Source: Australian Ministers for Regional Development
Households that have been on the same electricity plan for more than three years are paying on average $221 per year more than customers on new plans, the ACCC’s latest Electricity Market Inquiry report reveals.
While the report shows that the number of customers on their retailer’s best plan has increased, millions of Australians are still paying more than they need to be.
The ACCC’s analysis shows that a household with average electricity usage that moved from a regulated safety net (default offer) plan to one of the many cheaper plans retailers offer to new and switching customers would save between about $100 and $250 per year, depending on the region they live in.
In New South Wales, an average household not on their retailer’s best plan could save $300 per year simply by asking their existing retailer to move them on to the cheapest available plan.
“Loyalty penalties are alive and well in the retail electricity market, so the very best thing people can do to save money is to switch plans – either moving to a cheaper plan offered by their existing retailer or changing retailers,” ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said.
“Many households could effectively replicate the value of the recently ended government rebates by changing plans.”
“Roughly every three months, retailers have to prominently disclose on the first page of electricity bills the potential savings for customers from changing to their cheapest plan. We would strongly encourage households to, at the very least, look at their electricity bill to see how much they could save,” Ms Brakey said.
The report shows that 37 per cent or nearly 2.5 million customers are paying prices at or above the default offer. More than 400,000 of these customers are paying more than 10 per cent over the default offer.
Proportion of residential customers paying more, equal to, or less than the default offers
Notes: The Default Market Offer (DMO) is the regulated safety net price in New South Wales, South Australia and South East Queensland. The Victorian Default Offer (VDO) is the regulated safety net price in Victoria.
All plan types combined. Combines results for New South Wales, South East Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. Assumes 100% achievement of conditional discounts.
Across all National Electricity Market regions, residential bills increased by 6 per cent from August 2024 to August 2025 (excluding government rebates).
New South Wales customers experienced the largest annual price increase at about 9 per cent. South East Queensland had the next largest price increase at about 4 per cent.
While acknowledging the complexity of electricity pricing structures and the retail electricity market more broadly, the report finds that the ‘Better Bills’ reforms have had a positive impact on consumers.
About 27 per cent of residential customers were on their retailer’s best plan at some point in 2024–25. This was higher than the 19 per cent of customers who were on their retailer’s best plan between January and August 2024. The ACCC also observed an increased proportion of customers on newer plans (those that are less than 1 year old); rising from 29 per cent in August 2024 to 42 per cent in August 2025.
Proportion of customers receiving different types of ‘Better / Best Offer’ messages
The report also identifies that there have recently been small but consequential improvements to the level of competition in the retail electricity market.
Several new retailers entered the market in 2025 while no retailers exited. More retailers for consumers to choose from and continued, gradual declines in market concentration indicate small positive gains to the state of competition.
“A silver lining to the dark cloud of higher electricity prices is that there is a wide array of different offers out there and the prices vary significantly, which indicates that competition is working,” Ms Brakey said.
“Given that savings are only available to those who change plans, we encourage policy makers to continue to focus on reducing barriers to switching and protecting customers who don’t regularly switch plans.”
The ACCC encourages consumers to compare energy plans and identify potential savings on Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare.
Background
The term ‘default offers’ refers to the Default Market Offer (New South Wales, South Australia and South East Queensland) and Victorian Default Offer, which about 10 per cent of households are on. Default offers serve as both a regulated safety net price to protect people who have never shopped around and a reference price for comparing different market offers, which facilitates retail competition.
Market offers are the electricity plans that about 90 per cent of households are on. They are plans where the retailers set their own price and other conditions.
Price results in this report are calculated based on the usage assumptions under the default offers, and do not include the impact of rebates or solar feed-in tariffs. Prices are presented in nominal values and assume 100 per cent achievement of conditional discounts unless otherwise stated.
The National Electricity Market is comprised of South East Queensland, New South Wales (including the ACT), Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. Western Australia and the Northern Territory are not connected to the National Electricity Market.
In 2018, the Australian Government directed the ACCC to hold an inquiry into the prices, profits and margins in relation to the supply of electricity in the National Electricity Market. On 23 March 2025, the Australian Government announced a 12-month extension to the inquiry. The ACCC is required to provide a final report under the Inquiry by 30 June 2026.
This is the 14th time the ACCC has reported as part of this inquiry.
The report is available on the ACCC’s website at Electricity market monitoring 2018-2026.