Shift to 10kW export limits
Distributors' progress voluntarily increasing their default export limit to 10kW or more for residential connections.
- Solar
- Distribution
Progress tracker
This tracker shows the progress distributors are making to voluntarily increase their default export limit to 10kW or more for residential connections.
It uses a traffic light system to show whether distributors have default export limits of 10kW or more, are in the process of increasing them, or aren’t currently considering changes. We will update the tracker every month.
What are export limits?
Export limits are caps on how much electricity distributed generation – like rooftop solar and batteries – can export to the network at any one time. These limits are a necessary and important tool to help distributors maintain the safety and reliability of their networks.
Why export limits matter
Under the current rules, distributors have wide discretion when setting export limits, with some using a blanket 5kW for residential connections.
This limit is likely unnecessarily low for many parts of the network, meaning the amount of electricity supplied to networks is being unnecessarily curtailed.
Increasing the default export limits, where it is safe to do so, to more efficient levels helps maximise households’ contributions to the local electricity networks, enabling more clean, cheap and local energy to power communities.
We recognise the shift can be more challenging for some distributors due to varying network capacity, costs or other constraints.
Mandating 10kW export limits for residential connections
We are currently considering whether to mandate a 10kW export limit for residential connections. Submissions on the proposed rule change closed in November 2025 and are being considered, with a decision expected to be announced in about April 2026.
This was one of four key proposed changes to make export limits more efficient for all types of distributed generation, including solar and wind farms.
Maximising benefits from local electricity generation
We are considering whether mandating the change would lock-in distributors’ efforts to expand export levels where it is safe and ensure expansions to their networks similarly use efficient export limits to maximise households’ contributions to the local electricity networks.