The Solar Sharer Offer is being introduced as part of reforms to the Default Market Offer (DMO).
It will make 3-hours of free power available in the middle of the day to households with smart meters in DMO regions. Read more about the Solar Sharer Offer.
The Default Market Offer (DMO) is a mechanism to safeguard consumers who don’t, or can’t, shop around for a new electricity deal. The DMO sets the maximum price energy retailers can charge electricity consumers on default plans, known as standing offer contracts. It also acts as a reference price. When promoting offers, retailers must compare the price of their offer with the DMO.
The DMO applies to households and small businesses in New South Wales, South Australia and South East Queensland.
The independent Australian Energy Regulator (AER) sets the DMO. It takes effect each year on 1 July.
2026-27 DMO
On 26 May 2026, the AER released its determination for the DMO for 2026-27.
The DMO is changing
On 18 June 2025, the Australian Government announced it was reforming the DMO. The reforms aimed at strengthening the DMO framework and improve its effectiveness as a safeguard for disengaged customers.
Public consultation on potential reforms to the DMO was open for submissions from 18 June 2025 to 18 July 2025. We received 22 responses.
In September 2025, we also held online workshops to gather further feedback from stakeholders.
After reviewing the feedback, we produced a DMO review outcomes paper.
Specifically, the reforms:
- introduce a new guiding DMO objective focussed on protecting small customers on standing offers and small customers in embedded networks.
- require the DMO to be based on the efficient costs of serving those customers and cap the prices payable by those customers.
- require the AER to determine a tariff cap for common standing offer tariff types to improve consumer price protections.
- maintain the role of the DMO as reference price to help customers compare electricity plans.
- introduce a Solar Sharer Offer (SSO) standing offer (see more details below).
Read the DMO Review Outcomes Paper.
Solar Sharer Offer
On 4 November 2025, we announced the Solar Sharer Offer (SSO).
The SSO will require retailers to offer free electricity to households with smart meters for at least 3 hours in the middle of the day when solar generation is at its peak. Customers will be able to access up to 24 kWh of free electricity during this daily free window.
The free power will be available to homes even if they don’t have solar panels. It will be available to both homeowners and renters.
The SSO can help households cut power bills by shifting their energy use to the free-power period. It will also support a more reliable and efficient electricity grid.
The SSO will be an opt-in offer and subject to existing consumer protections.
It will be available from 1 July 2026 in areas covered by the DMO: New South Wales, South Australia and South East Queensland.
Consideration is being given to making an SSO, or equivalent option, available in other areas.
Consultation
We consulted on the design and implementation of the SSO in November 2025.
We received more than 70 submissions. Submissions that can be published (with redactions where required) are available on our Have Your Say page.
The feedback helped to establish 6 core design principles for the SSO.
Those principles and a summary of the feedback we received are in the consultation outcomes paper.
New regulations
In March 2026, the Australian Government released the regulations to deliver the SSO and reforms to the DMO.
The DMO reforms will help ensure customers pay a fair price that reflects the efficient costs incurred by energy retailers to provide electricity. It minimises retailers’ ability to pass on extra costs for things like marketing and customer retainment.
The regulations were introduced as amendments to the Electricity Retail Code (the Code). They set the framework for the SSO and updated DMO protections to:
- deliver long‑lasting bill savings
- improve grid stability
- make better use of Australia’s world‑leading rooftop solar.
Read more
Consultation on reforms to the Default Market Offer
Have your say on a Solar Sharer Offer (SSO)
The Australian Energy Regulator releases new default electricity prices