TL;DR: Origin's solar feed-in tariffs sit mid-market, and that matters less than people think. What decides your bill is the daily supply charge and the import rate, because most solar households buy more power than they sell. Compare on total annual cost using your own usage figures, not on the advertised feed-in rate.
What Origin Offers Solar Households
Origin is one of the three largest electricity retailers in the country, and it sells several plans aimed at homes with solar panels.
The structure is conventional: a daily supply charge, an import rate, and a feed-in tariff for exported power. Some plans add a tiered feed-in structure or bundle a virtual power plant offer.
Most people end up with Origin because they recognise the name, which is not a reason to stay or leave. It is a reason to check the numbers.
The Feed-in Tariff
Origin's standard feed-in rates sit in the middle of the market, commonly between 5c and 8c/kWh in New South Wales and Queensland depending on the plan.
Premium plans advertise higher rates. A tiered offer might pay 12c/kWh for the first 10kWh exported each day and drop to a much lower rate above that.
Read those carefully. Two things usually accompany a high headline feed-in rate: a higher daily supply charge, a higher import rate, or both. And the daily export cap is often set below what a decent array actually produces, so the headline rate applies to a fraction of what you send out.
Virtual Power Plant Offers
Origin runs a VPP program that pays for letting your battery discharge to the grid at peak times.
Worth reading closely if you have battery storage. VPP participation cycles the battery harder than household use alone, and most battery warranties expire at a stated energy throughput or cycle count, whichever comes first. Earning VPP credits can bring that expiry forward.
How the Competition Compares
AGL and EnergyAustralia
Structurally similar to Origin, and priced similarly.
AGL's standard feed-in rates typically land in the same 5c to 8c/kWh band, with tiered premium plans reaching 12c/kWh under conditions. EnergyAustralia's solar plans compete on the same ground.
The differences that matter are not in the feed-in rate. A retailer offering a marginally better export rate but a peak import rate 3c/kWh higher will cost a typical solar household more, because the typical household imports more than it exports. Bundling discounts and direct debit credits move the total more than the feed-in rate does.
Smaller Retailers
Red Energy and Lumo, both owned by Snowy Hydro, often price competitively on feed-in rates, particularly when bundled with gas.
Amber Electric works differently again. It charges a monthly subscription and passes through wholesale spot prices, which means your feed-in rate moves with the market minute to minute. Export during an evening price spike and you can earn many times a standard feed-in tariff. Export at midday when wholesale prices go negative and you can earn nothing, or pay.
That model suits a household with a battery and automation that can respond to price signals. Without one, it is exposure without the tools to manage it.
Where the Small Retailers Actually Win
Not usually on price. On plan structure.
Smaller retailers are more willing to offer a low daily supply charge with a higher import rate, which is precisely the shape a low-consumption solar household wants and precisely the shape the big three rarely offer. If your quarterly import has fallen to a few hundred kilowatt-hours, that structure is worth more than any feed-in rate on the market.
The Numbers That Actually Decide Your Bill
The Daily Supply Charge
A fixed fee, typically $1.00 to $1.50 a day, charged regardless of consumption. Over a quarter that is $90 to $135 before you use anything.
Solar cannot touch it. For a household that has driven its imports right down, it can be the largest line on the bill, which is why a plan with a low supply charge often beats a plan with a high feed-in rate for exactly those households.
The Import Rate
What you pay per kilowatt-hour drawn from the grid, and for most solar homes still the biggest number on the bill.
Work through the comparison. A plan with a 6c/kWh feed-in and a 25c/kWh import rate beats a plan with an 8c/kWh feed-in and a 30c/kWh import rate for any household importing more than it exports, which is most of them. The second plan looks better in an advertisement and costs more every quarter.
Check whether the rate is flat or time-of-use. On time-of-use, when you consume matters as much as how much, and a plan with a wide peak window can cost an afternoon household considerably more than the headline rate suggests.
Benefit Periods and Exit Terms
Many plans carry a benefit period, usually 12 months, after which the discount or elevated feed-in rate reverts to something much less attractive. Retailers are required to notify you and it is easy to miss.
Diarise the end of any benefit period when you sign up. Month-to-month plans give you the flexibility to act on it; fixed contracts may carry exit fees.
How to Compare Properly
Use the Government Comparison Sites
Energy Made Easy at energymadeeasy.gov.au covers every state except Victoria. Victorians use Victorian Energy Compare at compare.energy.vic.gov.au. Both are free, government-run, and take no commission from retailers.
Enter your actual usage and export figures from a recent bill rather than accepting the default household profile. The tool then ranks plans by estimated annual cost with the supply charge, import rates and feed-in tariff all accounted for.
Commercial comparison sites will also do this, but they are paid by the retailers they list, and not every retailer is listed.
Know Your Own Profile First
Pull your last four bills and note three numbers: total imported kWh, total exported kWh, and how imports split across peak, shoulder and off-peak if you are on time-of-use.
Those three numbers tell you which plan shape suits you.
- Import much more than you export: prioritise a low import rate. The feed-in tariff barely matters.
- Export a large surplus: the feed-in rate earns its keep, and a tiered plan may pay well if your daily export sits under the cap.
- Very low imports, usually a battery household: prioritise the lowest daily supply charge you can find and accept a higher import rate.
Redo this annually. Rates move, benefit periods lapse, and the plan that was competitive when you signed rarely still is.
Key Takeaways
- Origin's feed-in tariffs sit mid-market, and the feed-in rate is rarely what decides a solar household's bill.
- A tiered feed-in offer usually caps the good rate at a daily export volume below what a decent array produces.
- The daily supply charge and the import rate move your total more than the feed-in tariff does.
- Compare on total annual cost using Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare with your own usage data.
- Note when your benefit period ends and recompare annually, whichever retailer you choose.
