Expert Insights on Solar, Batteries and Power Bills

We've grown a lot recently, and a lot is happening behind the scenes. This page is updated regularly with what's changed and what it means for you.

Francis Clarke was one of the first Australians to use his EV as more than just a car. Three years into his V2G journey, he’s seen first-hand how an EV can power a home, reduce energy costs and even sell electricity back to the grid. Ahead of his presentation at the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference in Orange on 12 August 2026, Francis shares what he’s learned from being an early V2G user - and why he believes electric vehicles could play a much bigger role in Australia’s energy future.

Right now, SmartShift is quietly running the numbers on your battery. It's watching the wholesale market, checking the weather, and thinking about what your household is likely to do next, then turning all of that into a plan that gets the most value out of every kilowatt hour you store. From the outside, all you see is a battery that charges when power is cheap and happens to be full when prices spike. There's a fair bit of thinking behind that, so let's walk through how it actually works.

A home battery is one of the bigger purchases most Australian households will make for their energy setup, so it's fair to want it to be earning its keep. The good news is that your home battery's return on investment isn't fixed at the moment of installation. Two things decide it: what your battery is allowed to do, and what each kilowatt hour is worth when it does it. Get both right and the battery payback period shrinks considerably. Most battery owners have only ever tackled the first one, by letting the battery cover their evening usage. The second one, what each kilowatt hour is actually worth, is where the bigger gains sit.

Since February, war in the Middle East has been disrupting oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, and electricity prices in the European Union and Japan have jumped around 30 per cent as a result. Australia's wholesale electricity prices did the opposite. They fell by about 30 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026. But have these changes showed up in your energy bill?

Ask most people what energy plan they're on and they can probably tell you the retailer, and maybe the rate. Ask them what network tariff their home is on and you'll usually get a blank look. Fair enough too - because most retailers never mention it.

If you have been searching for the best smart energy solutions for your home, you have probably found plenty of lists of gadgets. Smart plugs, smart thermostats, energy monitors. They are fine, but they are the small end of the opportunity. The biggest financial difference for most Australian households comes from three things working together: solar, a home battery, and the energy plan that decides what they are all worth. The hardware gets most of the attention. The plan almost never does. This guide covers what actually counts as a smart energy solution, how the main options compare, and why the plan behind your hardware matters as much as the hardware itself.

Ask someone why they haven't bought an EV yet, and there's a good chance battery life comes up. Concern about battery longevity remains one of the most common barriers to EV adoption. The worry rests on a few assumptions. But years of real-world data now tell a different story, which is great news for the record number of EV buyers in Australia last month.

We’ve spent plenty of time explaining the "loyalty tax" - that frustrating pattern where an energy retailer wins you over with a killer introductory rate, then raises your price once you've settled in and stopped checking. Now, one state has stepped in to stop it. As of 1 July 2026, Victoria became the first jurisdiction in Australia to ban the energy retailer loyalty tax outright. So how does it work, and how will it impact Victoria and other states?

The short answer: the biggest savings on an Australian power bill usually come from fixing the plan, not rationing the heater. Households on an electricity plan more than three years old pay an average of $221 more per year than those on newer plans, according to the ACCC's December 2025 National Electricity Market report. So before you start rationing showers, run five checks on your plan. None of them require a spreadsheet, just your latest bill and a bit of healthy suspicion.

You've seen the ads. $400 credit for switching. Free months of energy. A gift card just for signing up. It works, because who doesn't want free money? So who pays for all that free money? In most cases, you do. Not on the day the bonus lands in your account, but six or twelve months later, once your rates have quietly reset and you've stopped checking. A sign-up bonus is an advance, and the retailer fully intends to collect.

Chris is back with your winter update, read on to learn about what's happening with our subscription prices, the two-way tariffs announcement, our V2G program expansion and the effects of the mild winter we're experiencing.