Electricity Plans

How We Rank Electricity Plans

Every ranking on Gridly’s electricity pages comes from one source: the Consumer Data Right (CDR) plan data that all retailers are legally required to publish through the Australian Energy Regulator’s Energy Made Easy platform. We do not take commissions from retailers, and no placement on these pages is paid for.

The method, in full:

1. Every retailer, every plan. We survey all retailer brands in the CDR register (78 at last count) and collect every current residential market offer available in the city’s distribution zone.
2. Priced at the government reference usage. Annual costs are calculated at the AER Default Market Offer reference usage for that network zone - for example 4,000 kWh a year on SA Power Networks. Your own usage will differ; the ranking still holds for comparison because every plan is priced against the same profile.
3. Unconditional prices only. A conditional discount is a discount you only receive if you do something - pay on time, use direct debit, bundle gas. We show these, but rankings use the price you pay if you meet no conditions, because that is the price you can actually count on.
4. Wholesale plans excluded from rankings. Plans that pass through the wholesale spot price (like Amber Electric) publish estimated rates, not guaranteed ones. They can be excellent for battery owners - see our Amber Electric review - but a spot-price estimate cannot be ranked against a fixed rate honestly.
5. Open-to-everyone plans only. Seniors-only plans, membership deals, and plans requiring specific hardware are excluded from the main table.
6. GST included, date shown. All figures are GST-inclusive, and every table shows when its prices were last updated.

Cheapest Electricity by City

Prices are set per distribution network, so cities on the same network share a table - each city page tells you which network you are on and what it means locally.

NSW

• Sydney (Ausgrid)
• Newcastle and the Central Coast (Ausgrid - same prices as Sydney)
• Wollongong (Endeavour Energy - also covers greater western Sydney)
• Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie (Essential Energy - applies across regional NSW)

ACT

• Canberra (Evoenergy)

Victoria

• Melbourne (CitiPower - inner Melbourne; the page maps all five metro networks)
• Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo (Powercor - applies across western Victoria)

Queensland

• Brisbane (Energex - all of south east Queensland)
• Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast (Energex - same prices as Brisbane)

Adelaide and SA

• Adelaide (SA Power Networks - applies across South Australia)

Where You Cannot Switch

Some markets have no retail competition, so there is nothing to rank. Perth and the rest of the WA grid buy from government-owned Synergy at prices set in the state budget - WA never joined the national market. Darwin buys from Jacana Energy on the same model. Regional Queensland (Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton and everywhere outside the south east) is served by Ergon Energy Retail at government-subsidised prices no competitor can beat. Tasmania is nominally open, but Aurora Energy holds nearly the whole market and only two challengers publish plans. In all four, the money is in usage, not switching: solar, storage, and efficient electric appliances - which our calculators cover for every state.

Understand Your Bill First

The fastest way to overpay for electricity is to compare plans without understanding what you are being charged for. Start with how to read your electricity bill - supply charges, usage rates, and feed-in credits explained line by line. EV owners have a separate calculus entirely: overnight charging makes off-peak rates matter more than headline usage rates, covered in our best electricity plans for EV owners.

If you have solar and a battery, plan choice interacts with your virtual power plant options - a good VPP can be worth more than a cheap rate. Our Virtual Power Plants guide covers the major programs state by state.

Disclaimer

Gridly does not endorse or recommend any particular electricity plan or retailer. Plan information is obtained from data published by the Australian Energy Regulator, whose source is provided by the energy companies themselves. Gridly does not guarantee or warrant the accuracy, completeness, or currency of the information provided. Always confirm current rates with the retailer before signing up.