Synergy Midday Saver Plan Explained (2026): Rates, Times and Is It Worth It?
Quick answer: Synergy Midday Saver is a time-of-use plan for Perth homes. From 1 July 2026 you pay 8.85c/kWh from 9am to 3pm, 55.33c/kWh from 3pm to 9pm and 24.34c/kWh from 9pm to 9am, plus a supply charge of about $1.33 a day. You need an advanced (AMI) meter where one is available, but you don’t need solar or a battery. It saves money if you can run most of your power between 9am and 3pm or cover the 3pm–9pm peak with a battery. If your evenings are heavy and you can’t change them, the flat Home Plan (A1) is usually cheaper.
The cheap midday rate looks great on paper. The catch is the evening rate, which is two-thirds higher than the flat A1 rate. Whether you come out ahead depends on when you use power, not how much. Below are the rates, the maths for three typical homes and a simple test for whether it suits you.
What is the Synergy Midday Saver plan?
Midday Saver is Synergy’s time-of-use plan for residential customers, with three price bands that apply every day of the week. Power is cheapest in the middle of the day, dearest in the late afternoon and evening, and mid-priced overnight. The windows are the same on weekdays, weekends and public holidays.
Midday Saver rates and times (from 1 July 2026)
| Time band | Hours (every day) | Midday Saver | Home Plan A1 (flat) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super off-peak | 9am – 3pm | 8.85c/kWh | 33.26c/kWh |
| Peak | 3pm – 9pm | 55.33c/kWh | 33.26c/kWh |
| Off-peak | 9pm – 9am | 24.34c/kWh | 33.26c/kWh |
| Daily supply charge | – | 132.78c/day (~$1.33) | 119.24c/day (~$1.19) |
Put simply: compared with A1, you save about 24c on every midday kilowatt-hour and about 9c on every overnight one. You pay about 22c more on every kilowatt-hour between 3pm and 9pm, plus roughly 14c a day extra in supply charges.
Who can get Midday Saver?
- Residential customers only. It isn’t available where power is used for a business or home business.
- You need a compatible meter. If Western Power’s advanced (AMI) meters are available at your address, you must have one. If AMI isn’t available at your address yet, you can’t join.
- No solar, battery or EV needed. Synergy doesn’t require any of them.
- No lock-in. There’s no fixed term. You can change plans with five days’ notice and go back to a Home Plan at any time.
- Battery Rewards eligible. Midday Saver is one of the tariffs that can join Synergy Battery Rewards (alongside A1, K1 and EV Add On) if you install a battery under the WA Residential Battery Scheme.
Worth knowing: Synergy’s older Smart Home Plan is closed to new customers, so Midday Saver is the time-of-use option most households can actually sign up to in 2026. If you’re on Smart Home Plan already, our Smart Home Plan vs A1 guide covers that comparison. For a side-by-side of every Synergy plan, see our Synergy electricity plans compared guide.
Midday Saver vs Home Plan A1: worked examples
Midday Saver usually beats A1 when you have a battery, or when you can move a few kilowatt-hours a day out of the 3pm–9pm window. It usually loses for homes with heavy evening use and no battery, even with solar. The three examples below show why. They are estimates using assumed usage patterns, not real customer bills. Your own result depends on your actual usage by time of day.
How the maths works: daily cost = (kWh in each band × that band’s rate) + supply charge, then × 365 for a year. Solar export credits are left out because DEBS pays the same buyback whichever retail plan you’re on.
(a) No solar: 18 kWh a day
Assume a family home using 18 kWh a day: 3.6 kWh between 9am and 3pm, 8.1 kWh between 3pm and 9pm and 6.3 kWh overnight.
- A1: 18 × 33.26c + 119.24c = about $7.18 a day, or roughly $2,620 a year.
- Midday Saver, no changes: (3.6 × 8.85c) + (8.1 × 55.33c) + (6.3 × 24.34c) + 132.78c = about $7.66 a day, or roughly $2,800 a year. That’s around $175 a year worse.
- Midday Saver, 3 kWh shifted to midday (6.6 / 5.1 / 6.3 kWh): about $6.27 a day, or roughly $2,290 a year. That’s around $330 a year better than A1.
Same home, same total usage: about $500 a year difference, purely from timing.
(b) 6.6 kW solar, no battery
Same home, now with 6.6 kW of solar. The panels cover most midday use, so grid imports drop to about 0.5 kWh midday, 6.5 kWh from 3pm to 9pm (solar fades in the late afternoon) and 6.3 kWh overnight.
- A1: 13.3 kWh × 33.26c + 119.24c = about $5.62 a day, or roughly $2,050 a year.
- Midday Saver: about $6.50 a day, or roughly $2,370 a year. Around $320 a year worse.
- After moving 2 kWh of evening loads into solar hours: A1 drops to about $1,810 a year and Midday Saver to about $1,970. A1 still wins by around $160.
This surprises many solar owners. Your panels already cover midday, so the 8.85c rate saves you little. What’s left on your bill is mostly evening power, which Midday Saver charges more for.
(c) 6.6 kW solar plus a ~10 kWh battery
Add a battery of about 10 kWh, charged from the solar each day. It covers most of the evening peak and part of the night. Averaged across the year, grid imports fall to about 0.5 kWh midday, 0.5 kWh peak (cloudy days, very high-use evenings) and 3.0 kWh overnight.
- A1: 4.0 kWh × 33.26c + 119.24c = about $2.52 a day, or roughly $920 a year.
- Midday Saver: about $2.38 a day, or roughly $870 a year. Around $50 a year better.
With a battery, the plan choice matters much less because the battery has already removed most of your expensive power. Midday Saver edges ahead on cheaper overnight power, and on cloudy winter days you can top the battery up from the grid at 8.85c to use in the 55c peak.
| Scenario (estimates) | Home Plan A1 | Midday Saver | Better plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| (a) No solar, usage unchanged | ~$2,620/yr | ~$2,800/yr | A1 |
| (a) No solar, 3 kWh/day shifted to 9am–3pm | ~$2,620/yr | ~$2,290/yr | Midday Saver |
| (b) 6.6 kW solar, no battery | ~$2,050/yr | ~$2,370/yr | A1 |
| (c) 6.6 kW solar + ~10 kWh battery | ~$920/yr | ~$870/yr | Midday Saver (just) |
Why Perth’s sunny middle of the day makes this plan work
Midday Saver rewards you for using power while WA’s rooftop solar is producing most, and Perth gets plenty of clear midday sun. The more load you run between 9am and 3pm, from your panels or from the grid at 8.85c, the better this plan looks.
The big loads worth moving are the ones you can put on a timer:
- Dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. Use the delay-start button so they run late morning instead of after dinner.
- Pool pump. Set the timer to run inside 9am–3pm. A pool pump running a few hours a day is often the single easiest win.
- Hot water. An electric storage or heat-pump hot water system on a timer can heat the tank during the day and hold it for the evening.
- Air conditioning. On hot summer days, pre-cool the house in the early afternoon, then ease off after 3pm.
- EV charging. Charging between 9am and 3pm is the cheapest grid power on the plan. If your car is only home overnight, look at Synergy’s EV Add On plan, which adds a cheaper 11pm–6am rate to the Midday Saver structure.
Quick tip: before switching, find out how much of your power you use between 3pm and 9pm. If you already have an advanced meter, check your usage history in your Synergy online account, or ask Synergy for it. That one number decides most of the question.
The 3pm–9pm peak trap (and how a battery gets around it)
The risk with Midday Saver is the 55.33c peak rate from 3pm to 9pm, which is about 22c more than A1 for every kilowatt-hour. Those six hours are exactly when most Perth families cook, run the air conditioner, watch TV and do homework. If those habits can’t change, a cheap midday rate won’t make up for it.
Quick rule of thumb: each peak kilowatt-hour costs about 22c more than A1, a midday one saves about 24c and an overnight one saves about 9c. So every peak kilowatt-hour needs to be balanced by about one midday kilowatt-hour or two and a half overnight ones, plus about 14c a day for the higher supply charge. Solar homes rarely buy much midday power, so they need a lot of overnight use, or very little peak use, to come out ahead.
A home battery fixes the problem directly. It stores spare solar from the middle of the day and releases it from 3pm onwards, so you buy little or no 55c power. That’s why the battery example above flips the result in Midday Saver’s favour. A battery also lets you join Synergy Battery Rewards if it’s installed under the WA Residential Battery Scheme. That pays a 70c/kWh credit for power your battery exports during a limited number of grid events each year.
As a rough guide, most Perth homes pay around $5,500–$9,000 for a ~10 kWh battery after federal and WA rebates in 2026. Your price depends on the battery size, your existing inverter and switchboard, and whether you’re a Synergy or Horizon Power customer. See our solar battery installation page for how we size batteries for Perth homes.
Does DEBS still apply on Midday Saver?
Yes. Your solar exports are still paid under DEBS on Midday Saver, at the same rates as on A1: 10c/kWh for power exported between 3pm and 9pm and 2c/kWh at all other times. DEBS is the buyback scheme, and it sits separately from the plan you buy power on. Synergy pays buyback on the first 50 kWh you export each day.
In practice, midday exports earn just 2c, and evening exports earn 10c against the 55.33c you’d pay to buy that power back. Using or storing your solar is worth far more than exporting it. Our DEBS feed-in tariff guide explains the buyback rules in detail.
Who should not switch to Midday Saver?
Stay on A1 if most of your power is used between 3pm and 9pm and you can’t shift it or cover it with a battery. Midday Saver is a good plan for the right household, but it isn’t a free saving. It’s probably not for you if:
- Everyone is out all day. If the house is empty from 8am to 5pm and loads can’t run on timers, there’s little midday use to make cheap.
- You have solar but no battery, and big evenings. As example (b) shows, solar already covers midday, so the plan mostly adds cost in the evening.
- Health or comfort needs keep evening use high, such as air conditioning on hot summer nights.
- You don’t want to think about timing. A flat rate is simple, and that’s worth something.
How to switch to Synergy Midday Saver
You apply online through Synergy’s Midday Saver page, and Synergy arranges any meter work with Western Power. The steps:
- Check your usage pattern, especially how much falls between 3pm and 9pm.
- Apply on synergy.net.au with a recent bill handy.
- Meter work, if needed. Synergy organises any reprogramming or replacement with Western Power. Listed fees, charged on your next bill: reconfiguration $111.60 ($42.22 if remote) or upgrade $108.84.
- Set your timers so the dishwasher, washing, pool pump and hot water run in 9am–3pm.
- Compare your bills after a billing period or two. If A1 would have been cheaper, switch back with five days’ notice.
Thinking about a battery to go with Midday Saver?
If the numbers only work once the 3pm–9pm peak is covered, a battery is the piece to look at. Talk Energy Solar & Battery is based in Mount Pleasant and has completed 5,000+ installations across Perth over 7+ years, with in-house SAA-accredited electricians (no subcontractors) and a 20-year workmanship warranty. We install Sigenergy (SigenStor) batteries and can size one around your actual evening usage and your Synergy plan. We’re rated 4.8 stars from 300+ Google reviews.
Get a free, fixed quote or call us on (08) 6255 5914. We’ll tell you honestly if a battery doesn’t stack up for your home.
Synergy Midday Saver FAQs
What are the Synergy Midday Saver rates in 2026?
From 1 July 2026, Synergy Midday Saver charges 8.85c/kWh from 9am to 3pm, 55.33c/kWh from 3pm to 9pm and 24.34c/kWh from 9pm to 9am. The daily supply charge is 132.78c, or about $1.33 a day. All rates include GST and apply every day, including weekends. Synergy usually reviews prices each 1 July, so check synergy.net.au before switching.
Do I need solar panels to go on Midday Saver?
No. Synergy doesn’t require solar, a battery or an EV for Midday Saver. You do need to be a residential customer with a compatible meter, and you must have an advanced (AMI) meter if one is available at your address. Homes without solar can do well on the plan if they run big loads like the dishwasher, washing machine and pool pump between 9am and 3pm.
Is Midday Saver cheaper than Home Plan A1?
It depends on when you use power. Midday Saver is cheaper if you can use a good share of your power between 9am and 3pm, or cover the 3pm–9pm peak with a battery. It’s usually dearer if most of your use falls between 3pm and 9pm, because the peak rate is about 22c/kWh higher than A1’s flat 33.26c. In our illustrative estimates, a solar home with no battery and heavy evening use paid around $320 a year more on Midday Saver.
Do I still get paid for solar exports on Midday Saver?
Yes. Solar exports are still paid under the Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme (DEBS), whichever Synergy plan you’re on. DEBS pays 10c/kWh for exports between 3pm and 9pm and 2c/kWh at other times, on the first 50 kWh exported each day. Because midday exports earn only 2c, it usually pays to use or store that solar instead.
Can I switch back to A1 if Midday Saver doesn’t suit me?
Yes. Midday Saver has no fixed term. Synergy lets you change plans with five days’ notice and return to a Home Plan at any time. Meter reprogramming or upgrade fees may apply when you first switch, so it’s worth checking your usage pattern before you move.
