AGL Solar Feed-in Tariffs NSW QLD SA & VIC

AGL solar plans should be compared state by state, not as one national offer. Victoria changed its feed-in tariff rules on 1 July 2025, Queensland still separates regional Queensland from South East Queensland, and households in New South Wales and South Australia usually need to compare live retailer offers through the official government comparison service for their address.

Quick answer: how should you compare AGL solar feed-in tariffs?

Compare AGL solar feed-in tariffs against three things on the same bill: your import rate, your daily supply charge and your real export volume. In June 2026, the fastest way to do that is to use a recent electricity bill, check your postcode on Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare, and then read the current AGL plan document that applies to your meter and state.

Why there is no single AGL solar tariff across Australia

AGL does not operate under one national solar feed-in tariff because Australian retail energy rules are state-based and network-based. Energy Made Easy is the Australian Government comparison service for households and small businesses in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, while Victorians are directed to Victorian Energy Compare instead. That means an AGL solar customer in Sydney and an AGL solar customer in Melbourne are not comparing the same market settings.

A second difference is network approval. Your feed-in outcome depends on whether your distributor has approved export, what export limit applies to your inverter, and whether your meter can record exports correctly. Before you compare any AGL solar plan, pull out a recent bill and confirm your NMI, meter type and tariff structure, because those details decide which plan document is relevant.

Victoria: the minimum feed-in tariff ended on 1 July 2025

Victoria changed the rules more than the eastern states most people compare against. The Essential Services Commission says the 2024-25 minimum feed-in tariffs applied until 30 June 2025, but there have been no minimum feed-in tariffs from 1 July 2025 after an amendment to the Electricity Industry Act 2000. From that date, retailers such as AGL can set their own feed-in tariffs for Victorian market offers.

The same Victorian regulator also states that feed-in tariffs cannot be below zero dollars per kilowatt hour. That is a specific rule readers can use straight away: if you are comparing an AGL solar plan in Victoria after 1 July 2025, the key question is not whether it meets a regulator-set minimum, but whether the retailer-set export credit still makes sense once you add the usage rate and supply charge.

Victorian readers should use Victorian Energy Compare, not Energy Made Easy, for a live market check. Take your most recent bill, enter the exact postcode, and compare the current AGL offer against at least three other solar-capable plans. If the AGL feed-in tariff is only 1 or 2 cents per kWh higher than a rival plan, but the rival plan cuts your import rate by 4 or 5 cents per kWh, the rival plan may still win over a full year.

Queensland: regional Queensland and South East Queensland are different comparisons

Queensland is not one solar comparison market. The Queensland Competition Authority says it annually sets the solar feed-in tariff for regional Queensland, where retail competition is limited and Ergon Retail is the dominant retailer. The same authority says it has used an avoided-cost method since 2014-15 to set a tariff that aims to provide a fair and reasonable return for solar exports in regional Queensland.

South East Queensland works differently. The QCA says the SEQ electricity market has been deregulated since July 2016, and customers can compare electricity offers, including solar feed-in tariffs, at Energy Made Easy. For an AGL solar customer in Brisbane, the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast, that means the practical next step is to compare the live AGL offer against other retailer offers through Energy Made Easy instead of assuming the regional Queensland setting applies.

If you live in regional Queensland, check first whether AGL is even part of the relevant comparison at your address. If you live in South East Queensland, compare AGL using the same annual usage, solar export estimate and tariff type across all shortlisted plans. Do not mix a single-rate plan from one retailer with a time-of-use plan from another unless you have already checked when your household imports power.

New South Wales: compare the live AGL offer for your postcode

New South Wales does not give solar households one statewide retailer feed-in tariff that applies across every AGL plan. The useful fact for NSW readers is that Energy Made Easy covers New South Wales and lets households compare current electricity offers by suburb, postcode and usage details. That gives you a cleaner way to test AGL than relying on a generic solar article or an old feed-in tariff table.

For a New South Wales comparison, use the same steps every time. Enter your address, select the right tariff type, add your annual kWh usage if you have it, and then look at the current AGL solar offer beside at least three competing plans. If your bill shows controlled load, time-of-use, or a smart meter tariff, keep those settings consistent across the comparison so the export credit is not being compared against a different import structure.

A practical NSW check is to look for the total annual estimate first and the export rate second. If AGL is paying an export credit that looks competitive but the annual estimate is still higher than a rival plan after you enter real usage, the higher feed-in number has not translated into the best bill outcome.

South Australia: focus on export limits, timing and whole-bill value

South Australia has a large solar population, so small changes in export pricing can attract too much attention. For an AGL solar comparison in South Australia, use Energy Made Easy for the address-level shortlist and then check whether the plan works with your import pattern, not just your daytime exports. A household in Adelaide that exports heavily at midday but still buys a lot of peak power in the evening can be hurt by a weak peak import rate even if the feed-in tariff headline looks acceptable.

South Australian readers should also check export approval conditions with their network setup before treating any retailer feed-in tariff as guaranteed value. If your solar inverter is export-limited, or your household is already shifting more solar into self-consumption, a difference of 1 or 2 cents per kWh on the export credit may matter less than a lower import rate during the hours when the home still buys power.

Why the feed-in tariff alone is a weak comparison method

Solar households often overvalue the export number because it is easy to see on a plan page. The harder numbers are the ones that usually decide the bill: the usage rate you pay when the sun is down, the daily supply charge you pay every day, and the number of kilowatt hours you actually export after self-consumption. Those three figures are more stable decision tools than any headline about the highest solar credit.

Use a simple worked example. If your system exports 8 kWh on an average day, a difference between a 6 cents per kWh feed-in tariff and a 3 cents per kWh feed-in tariff is 24 cents a day, or about $87.60 over 365 days. If the lower-feed-in plan also cuts your import cost by 5 cents per kWh on 8 kWh of evening imports, that import saving is 40 cents a day, or about $146 over a year. In that example, the lower feed-in tariff still produces the better annual result.

That is why the safest solar question is not "Which AGL plan has the highest feed-in tariff?" The better question is "Which current plan leaves me with the lowest realistic annual bill once imports, exports and fixed charges are all counted?" Readers can act on that question immediately with one recent bill and one comparison session.

What to check on the AGL plan document before switching

Check five items on the current AGL document for your state. First, confirm the feed-in tariff in cents per kWh that applies to your exact plan. Second, confirm the usage rates and whether they are single-rate, time-of-use or demand-linked. Third, check the daily supply charge in dollars per day. Fourth, check whether the solar offer has eligibility conditions tied to meter type, system setup or state. Fifth, confirm any fees or conditions that affect exit, billing or payment method.

If your household has a battery, add one more step. Look at how much solar you still export after battery charging. A household that stores most of its midday solar may care less about a premium export credit than a household that still exports large volumes every afternoon. The AGL solar plan that looks best for a battery-free home may not be the best fit once a battery changes the export profile.

Three mistakes that make AGL solar comparisons unreliable

The first mistake is comparing only the feed-in tariff and ignoring the import tariff. The second mistake is comparing two different tariff structures, such as single-rate against time-of-use, without checking when the home uses electricity. The third mistake is using a stale article or old screenshot instead of a current Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare result from June 2026.

A fourth mistake is skipping the bill. Energy Made Easy says it is a good idea to have a recent bill in front of you when you start, and that advice matters even more for solar households. The bill gives you your usage pattern, your current rates, and the meter clues you need to avoid comparing the wrong plan.

The simplest way to compare AGL solar plans today

Start with your latest bill. Then open the official comparison service for your state: Energy Made Easy for New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, or Victorian Energy Compare for Victoria. Enter the same address and usage details for every shortlisted plan. After that, open the current AGL plan document, check the feed-in tariff, usage rates and supply charge, and calculate whether the plan still works once your real exports and evening imports are both included.

For CompareUs readers, the next step after this guide is to compare current electricity offers directly at /electricity and pressure-test the bill outcome at /calculators/electricity-cost. That gives you a faster answer than chasing the highest solar credit in isolation.

Sources and methodology

This guide uses current public information from the Essential Services Commission Victoria, the Queensland Competition Authority and Energy Made Easy. Victorian rule references are current to the ESC page updated for the 1 July 2025 law change, and Queensland rule references are current to the QCA solar feed-in tariff page last modified on 18 June 2026. Because retailer plan terms can change faster than regulator background pages, always confirm the current AGL plan document before switching.