Electricity tariffs: A Field Guide

If you’ve got a smart meter, you might have more options for which tariff you can be on, as it can read more advanced data (such as the time of day you use electricity).

The best tariff for you will depend on your electricity usage and your lifestyle. Take a look at your past bills and have a think about these things:

• Do you have a larger household, or are you conservative with your usage?
• Do you have a lot of big energy-consuming appliances like a pool or underfloor heating?
• What does your daily routine look like? If you work from home, you might use more energy during the day – so a tariff that supports off-peak pricing might be better for you.

Have a chat with us and we’ll be able to help recommend some tariff options. And jump over to a government comparison site to compare your current plan and your energy patterns - https://www.energymadeeasy.gov.au/.

You can change your electricity tariff, but it does depend on a few things (usually your distributor). Get in contact with us to chat about which tariff options you have and the best one for your usage. We’ll pop through the request with your network distributor, and they may need to upgrade you to a shiny new meter. Once the change is all set, give your next bill a once-over to make sure the new tariff is reflected and get your head around any associated charges.

It’s ultimately up to your network distributor, but we always ask them nicely.

It can take up to 20 business days depending on the network you’re with. So, by the time you’ve binge-watched Grey’s Anatomy for the fifth time, it should be all set up.

Depending on where you live, you’ll have a specific energy network distributor. They’re the people who look after the poles and wires that physically deliver power to your house. It’s a bit like shopping online. Think of them as the local posties, and we’re the online store you bought your package from.

But distributors don’t make up tariff charges on a whim. The prices are set in consultation with regulators, and the tariffs they charge make up around 36% of the average residential power bill. These are not always a direct pass through from these distributor networks to customers (retailers like us have a bit of control over this), but it often makes sense for us to structure our tariff charges similarly to distributors.

There are special electricity tariffs for solar customers known as a solar feed-in tariff (FiT). This means that if you export any excess solar you generate back to the grid, you’ll get a little reward for it.

You can read more about solar feed-in tariffs and how they are changing here.

There is currently no specific tariff exclusively for EV customers. We’d recommend being on a time-of-use tariff and charging during the off-peak to get the most electric-bang for your buck.

Discounts and rebates are applied to your bill in the form of a credit. It doesn’t really affect your tariff but rather will show up as a discount on the amount you owe in total.