Free midday power: is it an option for your club?

Since 1 July 2026, many Queenslanders have heard about electricity plans that offer free power in the middle of the day. For a croquet club treasurer looking to cut the cost of cooling a clubhouse, this sounds like the perfect solution. Can your club run the air-conditioning for free in the middle of the day, and are these plans as good a deal as they look?

The short answer is no, because these plans are for households, and a club account is a business account.

The "free power" window is part of the Solar Sharer Offer (SSO). This is a federal policy, not a retailer promotion, and it is governed by the Competition and Consumer (Industry Code, Electricity Retail) Amendment Regulations 2026, registered 5 March 2026. Under these rules, retailers with more than 1,000 customers in Default Market Offer regions, which includes South East Queensland on the Energex network, must offer at least one plan with three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day. According to energy.gov.au and a myenergyagent guide, the free window in South East Queensland is 11am to 2pm, providing up to 24 kWh a day for free.

Who can get these plans?

These plans are designed exclusively for households. The ACCC Electricity Retail Code specifies that the solar sharer offer is an opt-in tariff for customers with smart meters. When we checked the major retailers in September 2026, including Origin, Alinta, Red, EnergyAustralia, Powershop, Momentum, Tango, Nectr, Amber, and Ergon Retail, we found no small-business free-window plan.

Retailers are very clear about this eligibility. ENGIE states: "Business customers are not eligible to access the Solar Sharer Offer." Red Energy describes the SSO as an electricity standing offer plan for residential customers. EnergyAustralia shows its Solar Sharer only under residential options, and its business plan list has none.

As shown above, OVO Energy replaced its Free 3 plan with Free 4 (11am to 3pm) specifically for residential single rate tariff customers. Similarly, GloBird ZEROHERO requires a compatible home battery and specifies that the user must be a residential, non-ABN customer.

Why your club is considered a business

The rule turns on how the site is used. The Queensland Government Gazette, 16 June 2023, notes that small business customers can only access residential tariffs where electricity is used in connection with a private dwelling house or the grounds of that house. A clubhouse is not a dwelling, so it does not qualify. While the ABN on the bill is the first sign retailers see, the actual use of the site is the real test.

The scheme was built for households from the start. A 6 March 2026 summary from the Office of Impact Analysis explained that many households, particularly renters and apartment dwellers without rooftop solar, were unable to benefit from cheap midday solar. This was echoed in a 4 November 2025 release from Minister Chris Bowen, which focused on homes, renters, and families. There is no stated reason for excluding businesses, and the only planned extension of the scheme is to other states for households by 2027. We found no record of any group asking for businesses to be included.

The catches for households

These details are for a club whose power happens to be on a household-type account, for example a clubhouse that shares a meter with a house, and for any member weighing the plan for their own home. Even for those who can access these plans, the power is not really free. Retailers recover the cost of those three hours elsewhere. Alan Pears of RMIT warned that these contracts may charge higher prices than traditional flat tariffs at other times.

For clubs that have solar panels, such as the Hervey Bay Croquet Club (reported in its newsletter in March 2024), the free window occurs when panels produce the most. A site with panels would simply be giving up its solar feed-in value for power it was already generating. Also, controlled-load circuits, such as those for a hot water system or urn (often tariff 31 or 33 in Queensland), are metered separately and are excluded from the free window.

What the air-conditioning actually costs

A typical clubhouse split system of 8 to 12 kW cooling for a 60 to 100 square metre room costs roughly $1 to $2 an hour to run at peak. This means three hours of midday cooling costs roughly $3 to $6.

Over an example hot season of 60 days, those three hours of daily AC would cost between $180 and $360. Compare this to a typical small-business year on the Energex network. According to a WATTever estimate, an Origin Energy flat plan at 27.78c/kWh plus a 251.16c daily supply charge would cost about $3,695 a year for 10,000 kWh.

Business rates and time of day

The time of day matters more than a free window. In South East Queensland, flat "anytime" rates generally range from 23c to 29c/kWh. On a business time-of-use plan, the most expensive period is the peak band from 4pm to 9pm on weekdays. Midday usage (11am to 2pm) usually falls into the cheaper shoulder band.

Evening power, 4pm to 9pm, can cost about twice the midday rate, so that is where clubs playing under lights should look. Note that on some Energex small-business demand tariffs, the charge is set by the highest 30-minute demand between 5pm and 8pm on weekdays, meaning midday AC does not trigger that specific cost.

Regional clubs on Ergon

Regional Queensland is outside the federal SSO scheme. However, in June 2026, the Queensland Government asked the Queensland Competition Authority to develop a matching Solar Sharer tariff for regional Queensland from 1 July 2026. Ergon lists a "Solar Sharer, Tariff 12F" under its residential pages. It is listed as a residential tariff, so a club account is very unlikely to get it. If your club is on Ergon, ask Ergon to be sure.

What the treasurer should check

We found no business plan with free hours, but we did not phone every retailer or run the interactive business search on Energy Made Easy. A treasurer can run that search on Energy Made Easy in a few minutes to be sure. Be aware that the rates listed here are published examples from September 2026 and not fixed quotes, so they will change.