New home battery? Great! Now switch it off until July

Batteries are still expensive, and for many solar owners they remain just out of reach. So a rebate of $3,700 off a 10 kWh battery, administered through the existing Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES), is exactly what’s needed to get them over the line.

Using the SRES framework means the rollout can be fast, with minimal bureaucracy. It’s also retroactive — so if you install a battery between now and July 1, and Labor is re-elected, you’ll still be eligible for the rebate.

That retroactivity should soften the usual effect of everyone freezing their wallets for three months while they wait for a rebate to kick in.

Should.

In reality, most people will still wait. They don’t want to cashflow thousands of dollars for a rebate that isn’t locked in. And they definitely don’t want to risk missing out over some technicality in the paperwork. So while the intent is good, the market will likely stall anyway.

A battery you aren’t allowed to use

There was, however, one takeaway from an industry briefing that really made my jaw drop: batteries installed from now to July 1 will also be eligible (assuming Labor is returned to power), but cannot be switched on until July 1.

Sorry – what?

You can pay for a battery. You can get it installed. You can have it wired up to your switchboard. You can connect it to the grid. But you’re not allowed to switch it on?

That’s not just bureaucratic overreach. It’s actively stupid.

The entire point of this rebate is to help households save money and support the grid. So the faster batteries are installed and operating, the better. Why make people wait? What possible good is served by forcing energy storage systems to sit idle for three months?

It’s a classic example of process trumping reality. Some legal or political technicality, probably dreamed up in a Canberra meeting room, has ended up overriding basic common sense. If the paperwork’s not final, fine. But let people use the gear they’ve paid for.