Tasmanian Electricity Tariffs Explained: Tariff 31, Tariff 93 and Tariff 97

Going solar in Tasmania starts with understanding the tariffs you’re choosing between — because the tariff you pick shapes what solar actually saves you. For most Tasmanian homes, the honest headline is this: solar still stacks up, but the money is in using your own power (self-consumption), not selling it back to the grid. Here’s how the three tariffs you’ll hear about actually work, and what they mean for a solar decision in 2026.

What is Tariff 31, and is it right for most homes?

Tariff 31 is Aurora Energy’s standard flat-rate residential tariff — the default most Tasmanian households are on. You pay the same rate for every kilowatt-hour you import, day and night, typically somewhere in the high-20s to around 30 cents per kWh, plus a daily supply charge.

If you have solar without a battery, Tariff 31 is usually perfectly workable. Your panels offset whatever you’re importing during daylight hours, and you pay the flat rate for the rest. It’s simple, predictable, and easy to compare against.

What is Tariff 93, and who should consider it?

Tariff 93 is Aurora’s time-of-use (“peak and off-peak”) residential tariff. Instead of one flat rate, you pay more during weekday peak windows (mornings and evenings) and less at off-peak times, including nights and weekends.

Tariff 93 tends to suit households that can genuinely shift their usage — running dishwashers, hot water, EV charging or battery charging overnight or on weekends. If most of your consumption lands in peak windows anyway, it can cost you more than Tariff 31, so it’s worth comparing your actual usage pattern before switching. Solar owners with batteries often pair well with time-of-use tariffs, because the battery can carry you through the expensive evening peak.

What is Tariff 97, and do I still need it?

Tariff 97 is Aurora’s controlled-load tariff — a cheaper, separately metered rate for hardwired appliances like electric hot water cylinders and some slab heating, which the network can switch off for periods during the day.

Two things matter here for solar households:

Many homes still have hot water on Tariff 97 alongside Tariff 31 or 93 for everything else — the two tariffs coexist on one bill.
If you go solar with a decent-sized system, a hot-water diverter or timer can heat your water from your own panels instead. Whether that beats keeping the cheap controlled-load rate depends on your household’s usage and your feed-in arrangements, so it’s a genuine “run the numbers for your home” question rather than an automatic switch.

Which tariff pairs best with solar and a battery?

There’s no single right answer — it depends on when your household actually uses power. As a general guide:

Setup	Often suits	Why
Tariff 31 (flat)	Solar only, daytime-heavy usage	Simplicity; solar offsets a flat import rate
Tariff 93 (time-of-use)	Solar + battery, or shiftable loads	Battery covers evening peak; cheap overnight top-ups
Tariff 31/93 + Tariff 97	Homes with electric hot water	Keeps a cheap rate for hot water, whatever else you choose

The pattern to notice: the more you can use your own solar directly — or shift usage away from peak — the less the tariff detail costs you.

Why does self-consumption matter more than the feed-in tariff?

Because the gap between what you pay to import power and what you’re paid to export it is large. Tasmania’s regulated solar feed-in tariff sits at 9.276 cents per kWh from 1 July 2026 (up from about 8.9 cents), while the power you buy costs roughly three times that.

That means every kilowatt-hour of solar you use in the home is worth roughly three times more than the same kilowatt-hour exported. Practical implications:

Size your system around your usage, not around export income.
Shift flexible loads (dishwasher, washing, hot water, EV charging) into daylight hours.
This is also the core argument for a battery: it converts daytime surplus into evening self-consumption instead of a low-value export.

What size solar system should a Tasmanian home get in 2026?

For most homes planning to electrify — an EV, a heat pump, induction cooking — a system around 13 kW of panels on a 10 kW inverter is the sensible modern default, where roof space allows. That panel-to-inverter ratio uses the standard oversizing rule, and TasNetworks permits a 10 kW inverter on a normal single-phase connection in Tasmania, so most homes don’t need a three-phase upgrade.

The old 6.6 kW default is increasingly undersized once you add an electric car or heating load. That said, honesty matters: a low-use household with no battery, EV or electrification plans may be better served by a smaller system matched to daytime usage. Bigger is only better if you’ll actually use the power.

What rebates are available for solar and batteries in Tasmania?

Two federal programs do the heavy lifting:

STC rebate (SRES): an upfront discount on the cost of an eligible solar system. Tasmania sits in STC Zone 4, so the rebate per kW is somewhat lower than sunnier mainland zones — but it’s still a substantial chunk off the sticker price, usually handled as a point-of-sale discount by your installer.
Cheaper Home Batteries Program: from 1 July 2025, roughly 30% off an eligible battery — in 2026 around $250 per usable kWh at the full rate for the first 14 kWh, stepping down for larger batteries (capped at 50 kWh), and tapering each year to 2030. The battery must be paired with solar.

There is currently no separate Tasmanian state battery rebate. Eligibility rules apply to both programs, so treat any figures as indicative rather than guaranteed, and confirm current settings before committing.

Is a home battery worth it in Tasmania?

Honestly — more slowly than on the mainland. Tasmania’s relatively cheap power and fair feed-in tariff mean the gap a battery exploits is smaller here. Payback periods for solar alone are often quoted in the rough range of four to six years, while the battery portion commonly takes longer — think seven to twelve years — depending heavily on your usage, tariff, and the rebates you qualify for. Those are broad indicative ranges, not promises.

The value case in Tasmania typically rests on three things:

Self-consumption: storing daytime solar for the evening peak.
Outage backup: real resilience if your area sees blackouts.
Smart control (for some): households on wholesale spot-passthrough retailing can charge when prices crash — even negative — and avoid peak imports. There’s no vendor-run VPP operating in Tasmania, but automated battery control of this kind is real: Solar Generation runs exactly this on its own systems. For a typical household on a standard Aurora tariff, though, the battery case is self-consumption plus backup.

What’s the one thing to do before deciding?

Get your last 12 months of usage data and look at when you use power, not just how much. That single step answers most of the tariff, sizing and battery questions above — because solar economics in Tasmania reward matching generation to your own consumption, not chasing exports.

This guide is written by the Tasmanian solar team at Solar Generation Tasmania — locals who are always happy to answer questions and help you make sense of your own numbers.

#solargentas #solargen #solargenerationtasmania

Published by Solar Generation Tasmania. General information current as at publication — rebates, tariffs and prices change, so confirm current figures before deciding.