How Synergy bills solar customers in Perth: reading your solar bill

Your first Synergy bill after solar installation looks different from your previous bills. The layout has changed, there are new line items, and the total is (hopefully) lower. This guide explains what each section means and how to verify the bill is calculating your solar credits correctly.

How Synergy measures solar exports

Synergy uses smart meters (interval meters) that record both consumption (energy imported from the grid) and solar export (energy sent to the grid) in 30-minute intervals.

Key point: Synergy does not net your consumption against your exports in real time. They are measured separately:

• Import: Grid electricity you consumed, measured in kWh
• Export: Solar electricity you sent to the grid, measured in kWh

Charges are applied to your import, and credits are applied to your export at the Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme (DEBS) rate. The credits reduce — but may not eliminate — your electricity charges.

DEBS rate: Synergy's current DEBS buyback rate is 10 cents/kWh for all exports from residential solar systems. This applies to the total exported kWh regardless of when they were exported during the day.

What appears on your Synergy solar bill

A Synergy bill for a solar customer typically includes:

Supply charge: A fixed daily charge for being connected to the grid (currently $1.2298/day for A1 residential), charged regardless of how much electricity you use or export. This charge does not change with solar.

Consumption charges: The number of kWh imported × the tariff rate. On the standard A1 tariff (33.2621c/kWh as of 1 July 2026), your bill shows: Import kWh × 33.2621c = $X.XX

DEBS credits: The number of kWh exported × 10c. Your bill shows: Export kWh × 10c = $Y.YY (credit)

GST: Applied to the net amount (consumption charges + supply charge - DEBS credits)

Total amount due: The consumption charges + supply charge - DEBS credits + GST.

A worked example

Over a 2-month billing period:

• Daily supply charge: 62 days × $1.2298 = $76.25
• Import: 820 kWh × 33.2621c = $272.75
• Export: 610 kWh × 10c = $61.00 credit

Before GST: $76.25 + $272.75 - $61.00 = $288.00 GST (10%): $28.80 Total: $316.80

Without solar (and the same import): $76.25 + $272.75 + $27.60 GST = $376.60 The solar credit reduced this bill by $67.10 — but the export credit is only part of the saving. The solar also reduced the import from (hypothetical pre-solar) 2,200 kWh to 820 kWh. The full saving is much larger than the credit alone.

Understanding self-consumption vs export on your bill

Your bill shows exports — the energy the grid credited you for. But your solar system also produced energy your household consumed directly (self-consumption), which never appears on the Synergy bill as a credit because it was never measured by the export meter.

The self-consumption saving is implicit in the lower import figure. If you used to import 2,200 kWh and now import 820 kWh, the 1,380 kWh difference is solar self-consumption — at 33.26c/kWh, that's worth $458.98 per billing period in import savings. This doesn't appear on your bill as a line item — it's just the lower consumption charge.

What your bill doesn't show:

• How much your panels actually generated
• Your self-consumption rate (% of solar used directly)
• Your inverter's daily output

These are available from your inverter's monitoring platform (Sungrow iSolarCloud, Fronius Solar.web, SolarEdge monitoring) or from your smart meter data via Synergy's online portal.

Checking your smart meter data

Synergy provides access to your interval meter data through the Synergy online portal. Log in and navigate to "My Energy Data" or similar — the portal allows export of 30-minute interval import and export data.

This data lets you:

• See when your solar is exporting vs when you're importing
• Identify high-consumption time periods
• Compare actual export with what appears on your bill
• Identify whether shifting load (dishwasher, washing machine, EV charging) to daytime would reduce import

Why the first bill after solar installation may look odd

No solar reading on part of the bill: If your solar was installed mid-billing-period, Synergy may issue a bill with two sections — the pre-solar period at standard consumption rates, and the post-solar period with both consumption and export credits. The combined bill can be confusing. Check the billing dates on each section.

Meter configuration delay: Synergy must reconfigure your meter to measure export after solar installation. This reconfiguration sometimes takes 4–8 weeks. During this period, exports may not be credited. Synergy typically issues a catch-up credit once the meter is configured — check your first solar bill carefully for this catch-up credit, or contact Synergy if it's missing.

Feed-in credit missing: If your DEBS credit is absent on the first solar bill, it's most likely the meter configuration delay. Contact Synergy with your installation date and CEC accreditation details to initiate the catch-up credit.

Synergy Midday Saver tariff billing

If you're on the Midday Saver tariff (separate pricing for peak/off-peak/super-off-peak periods), your bill shows consumption broken into three pricing blocks:

• Super-off-peak (10am–3pm): 8.85c/kWh
• Off-peak (all other times): 24.34c/kWh
• Peak (7–9am and 5–9pm weekdays): 55.33c/kWh

The Midday Saver import rate during the super-off-peak window (10am–3pm) is 8.85c/kWh — notably lower than the DEBS export rate (well, comparable, but imports avoided at 8.85c still beat the DEBS credit). On Midday Saver, the billing shows three blocks of imports with three different rates, and a single export credit at the DEBS rate (10c applies to Midday Saver exports in the same way).

Your Synergy solar bill shows import charges and export credits — but the bigger solar saving (self-consumption) appears only as a lower import figure, not as a separate line item. The export credit is real but represents only the energy you couldn't consume yourself. The full saving = (reduced import × 33.26c) + (export kWh × 10c).