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 distributors’ progress in voluntarily increasing their default export limit to 10kW or more for residential connections, ahead of mandated limits coming into force. We will no longer update the tracker once those limits apply. The last update was on 1 May 2026.
The tracker 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.
Following consultation in late 2025, we developed a new rule that requires distributors to set a default 10kW export for straightforward, small-scale distributed generation.
This new rule came into effect on 11 May 2026 and will ensure all distributors are setting at least 10kW limits for small-scale distributed generation where they can – although this won’t be possible everywhere on networks.
The new rule is part of a package of changes to make export limits more efficient for all types of distributed generation, including solar and wind farms.
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 previous rules, distributors had 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.