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

The 30-second take

• Victoria no longer has a regulated minimum feed-in tariff. The Electricity Industry Act was amended in May 2025 and the ESC’s role ended on 1 July 2025.
• Retailers set their own rate. The only rule is that it cannot be below $0.00 per kWh.
• In 2026 some retailers advertise up to 8c/kWh for the first block of daily exports; others pay a cent or two. There is no single "Victorian rate" any more.
• The Victorian Default Offer for 2026–27 puts a typical household bill at about $1,591 a year at 4,000 kWh, with usage rates in the high-20s c/kWh in Melbourne. Exports are worth a fraction of that.
• The 2025–26 minimum the ESC had already calculated — 4.9c flat, with a time-varying option — was never applied.

What changed on 1 July 2025

For a decade Victoria was the state with the strongest feed-in tariff rules. The Essential Services Commission set a minimum every year, and retailers could pay more but never less. That ended when the Victorian Parliament amended the Electricity Industry Act 2000 in May 2025. From 1 July 2025 the ESC no longer sets a minimum, and the 2025–26 minimum it had already reviewed — 4.9 cents flat, or a time-varying schedule peaking at 8.5 cents in the evening — never took effect.

The reasoning was that the minimum had fallen so far it no longer did much, because the wholesale value of midday solar was heading towards zero. Removing it made Victoria look like New South Wales and South Australia, where the rate has always been retailer-set.

What Victorian retailers pay now

With no floor, the spread between retailers has widened. In mid-2026 some retailers advertise a feed-in rate as high as 8 cents per kilowatt-hour on a first block of daily exports, with a lower rate beyond the cap. Others pay one or two cents. Third-party trackers put the market range at roughly 1 to 10 cents.

That spread is the point. A feed-in tariff has become a marketing line, and the plans with the highest headline rate are rarely the plans with the lowest overall bill. The only comparison that holds up is your annual usage and export figures run through each plan’s full tariff.

“Victoria went from the strongest feed-in rules in the country to none at all in a single amendment. The number on your bill is now whatever your retailer decides it is.”

What you pay versus what you are paid

The Essential Services Commission still sets the Victorian Default Offer, and the 2026–27 decision puts a representative household bill at about $1,591 a year at 4,000 kWh. Usage rates on Melbourne’s networks sit in the high 20s of cents per kilowatt-hour, higher on AusNet in the outer east.

A kilowatt-hour you use yourself is therefore worth 26 to 33 cents. A kilowatt-hour you export is worth somewhere between nothing and 8. That is the whole modern case for solar in Victoria, and it has nothing to do with the feed-in tariff.

• Shift load into daylight. Dishwasher, washing, pool pump, hot water timer — every kWh moved is worth the retail rate rather than the export rate.
• Treat any FiT above 5 cents as capped until proven otherwise. Read the daily export block on the plan.
• Compare whole-of-bill. A plan with a 2 cent tariff and lower usage charges often beats an 8 cent tariff plan for a household with solar.
• Consider storage. With exports worth this little, a battery that moves midday solar into the evening pays back on avoided purchases, and the Victorian Solar Homes battery loan stacks with the federal rebate.

What this means if you are buying solar now

Size the system for daytime use and for what you plan to electrify next. Any quote that models savings on an export rate above a few cents is describing a Victoria that stopped existing in July 2025.

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
• Average electricity bill in Melbourne
• Victorian solar and battery rebates
• Are solar batteries worth it?
• What size solar system you actually need

Sources

• esc.vic.gov.au — minimum feed-in tariff (ESC no longer sets a minimum from 1 July 2025)
• esc.vic.gov.au — Victorian Default Offer 2026–27
• energymatters.com.au — Victoria solar feed-in tariff 2026–27: what’s changed (10 July 2026)
• energyplans.com.au — solar feed-in tariffs by state (rates as at 18 September 2026)