What happens on 1st May 2026?

The current Cheaper Home Battery Rebate scheme changes. 

There are two key elements to this change:

1. The scheme will move to a tiered based approach
2. The amounts available for new installations will vary dramatically

But what does this really mean in practice?

Tiered-based approach

The scheme will now move to offer different % of small-scale technology certificates (STCs) based on the size of the system being installed. 

This is a material change to the scheme, that since it's inception in June 2025, had no means testing and just a cap of the total system size of 50kWh of storage. 

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

1. The first 14kWh of usable capacity receives the full 100% of STCs available (i.e. 0 - 14kWh)
2. The next 14kWh of usable capacity receives 60% of STCs available (i.e. 14.01kWh - 28kWh).
3. The next 14kWh of usable capacity receives x% of STCs available (i.e. 28.01kWh - 42kWh)
4. The remainder to 50kWh of usable capacity receives x% of STCs  (i.e. 42.01kWh to 50kWh)

What does this mean in practice? Well, it's likely to drastically impact the average size of battery systems being sold and installed. Why?

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

The pre-1st May pricing structure a 28.6kWh system will get 100% of the available rebate. Right now, that equates to roughly $8,550. 

After the new tiered-based approach, the first 14kWh will receive 100% of the total, the next 14kWh will receive 60% of the total. So 14kWh at 100%, and the remaining 13.17kWh at 60% equates to an average of a little over 80% of the rebate.

The rebate amounts are changing

Added to the above, the actual values associated with scheme are dropping too. The scheme is administered via the Small-scall Technology Certificates (STCs) scheme. Each STC has a market value. 

The number of certificates available for this type of technology are dropping - which means therefore that the total rebate available is also dropping.