Households are about to be offered 3 hours of free power. Who should sign up, and who should think twice?

This week, from Wednesday, electricity retailers in three of Australia’s major states will be required to offer free power to households for at least three hours in the middle of the day as part of the federal government’s Solar Sharer scheme.

Solar Sharer, unveiled by federal energy minister Chris Bowen in November last year, aims to tackle energy inequity by sharing the benefits of cheap solar with those who, for one reason or another, cannot install it.

It also addresses the problem of increasingly high amounts of rooftop solar on the grid during the middle of the day, which can cause grid management headaches for the market operator and drive up costs through network grid augmentations.

But as Bowen says here, Solar Sharer is not going to suit everyone. And as Energy Consumers Australia has warned, some consumers will not be able to take full advantage of it, “and some may even be worse off if they switch to the offer.”

Here’s what you need to know about the new offer and what a range of experts are saying ahead of the Wednesday launch.