By Jackson Howarth
Fri, 24 Jul 2026 12.02 GMT
Article
Kraken seamlessly rolls out solar scheme for Australian partners
We’re delighted to have worked with our utility partners in Australia to successfully launch a government mandated ‘Solar Sharer Offer’, giving customers free power for three hours in the middle of the day – when Australian solar is especially abundant. Not only did we leverage Kraken’s tech agility to help our clients comfortably meet the deadline of July 1 2026, but it was also a brilliant opportunity to support Australian tariff innovation and ultimately, a more sustainable grid, advancing our mission to make ‘a big green dent’ in the process.
Australia’s booming home-solar rollout
Sunny Australia has seen a remarkable rise in home solar installations over the last decade. Over 40% of homes now boast rooftop solar, with a total capacity exceeding a whopping 28GW. Cheap, clean solar generation is incredibly important, but this power also needs to be stored or used up when it’s abundant, otherwise it can risk overloading the grid.
With that in mind, the Australian Government mandated the Solar Sharer Offer. This regulated scheme requires eligible energy retailers in eligible states to offer customers three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day to encourage the consumption of excess solar generation and help balance the grid.*
Staying ahead of the rules and regs
Traditionally, regulatory requirements like this have been a major headache for utility companies the world over. Clunky, legacy tech stands in the way of rapid changes, especially given that outdated tech systems that are often jury-rigged from multiple different platforms, and changes spanning different areas of the system require a huge amount of bespoke hard-coding, costing millions of dollars.
This time, however, our Australian partners including Nectr and Ergon had Kraken’s next-generation operating system at their disposal. Kraken is purpose built for this kind of agility. A unified platform and strong data foundation means that changes and innovations that affect multiple parts of a utility’s systems – including billing, metering, tariff building, and customer engagement – can be made incredibly quickly, easily, and reliably. In this case, work started in March 2026, and was finished by May, with final testing in June. Kraken was able to integrate specifics like live quoting, and building the Solar Sharer tariff into ‘best offer on bill’ comparisons, with ease.
Partners over customers
Responding to these kinds of regulatory changes comes as a standard Kraken offering for any of our clients – at no extra cost. We see the utilities we work with as partners, rather than customers, and so we were on hand, working together to plan for this ahead of time. This allowed us to deliver an on-time rollout across multiple states, and a seamless experience for end-customers across digital and phone channels, by making it easy for them to understand and adopt the new tariff.
Ultimately, regulatory change can create valuable opportunities to improve customer experiences and unlock smarter, cleaner energy systems. We're proud to have successfully empowered Australian partners like Nectr and Ergon as they turn policy into practical, customer-friendly solutions that support Australia's transition to a smarter, more sustainable energy system.
Notes:
* The rollout is made slightly more complicated by the fact that it only applies to Market Offer (DMO) states, including Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia – but not states such as Victoria, which operate under different schemes.
