Latest Updates

Father with his two children sitting in front of a laptop
Early childhood education and care review update

Our Interim Report will be published on 20 October 2023.

Registrations are now open to join our online public hearing on Monday 30 October 2023 from 10:30am to 1pm to give feedback on the Interim Report draft findings and draft recommendations.

You will also be able to provide feedback via our survey or make a submission in response by 17 November.

Deborah Cope
Tribunal Member Deborah Cope to Retire

Chair Carmel Donnelly PSM announced earlier this year that Tribunal member Deborah Cope will retire in October.

"I would like to thank her for her service to NSW as a Tribunal member and pay tribute to her significant contribution," said Ms Donnelly.

A woman with a small female child doing arts and crafts
Independent Market Monitoring Review

We've published a paper setting out how we propose to undertake our market monitoring review of the childcare sector market.

We welcome your feedback specifically on the measures and performance indicators proposed in our methodology paper.

You can do this by making a submission by 3 October 2023.

Aerial photograph of a Dam in New South Wales
WaterNSW Operating Licence review

We have released an Issues Paper and are seeking feedback on potential changes to the WaterNSW Operating Licence.

Stakeholders, including WaterNSW customers who use their services are invited to make comment on the issues we have identified and anything else that matters to them.

How much is my solar energy worth?

In 2023-24, IPART forecasts that the value of solar exports will be 7.7 to 9.4 c/kWh. This guide could help you work out whether your retailer is offering a reasonable feed-in tariff for your solar exports. You can compare rates on the Commonwealth Government Energy Made Easy website.

We also publish a guide on how much solar exports are worth at different times of the day.

The Table below shows IPART’s recent guides on the value of solar feed-in all-day tariffs, and also provides links to information on the offers available in the market for that year.

Year

Benchmark (c/kWh)

More information

Offers available in the market

2023-24 7.7 to 9.4

Fact sheet, Media release, Technical note

 
2022-23

6.2 to 10.4

Fact sheet, Media release

Feed-in tariff offers

2021-22

4.6 to 5.5

Fact sheet, Review

Fact Sheet

2020-21

6.0 to 7.3

Final report

Final report, see page 16

2019-20

8.5 to 10.4

Final report

Final report, see page 5

2018-19

6.9 to 8.4

Fact sheet, Review

Final report, see page 5

Retailers are not required to offer feed-in tariffs in line with our guide. Some retailers are offering feed-in tariffs above our guide. However, these offers may be conditional, for example, the retailer may require the household purchase a solar system or battery from them, or they may only offer a higher feed-in tariff to a daily capped volume of solar exports. Also, the highest feed-in tariff may not be the best overall deal, as some high feed-in tariffs may also be paired with higher retail prices. You need to consider the entire energy plan, as well as your electricity consumption and solar exports when comparing offers.

What is IPART’s guide based on?

When you export your excess solar electricity to the grid, retailers can use this electricity to supply their other customers. We set our guide for how much you can expect to be paid for your solar exports based on our forecast wholesale price of this electricity. This is what retailers would have paid if they had bought the electricity from the National Electricity Market.

See more information about how we value solar energy exports.

Increasing wholesale prices have driven higher benchmarks over the last 2 years

 Wholesale prices increased significantly over the last year due to the war in the Ukraine which has led to higher gas and coal prices, and disruptions in several large coal-fired power plants. This led to a higher benchmark in 2022-23, up from around 5 c/kWh in 2021-22.

As wholesale prices are forecast to stabilise over 2023-24, the 2023-24 benchmark is similar to the 2022-23 benchmark. 

In the future, we expect additional solar capacity would put downward pressure on wholesale prices during the day when solar is exporting to the grid.