Electricity bills: Savings of up to $950 a year on offer by switching retailers

Emma McLeod tells people to review their big expenses, but realised she “wasn’t practising what I preach.” She went hunting for a new deal and found “fabulous” savings.

The annual saving from switching power providers in NSW has more than doubled since last year to as much as $950.

There’s also been a near-doubling in the number of people shopping around after bill hikes of 20 per cent-plus kicked in last month.

New in-depth market analysis for St Vincent de Paul reveals that the price difference between a bog-standard deal and the cheapest tariff is now $785-$950 a year, depending on location.

In 2022, the most a household could hope to knock off their bill by leaving the incumbent retailer for a competitor was $275-$420.

Vinnies policy and research manager Gavin Dufty told The Daily Telegraph the market was highly volatile, meaning consumers had to be more vigilant than in the past to avoid sleepwalking into “horror” price rises.

Ellen McLeod in her Kirribilli kitchen. She says people need to shop around when it comes to electricity. Picture: Julian Andrews

“You are seeing more dispersion” in charges, Mr Dufty said. “It’s an underlying indication of distress within the broader retail market.

“If things are steady, you tend to get compression – everybody comes together. But at the moment we have high volatility.

“Consumers need to be on their toes because the swings from what’s good to what’s bad are more accentuated,” Mr Dufty said.

Power prices in NSW vary depending on which distribution area a home is in.

However, in the comparison done for Vinnies, Globird Energy’s GloSave offer was the cheapest tariff in all three distribution zones. Other low-priced deals included Red Energy’s Living Energy Saver and OVO’s The One Plan.

Mr Dufty said there were many thousands of different offers on the market and that the best way to find the right deal was to use the free and independent comparison website Energy Made Easy.

Ellen McLeod recently switched to Red Energy and is saving hundreds. Picture: Julian Andrews

The Australian Energy Regulator, which runs the site, told The Telegraph that the number of visitors in July 2023 had “nearly doubled compared to the same time last year” – up from 197,040 to 372,147.

In the past year, more than 1.3 million people used Energy Made Easy; the AER noted that meant about four million households hadn’t.

“The AER is encouraging households and small businesses to visit the Energy Made Easy website to compare plans from all providers, contact their retailer to make sure they’re on the best offer, and consider switching plans if they find a better deal,” a spokeswoman said.

Sydney’s Emma McLeod recently switched from her area’s incumbent retailer, EnergyAustralia, to Red Energy.

“I’m a mortgage broker and I tell people all the time to check their costs and review their significant expenses and I decided that I hadn’t done that for quite some time,” Ms McLeod said. “I wasn’t practising what I preach.

“I discovered there were better offers out there. So I approached a few of the energy providers and came up with Red Energy offering me a fabulous, very easy (deal) that saved me … hundreds of dollars.”

Data from the Australian Energy Market Operator shows about 86,000 NSW households changed providers in July – the highest level since early 2021.

Originally published as Electricity bills: Savings of up to $950 a year on offer by switching retailers