energy Plan (run with Energy Locals) ended on 30 September 2025, and Powerwalls were removed from that VPP. Tesla now sells electricity itself as Tesla Electric, covered on its own page.
- Energy Locals no longer offers a battery VPP. Its retail brand became 1st Energy in September 2026.
- EnergyAustralia Battery Ease says it is not taking new applications.
- sonnen's sonnenFlat has no current offer on sonnen's Australian site, and Reposit GridCredits has been replaced by Reposit's "No Bill" subscriptions.
- OVO Energy and Red Energy do not advertise a VPP on their own sites.
If a comparison site still lists these, treat the rest of its numbers with caution too.
Two more worth knowing about
- ShineHub VPP only covers systems ShineHub installed itself, using Hinen products. It pays $1 per kWh discharged, up to $300 a year, paid quarterly, and works with any retailer. Useful if you are already a ShineHub customer, too narrow for most people.
- ENGIE (formerly Simply Energy) runs a battery VPP, but its current sign-up and monthly credit amounts sit behind a personal-details form and third-party figures conflict, so we could not verify them. Ask ENGIE for the current offer in writing.
Before you sign up to anything, run your battery's basic payback in the savings calculator without any VPP income. If the battery only makes sense with a VPP payment you cannot be sure of, that is worth knowing up front.