Big SA Energy Switch: 5000 fed-up South Australians ready to change electricity retailers

ABOUT 5000 South Australians have already signed up to dump their electricity provider, joining a campaign to force a Dutch auction from retailers.

Michael Noack of Godwood is looking at switching electricity companies again, among 4000 people who have signed up to the one big switch campaign. Picture Campbell Brodie.

• Click here: How to switch over
• Find out more about the One Big Switch campaign

ABOUT 5000 South Australians have already signed up to dump their electricity provider, joining a campaign to force a Dutch auction from retailers.

One Big Switch campaign director Joel Gibson said the numbers represented about two households every minute since the Big SA Energy Switch campaign was launched on Monday morning, and was about halfway to the company’s target of 10,000.

At 10am on Wednesday, nearly 5000 households had signed up to the campaign.

“SA bill payers are signing up in droves and sending a strong message that they’re fed up,’’ he said.

“If this momentum continues, we’re confident we can make this the year that thousands of South Australians’ bills go down for once, instead of up.

“The campaign aims to unlock a group discount for SA households, who pay some of the world’s highest power prices.”

One Big Switch has been operating since 2011 and exploits Australian market deregulation to use people power to attract better offers in basic necessities like energy prices, health insurance and credit cards.

In 2012/13 around 20,000 South Australians signed up to switch electricity retailers and saved on average 15.5 per cent from their bills.

The Dutch auction works by retail electricity companies — which buy wholesale electricity from generators — bidding the lowest price to the One Big Switch company so they can poach a large number of customers from competitors.

Michael Noack of Goodwood said he is considering using the One Big Switch campaign to look for a better price and was spreading word of the campaign through Facebook.

“We hunt around. It is complicated but there are a lot of tools out there to compare electricity prices,’’ he said.

“I haven’t swapped for a while because I was with Alinta ... they were one of the cheapest when I went on the comparison websites.”

The Federal Government’s Australian Energy Regulator last month highlighted the benefits of people shopping around and provides a comparative tool for customers.

People who want to join the campaign which is open till February 5 can go to www.onebigswitch.com.au/

What is the Big SA Energy Switch?

The Big SA Energy Switch is a campaign to unlock group-discounted electricity using the buying power of tens of thousands of households. The campaign is powered by One Big Switch and is supported by our media partners.

How does it work?

STEP 1: You register. Registration is obligation-free and cost-free, and requires only some basic information.

STEP 2: One Big Switch uses the bargaining power of a large group of possible switchers to source group discounted electricity offers.

STEP 3: One Big Switch forwards to you any negotiated offers and you decide if the offer is right for you, and whether you want to switch.

There is no obligation to take up any offer. News Corp Australia, publisher of The Advertiser, is a commercial partner of the campaign and a shareholder of One Big Switch.