The Northern Territory government is scrapping its premium solar panel tariff scheme, a move that will see thousands of ratepayers with less money in their pockets amid rising costs of living.
Essential Services Minister Eva Lawler said she acknowledged "there will be people who won't be happy with the decision", but said "there are tough decisions that have to be made".
"There is no ideal time to make any announcement," she said.
"We've had a couple of years of COVID where things have been very difficult, [causing] financial situations for a lot of people."
Under the changes, Territorians who installed solar panels on their rooftops and signed up to Jacana Energy's premium feed-in tariff before April 2020 will no longer receive 26 cents per kilowatt hour for feeding electricity back into the grid.
Instead, once they complete four years on the premium scheme, they will be automatically transferred onto a reduced tariff that will see them receive nine cents per kilowatt hour.
About 13,000 customers affected
The change will come into effect on July 1.
Jacana Energy CEO Louisa Kinnear said she estimated it would affect "around half of the 13,000 customers within the first few months".
"However, we do like to remind them that it really does only take about four years to pay off your solar system."
Bellamack retiree Judy Christie has been on the old scheme for more than five years, and slammed the NT government's decision to abandon it.
"I just think it's disgusting," Ms Christie said.
"People got their solar on their house — like us when we first shifted up here — and we thought it was going to be a bonus for us.
"Now, I'm hearing that they're changing the tariff ... from the first of July. That's not on. That's wrong."
'Everything is going up'
Ms Christie said the changes would impact her budget.
"We'll most likely have to cut back on something else, maybe going out for dinner or something like that," she said.
She's not the only one feeling the pinch.
Virginia resident Sue Halse, who is also on the old solar tariff scheme, said the changes would hit her hard amid the rising cost of living.
"We got the solar panels thinking we were going to get a saving, and if we're not, we're not happy."
However, Ms Kinnear said customers who have been on the premium feed-in tariff for more than four years will have "easily paid off their solar system" by now.
"The intent behind the original one-for-one premium feed-in tariff was really to incentivise the uptake of solar at a time when it was actually quite expensive to do so," she said.
"Now, solar systems are actually a lot cheaper. The price of solar has dramatically reduced over the last 10 years and so really those incentives are no longer required for the uptake of rooftop solar."
Ms Kinnear said more than 20 per cent of Territorians now had solar panels on their rooftop.
Ms Lawler also announced the NT government's Home and Business Battery scheme would continue in 2022-23.
As a result, more than 400 extra households and businesses will be able to buy a battery with a grant of $450 per kilowatt hour of battery system capacity, up to a maximum grant of $6,000.
More than 1, 330 Territory households and businesses have applied for the scheme, according to the government.
