Sydney’s outer suburbs are leading the charge as home battery enquiries with VoltX Energy have risen 200 per cent in recent weeks.
This comes as the prospect of Cheaper Home Batteries benefits lessening from May 1 is compounded by ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which is raising concerns of power bill increases.
VoltX sees March as the final month for homeowners to enquire about home battery installations under the scheme’s current structure, whereby households can claim a home battery rebate on systems up to 50kWh in size. From May 1, only the first 14kWh will receive 100 per cent of the rebate, with the next 14kWh receiving 60 per cent of the rebate. Any capacity above 28kWh will receive just 15 per cent of the rebate.
Systems need to be fully installed and certified, not just ordered, before the May 1 cut-off to be eligible for the current rebate, underlining the need for urgency.
VoltX Energy chief operating officer David Sedighi said households who wait to install until after May 1 will pay nearly $10,000 more for a 50kWh system than they do now.
He shed light on the current surge in interest.
“The top three postcodes are all in the Hills District in Sydney’s rapidly expanding north-west with Kellyville and Rouse Hill seeing the highest uptake of home batteries than any other suburbs in Sydney,’’ Sedighi said.
“Family-friendly suburbs tend to have higher energy consumption due to the size of homes and number of people in them, so it makes sense to be more self-sufficient when it comes to storing and using your own power.
“The average annual electricity bill for a family of four is now $2350 and so people in these areas have the output to warrant a bigger 50kWh system and the space to install it.”
On the flip side, the likes of Chippendale, Crows Nest, Kingsgrove and Surry Hills have shown limited interest in home batteries, which VoltX puts down to higher-density living and the limited space for battery systems.
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