Is a VPP right for you?

A VPP pays you a credit each time Synergy Battery Rewards calls an event and your battery discharges to support the grid. Charging the battery earns nothing: only the discharge during an event does. Enrolling is also a condition of the WA battery rebate, not an optional extra, so skipping the VPP means skipping that money too.

Worth it if you're happy to trade some battery autonomy for event credits and your system is on the approved list. Hold off if you want maximum backup reserve at all times, or your hardware isn't approved yet.

When does a VPP make sense for you?

A VPP fits if at least one of these is true:

• You're willing to trade some battery autonomy for event credits.
• Your system is VPP-ready. For Battery Rewards that means your inverter is on Synergy's Supported Solutions List (the SSL) and is CSIP-AUS compliant. The SSL is an inverter list, not a battery list: your battery qualifies by being paired with an approved inverter, so check the inverter model rather than the battery brand.
• Your main goal is bill savings and grid support, not maximum backup reserve.

When should you hold off?

Hold off if:

• You want the highest possible backup reserve at all times. A higher reserve setting leaves less spare capacity for daily self-consumption and for VPP events, so the two goals pull against each other. Reserve only matters once the system can actually deliver backup, too: a battery keeps your home running in an outage only when it's paired with backup-capable hardware and a backup circuit wired in at install. See blackouts and batteries for what that wiring actually does.
• Your inverter or battery isn't on the approved lists yet.
• The program terms don't compensate events the way you expect.

How does a VPP event actually earn you a credit?

An event is a window, usually falling somewhere between 3pm and 9pm, when Synergy asks participating batteries to discharge into the grid. Each kWh your battery sends out during that window earns 70¢. Charging never earns a credit: only discharge does.

An event running from 3pm to 6pm, with 6 kWh discharged over that window, credits $4.20 at 70¢/kWh. Battery Rewards runs up to 30 events a year, and the average event lasts two to three hours. Check the current program terms for the cap on any single event. What you end up earning across a year depends on how often events get called and how much spare capacity your battery has each time, so nobody can promise a fixed annual total up front.

A few conditions worth knowing:

• Credits are capped to what your battery can actually store and release, not a flat rate regardless of size.
• Households running life-support equipment, or already signed up to a different VPP, aren't eligible.
• Enrolling locks you in for a 2-year term, and that same enrolment is what unlocks the WA battery rebate. The battery needs at least 5 kWh to qualify, and the rebate is paid on up to 10 kWh of that capacity. A larger battery is still eligible, it just doesn't earn more than the cap.

For a figure based on your own battery size and usage pattern rather than a single hypothetical event, use the VPP earnings calculator.

How much wear does VPP cycling add?

Extra cycling means extra wear. That's mechanical, not a hidden catch. Most current warranties include throughput limits alongside cycle counts, so the manufacturer has already priced in some extra use. If the program's credits outweigh the added wear, and the dispatch rules suit your usage, a VPP can still be worthwhile.

Does VPP cycling wear out your battery? goes deeper: throughput limits, minimum state-of-charge floors, and how installers configure both without gutting your backup reserve.

Where next

Does VPP cycling wear out your battery?

Why 30 events a year is not 30 extra cycles, and what a throughput warranty actually caps.

WA battery rebate: are you eligible?

Synergy customers get $130/kWh back, capped at $1,300.

Explore your options

Answer a few questions and see systems and installers that fit your home.