How to make the most of your home battery

Learn how to make the most of your home battery setup and make it work harder for you.

Maximising your home battery's potential isn't just about setting it up and letting it store energy.

With a few simple tricks, you can make your battery work harder for you and even earn rewards.

From joining a battery rewards program to optimising your energy use, here's how to make your home battery go the extra mile.

Join the AGL Battery Rewards Plan

1. Choose a Time-of-Use (TOU) energy plan designed for battery customers

Not all energy plans are created equal – especially when it comes to batteries!

If you have a battery, Time-of-Use (TOU) plans are often more beneficial than flat tariffs. This is because TOU plans have variable rates for electricity depending on the time of day, meaning you can aim to buy grid energy when it's cheapest and use your solar energy when rates are higher.

For battery owners, it helps to find a plan that offers:

• Cheaper rates during off-peak or solar charging hours: Ideal for charging from the grid on these wintery or rainy days when there isn't enough sun to charge the battery.

• Extra rewards or feed-in tariffs for exporting energy: You can use what you need and then get rewarded for sending any excess battery energy back to the grid.

The right plan turns your excess battery storage into an opportunity to get even more value from your battery.

AGL's TOU version of Battery Rewards Plan is a great example of an energy plan specially designed for battery customers and does just that.

Get started with AGL

2. Maximise your solar usage

One of the best ways to enhance your battery performance is to make the most of your solar generation.

There are a couple of easy ways to do this:

• Shift usage: Run major appliances (washing machine, dishwasher, pool pump) during daylight hours.
• Monitor your system's performance regularly: Use your battery's mobile app to track generation, storage, and consumption patterns.

By shifting your energy use to daylight hours and storing any excess, your solar system works harder for you – freeing up more of your battery's capacity for when it matters most.

It also means you can take advantage of the benefits of exporting any excess energy to the grid, such as those included in AGL's Battery Rewards plan.

3. Ensure your battery set-up aligns with your plan

Even the best battery won't maximise its value unless it's configured to match your energy plan.

Most modern battery systems allow you to automate when and how your battery charges and discharges.

To improve your set up, you can:

• Enable time-based control or TOU mode on your battery (supported by most systems like Tesla, Sungrow, and Sigen).
• Keep some excess energy stored during the day so there's capacity to use it during the evening, especially if you have a TOU plan.
• Schedule discharging to the grid when you get the most value if you're on a plan like Battery Rewards (that offers higher value for exports in peak windows).

With the right plan, smart scheduling, and efficient energy use, your home battery does more than store power – it actively works to lower your energy bills and boost your rewards.

A few simple changes can mean more savings, more value, and a smarter energy future.

Visit the Battery Rewards Page to learn more and sign-up today.

^{You can check out an example of how to set up a Tesla Battery in the Ausgrid patch here}

^{Note: A basic plan information document containing key details of AGL's Battery Rewards Plan is available on request.}