Shining a light on Trans-Tasman solar reforms

Published: Carbon News

On July 1st, governments on both sides of the Tasman reshaped the future of household solar.

In Australia, the Solar Sharer scheme introduced three hours of free midday electricity for eligible smart-meter households. In New Zealand, major electricity retailers are now required to offer time-of-use plans and pay fair, time-varying rates for exported solar. These reforms represent more than policy changes. They fundamentally change how energy retailers design, price and deliver products to customers.

The challenge? Regulation moves faster than many legacy billing platforms.

When new customer offerings become mandatory, retailers need to configure, test and launch compliant products quickly. For organisations reliant on heavily customised systems, introducing a new tariff can still take weeks or months creating unnecessary operational risk and increasing the likelihood of compliance issues.

That’s where agility becomes a competitive advantage. With Gentrack’s Product Builder, part of the g2 platform, retailers can design, configure and launch new energy products through a no-code interface putting control into the hands of business teams rather than relying heavily on IT. Whether responding to regulatory reform, launching new tariffs or creating innovative customer offers, products can be brought to market in hours instead of weeks.

As utilities navigate increasingly dynamic energy markets, the ability to adapt quickly isn’t just about compliance it’s about delivering better customer outcomes and turning regulatory change into commercial opportunity.

The utility retailers that treat pricing as a strategic product capability will be best placed to respond to whatever comes next.

Read more about the trans-Tasman solar reforms in this opinion piece by Mark Humphreys, Chief Revenue Officer, APAC.