Check when you export before choosing a battery.

Two export rates, one meter requirement

Jacana lists an Anytime feed-in rate of 9.33c/kWh and a Super rate of 18.66c/kWh. The Super rate applies automatically from 3pm to 9pm daily to rooftop-solar customers with electronic interval (smart) meters. Confirm your account and meter qualify before using it in a quote comparison. Check Jacana’s residential pricing.

The same 10 kWh can earn different credits

These are invented daily export patterns, not readings from real homes. Each exports 10 kWh. Only the timing changes. The household illustration uses the listed rates without a GST addition.

• All outside the Super window: 10 × $0.0933 = $0.93.
• Eight outside, two inside: (8 × $0.0933) + (2 × $0.1866) = $1.12.
• Five outside, five inside: (5 × $0.0933) + (5 × $0.1866) = $1.40.

Rounded to the nearest cent after calculation. These are gross export credits, not bill savings. They exclude imports, supply charges and equipment costs; they do not establish whether battery exports qualify. The last pattern earns about 47 cents more than the first, without any change in total exported energy.

Use this as a test of a proposal: does its export-credit estimate follow your actual interval data, or apply one rate to every exported unit? A single example day cannot establish annual returns.

Turn your meter data into a question the installer can answer

Request an interval-data export from your retailer. Keep the timestamps and units intact, and check which time zone the file uses. For each day, separate exported energy inside and outside the eligible window. Compare days across the year rather than choosing only a sunny week.

Then ask for the proposed system’s imports and exports in the same time intervals. If the quote only supplies an annual saving, ask for the calculation behind it. The useful comparison is the change from your current arrangement, including export income given up when solar is stored for later use.

Do not treat a battery’s capacity as an export forecast. The installer still needs to explain charging, household demand, losses and the permitted operating arrangement. For the separate capacity decision, use our battery size guide.

Leave an unapproved Territory grant out of the budget

The NT Home and Business Battery Scheme has exhausted its funding allocation and is closed to new grants. The department says unapproved applications depend on funding becoming available and are not guaranteed. Work without prior formal approval is at the applicant’s expense. Read the administering department’s notice.

Ask for a price you can assess without an assumed Territory grant. If you already hold approval, put its conditions and deadlines beside the quote. Ask the installer to identify any other proposed incentive separately, with its current eligibility basis and the amount actually deducted.

Your address matters more than a Territory-wide system limit

Power and Water distinguishes its main networks from remote and minor networks, which need customised requirements. Check which network supplies the property before borrowing a system specification from a Darwin example. Read Power and Water’s connection requirements.

Have the quote record the connection application, proposed export limit and who is responsible for approval. For an existing system, include the current inverter model and any previous connection approval. Ask what must change if the network approves a different export arrangement from the one priced.

A short brief for your NT quote

1. Supply address and network, plus whether the property is connected to the grid.
2. Current retailer, tariff, meter type and interval-data period.
3. Existing solar and inverter details, with the current export approval if available.
4. The work you want priced, and whether backup is a requirement.
5. Any written grant approval; otherwise ask for the price without the Territory grant.

Prepare a quote request to check whether a participating installer covers your postcode. You review the named recipient before sharing your details. Solvetted may receive a referral fee.

This is a desk-researched decision guide, not a site inspection or electrical design. Tariffs and programme status can change. The worked example is Solvetted’s arithmetic, with no measured customer outcomes or expert endorsement claimed.