Policy and the record
Energy terms, each one defined by the body that runs it
Energy writing is full of acronyms used as though everyone agrees what they mean. Below is what each one actually means, quoted from the body that administers the thing rather than paraphrased by us, with the page and the date we read it. Start with CER if you read nothing else: it stands for two different things in the same field, and the two are not related.
The one that catches people: CER
CER means two unrelated things in Australian energy. It is the Clean Energy Regulator, the Commonwealth body that administers the certificate schemes behind rooftop solar and home batteries. It is also used as shorthand for consumer energy resources, meaning the solar panels, batteries, chargers and hot water systems sitting in people's homes.
One is a regulator. The other is equipment. If a sentence says CER is "expected to grow", it means the equipment; if it says CER "registered" or "suspended" something, it means the regulator. We write the Clean Energy Regulator out in full in our own copy for exactly this reason, and use the full phrase for the equipment.
Feed-in tariff
The Australian Energy Market Commission's own terminology page defines it as
a type of subsidy scheme that provides revenue support to selected generators eg specific
technologies like solar panels
.
Worth knowing beyond the definition: in New South Wales the number you see quoted is a benchmark, not a rate anyone has to pay. We set out what that means, and why yours keeps falling, in the NSW feed-in tariff explainer.
Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES)
The Clean Energy Regulator describes it as
an Australian Government initiative that encourages investment in small-scale renewable
energy
, which provides incentives to households and businesses to install small-scale
renewable energy systems like rooftop solar, solar batteries, solar water heaters
and air
sourced heat pumps.
This is the scheme. The certificates below are the mechanism it works through.
Small-scale technology certificate (STC)
The Clean Energy Regulator puts it in two parts.
To encourage the use of renewable energy, the Australian Government provides incentives
called small-scale technology certificates (STCs).
And:
Individuals or businesses can earn STCs when they install eligible small-scale renewable
energy systems
.
In practice you rarely hold them. The installer claims them and takes the value off the quoted price, which is why the discount on a solar quote is not a government cheque and does not arrive separately.
Cheaper Home Batteries Program
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water states that Australian
households, businesses and community organisations
can get a discount of around 30% on the upfront cost of installing a range of small-scale
battery systems (5 kWh to 100 kWh)
.
The dated detail that matters: the department's page records that the program commenced on 1 May 2026.
Embedded network
The Australian Energy Regulator explains it by where it happens:
In some sites like apartment blocks, retirement villages, caravan parks and shopping centres,
the electrical wiring is configured in such a way to allow the owner of the site to sell energy
to all the tenants and residents based there. This is known as an embedded network.
The
owner usually buys energy from a retailer and then onsells it to the people on site.
This is the single biggest reason a protection you have read about may not apply to you. We set out which ones do not, and why, in embedded networks and the price cap.
Demand side response (DSR)
The AEMC defines it as
an active, short-term reduction in electricity demand by consumers who decide to respond to
price signals throughout the day by shifting their electricity use to another period, or to use
another type of generation, or to simply not use electricity at specific times
.
It is the formal name for the thing a time-of-use tariff, a battery schedule or a virtual power plant is trying to get you to do.
The four bodies: AEMC, AER, AEMO and CER
These have a page of their own rather than a line here, because the difference between them decides who you complain to. Which one sets the Default Market Offer, which one runs the system, which one writes the rules, and which one pays the certificates: four bodies decide your power bill.
What is not here, and why
This is the first set, not the finished list. Terms are added when we can quote a definition from the body that administers the thing. Three we use regularly are deliberately absent today because that test failed on 1 October 2026:
- Default Market Offer. The AER's final determination for 2026-27 runs to 152 pages and sets the prices, but its own glossary defines the surrounding machinery rather than the term, and the AER's plain-language consumer page returned a 404 when we tried it. We are not writing a definition of a price cap from memory, so it waits.
- Virtual power plant and consumer energy resources. Both are in constant use and neither is defined on the market bodies' own terminology page. We would rather leave a gap than fill it with a definition nobody official has signed.
If you want one of those, or a term we have not thought of, tell us and we will go and find who defines it.
Sources
- Australian Energy Market Commission, Energy terminology (read 1 October 2026): the definitions quoted above for feed-in tariff and for demand side response.
- Clean Energy Regulator, Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (read 1 October 2026): that the scheme is an Australian Government initiative encouraging investment in small-scale renewable energy, and the list of systems it covers.
- Clean Energy Regulator, Small-scale technology certificates (read 1 October 2026): the quoted explanation of what STCs are and when they are earned.
- Clean Energy Regulator, About us (read 1 October 2026): the body's own description of itself as an economic regulator administering Australian Government schemes, used for the CER entry.
- Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Cheaper Home Batteries Program (read 1 October 2026): the quoted discount of around 30 per cent, the 5 kWh to 100 kWh range, and that the program commenced on 1 May 2026.
- Australian Energy Regulator, Embedded networks customers (read 1 October 2026): the quoted explanation of what an embedded network is and the onselling arrangement.
- Australian Energy Regulator, Final determination, Default market offer 2026-27 (PDF, 152 pages, downloaded and read 1 October 2026): read in order to define the Default Market Offer and recorded above as the reason that term is not yet here.
How we did this. Every definition on this page is quoted from the body that administers the thing it describes, fetched and read on 1 October 2026, and each source names which specific claim came from it. Where the body's wording is quoted it sits in quotation marks; everything else is ours. The second paragraph under each term is our own explanation of what the definition means in practice and is not attributed to the source. Nothing here is defined from memory or from a search result: the three terms where that was the only option available are listed as absent instead, with the specific reason. We have not contacted any of these bodies.
A definition that has moved, or a term we should add? Tell us and we will check it against the administering body's own page and log the outcome.