What is the solar feed-in tariff in NSW for 2026–27?

The 30-second take

• IPART’s NSW feed-in tariff benchmark for 2026–27 is 3.4–6.5c/kWh, down from 4.8–7.3c in 2025–26.
• The benchmark is guidance, not a floor. NSW has no regulated minimum; each retailer sets its own rate and can go above or below it.
• Default Market Offer prices fell 3–7% for NSW households on 1 July 2026, so the gap between what you pay (mid-30s c/kWh on most plans) and what you are paid for exports is roughly ten to one.
• NSW is one of two states that price exports by time of day, and Ausgrid’s two-way tariff can charge for midday exports on some plans.
• A higher feed-in rate on a plan with higher usage and supply charges usually loses. Compare the whole bill, not one line.

The 2026–27 number

Every year the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal publishes a benchmark range for what a fair feed-in tariff looks like in New South Wales. For the year from 1 July 2026 that range is 3.4 to 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. The previous year it was 4.8 to 7.3 cents, and the year before that it was higher again.

The benchmark is deliberately a range rather than a number because IPART is estimating the wholesale value of exported solar, which varies by time of day. The low end is what midday exports are worth in a grid flooded with rooftop solar. The high end is what a late-afternoon export is worth.

Why NSW has no minimum

Victoria, Tasmania and regional Queensland have a regulator-set rate. New South Wales never has. IPART publishes the benchmark, and retailers are free to pay above it, inside it, or below it. In practice most standard offers sit inside the range, and several retailers moved their headline rate from around 4 cents to 3 cents after the 2026 benchmark was published.

That makes the feed-in tariff a competitive lever for retailers, which is exactly why the highest advertised rates come with conditions: a daily cap on the kilowatt-hours paid at the headline rate, or a plan whose usage and supply charges are higher than the retailer’s cheaper alternatives.

“A 10 cent feed-in tariff on the first 5 kWh a day, on a plan that charges 3 cents more per kWh you buy, is a worse deal for almost every household with solar.”

Time-of-day exports and the two-way tariff

New South Wales prices exports by time of day. Under Ausgrid’s two-way tariff, which retailers began passing through in 2024, exporting between 10am and 3pm can attract a small charge above a free daily allowance, while exporting in the evening peak earns a higher credit. Other NSW networks have followed with their own versions.

The practical effect is that when you export now matters as much as how much. A battery that holds midday solar until the evening, or a west-facing array that produces later in the day, earns more per kilowatt-hour than a north-facing system dumping power at noon.

What you pay versus what you are paid

The Default Market Offer for 2026–27 fell 3 to 7 per cent for NSW households. Even after that fall, the usage rate on a typical Sydney plan sits in the mid-30s cents per kilowatt-hour, and regional customers on the Essential Energy network pay more.

Set that against a feed-in tariff of 3 to 6 cents and the arithmetic is stark: a kilowatt-hour of solar you use yourself is worth around ten times a kilowatt-hour you export. That ratio, not the feed-in tariff, is what decides whether a system pays for itself, and it is the entire case for shifting load into daylight or storing it in a battery.

• Run the dishwasher, washing machine and pool pump in the middle of the day. Every kWh moved is worth the retail rate instead of the feed-in rate.
• Heat water with solar. A hot water timer or a heat pump on a daytime schedule is the cheapest storage you can buy.
• Check the export cap on any high-FiT plan and whether the rate is time-varying.
• Compare the annual bill, not the tariff line. Run your last four bills through both plans before switching.

What this means if you are buying solar now

Size the system for what you use during the day and for the battery or EV you expect to add, not for export income. A savings projection built on a 6 or 8 cent tariff will not survive contact with a real bill.

Get matched with 2-3 vetted solar installers — typically 2+ years in business, with a track record of decent reviews — and ask each of them to model your savings on self-consumption, with exports as the footnote.

Read next

• How feed-in tariffs work, and why they keep falling
• Two-way export pricing, explained
• Average electricity bill in Sydney
• NSW solar and battery rebates
• Are solar batteries worth it?

Sources

• ipart.nsw.gov.au — solar feed-in tariff benchmarks 2024–25 to 2026–27
• aer.gov.au — Default Market Offer 2026–27 final determination
• energy.gov.au — solar feed-in tariffs