What happens on 1st May 2026? – Vultra

The current Cheaper Home Battery Rebate scheme is set to change, and there are two key elements to this change:

The amounts available for new installations will drop
The scheme will move to a tiered based approach

Quick recap of how the scheme currently works:

Since it's inception in June 2025, the Cheaper Home Battery Rebate imposed no 'means testing' (most schemes of this nature have a maximum household income threshold value), was to be provided as a reduction at point of sale from installers / battery resellers and had a cap of the total system size of 50kWh of storage.

The scheme uses the pre-existing and long-established small-scale technology certificates (STCs).

The number of STCs generated are based on the amount of usable capacity of the battery system installed (discharge depth x nameplate capacity) multiplied by a 'factor'.

Right now, the factor is 8.4.

If you take our 28.6kWh system as an example. The system has a discharge depth of 95% and 28.6kWh nameplate capacity, so the 'usable capacity' is deemed to be 27.17kWh.

You take the 'usable capacity' of 27.17kWh and multiply it by 8.4 = 228 STCs.

Each STC has a market value of between $36 and $38, and therefore that equates to a total value of roughly $8,500.

What will the rebate factors changing mean?

From 1st May 2026, the multiplication factor will be 6.8 this represents just over a 19% drop.

In order to be able to calculate the actual $value though, you then also need to consider the second change to the scheme.

What is the tiered-based approach?

The scheme will now move to offer a different percentage% of the multiplication factor, based on the size of the system being installed.

The tiers that will be in place from 1st May 2026 will be:

The first 14kWh of usable capacity receives the full 100% of the multiplication factor (i.e. 0 - 14kWh);
The next 14kWh of usable capacity receives 60% of the multiplication factor (i.e. 14.01kWh - 28kWh); and,
The rest to 50kWh of usable capacity receives 15% of the multiplication factor (i.e. 28.01kWh to 50kWh).

For our 28.6kWh system with 27.17kWh usable capacity - after the new tiered-based approach, the first 14kWh will receive 100% of the total available STCs, the next 14kWh will receive 60% of the total.

14kWh at 100% of the 6.8 factor
The remaining 13.17kWh at 60% of the 6.8 factor (i.e. 4.08)

Resulting in an average of a little over 80% of the multiplication factor being applied, and meaning the calculation becomes:

(14kWh * 6.8) + (13.17kWh * 4.08) = 95.2 + 53.7 = 148.9 STCs.

Assuming a $37 per STC value (STCs are relatively stable in price) that equates to a rebate of $5,509

Or a reduction in value of $8500 (rebate now) - $5,509 (future rebate) = $2,991.

So what does this mean for the batteries being installed?

Well, it's likely to drastically impact the cost, as there's a large reduction in rebate available - which would normally help to bring the pricing down.

The average size of battery systems being sold and installed will also likely start to come back down, and be more 'right-sized' for the property.

The expectation is that the average system size will reduce back down to closer to 14kWh.

Are there future changes expected?

Yes.

The scheme has also set a 6-monthly cadence, so every six months new (lower) multiplication factors will apply, although the tiers are now expected to remain.

Are there things about the scheme that won't be changing?