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Your spring electricity check: compare plans before summer

July's electricity price changes do not guarantee a cheaper bill. Use your latest bill to compare plans, check discount conditions and assess free midday power before summer.

Published by Dolla Team on 2026-09-13.

Sources, dates and corrections follow Dolla's Editorial Standards.

Your spring electricity check: compare plans before summer

September is a useful time to open your electricity bill with a different question: would the same household usage cost less on another plan?

The first bills covering July's price changes can help you check what you are actually paying before summer changes your electricity use again. A smaller amount due is welcome, but it can reflect a credit, fewer billing days or less heating rather than a better rate.

Here is a practical review you can do with a recent bill and your usage history. Information is current as at 14 September 2026; all dollar examples are in Australian dollars.

What changed in July, and why your bill may differ

The Australian Energy Regulator's final 2026-27 Default Market Offer took effect on 1 July. For residential flat-rate standing offers, the published changes were reductions of 3.4% to 5.0% in NSW and 7.2% in South East Queensland, alongside a 1.4% increase in South Australia. These figures describe the regulator's default-offer comparison, not a promised change to every customer's bill. AER final decision announcement.

The Default Market Offer applies in those three regions and provides a safety net for standing-offer customers. It also gives retailers a reference price for advertising market plans. The AER explicitly says the annual reference amount is not a cap on your bill: your usage and rates determine what you pay. Nor is the default offer necessarily the cheapest available plan. AER explanation of the Default Market Offer.

So treat a headline price reduction as a reason to check your account. Your own market offer needs its own comparison.

Start with the charges behind the amount due

Find your daily supply charge, usage rates and billing dates. The supply charge covers connection to the network regardless of consumption; usage charges depend on how much electricity you use. Also identify additional fees and any credits separately. The AER's guide to reading your energy bill explains these components.

For a bill spanning a rate change, note which rates apply before and after the change. Use the current rates when assessing what staying on the plan would cost next year.

Then collect as much of the past 12 months' usage as you can. A winter-only snapshot can give a misleading picture of a household that uses substantial air conditioning in summer. Energy Made Easy bases estimates on historical usage or household benchmarks and warns that estimated costs are not guaranteed savings. How its plan search works.

Use the comparison service for your location

Choose the relevant government tool:

  • NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT: Energy Made Easy is free and independent. Enter your postcode to see available options and provide usage information, such as your National Meter Identifier, when prompted.
  • Victoria: use Victorian Energy Compare. The Victorian Government's comparison guide explains how it compares electricity, gas and solar offers.

If your location or supply arrangement is outside these services, check local government guidance and ask your provider which tariffs you can access.

Compare plans against the same usage history. Check the estimated cost with and without conditional discounts, and confirm the final rates and eligibility with the retailer before signing up.

Compare the whole cost, not the biggest discount

A discount may apply only to usage, leaving the daily supply charge untouched. It may also depend on paying on time or meeting another condition. Energy Made Easy refreshed its discount guidance on 19 August 2026, emphasising that a lower usage rate can beat a large advertised discount.

Consider this invented flat-rate example, with GST included and no solar exports, fees, credits or discounts:

  • Plan A: $1.20 a day plus 32 cents per kWh. At 4,000 kWh a year, that is $438 for supply plus $1,280 for usage, totalling $1,718.
  • Plan B: $1.40 a day plus 29 cents per kWh. At the same usage, that is $511 for supply plus $1,160 for usage, totalling $1,671.

Plan B costs $47 less under these assumptions. At just 2,000 kWh, however, Plan A costs $1,078 and Plan B costs $1,091. Lower consumption changes the result because the higher daily charge carries more weight.

These are arithmetic illustrations, not available offers or savings forecasts. For time-of-use plans, the hours when you consume electricity matter too.

Check whether free midday electricity fits your day

The 2026-27 arrangements include an opt-in Solar Sharer Offer for eligible smart-meter customers in the DMO regions. It provides three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day and does not require rooftop solar. AER Solar Sharer Offer announcement.

Ask the retailer to compare the whole plan using your meter data, including daily charges and paid hours. A household able to move existing electricity use into the free window may get a different result from one whose demand stays concentrated in the evening. Do not assume that the word "free" settles the annual comparison.

Make one call, then check the next bill

Save your preferred comparison and ask your current retailer: "What would my last 12 months of usage cost on your best available plan, including all conditions and fees?"

If you switch, keep the offer details and check the first bill against them. Record any promotional expiry date in your calendar. For today, simply finding your latest bill and running one comparison is enough to turn a vague concern about power prices into a decision based on your household's numbers.