You’ve got the power: How to save $1200 on your electricity bill

South Australians could save up to $1200 on their electricity bill every year according to new research – and there’s a pretty simple way to do it.

Electricity customers who have not shopped around are costing themselves hundreds of dollars year, with the difference between the best and worst contract offers being as much as $1200, according to a new survey.

In its annual tariff tracking report The St Vincent de Paul Society, found the highest offer on the market, from Amber Energy, would cost the average customer $3659, while the cheapest was Lumo Energy’s $2514.

“It’s worth your time,’’ the charity’s manager of its social policy unit Gavin Dufty said. “What we found is even if you’re on market offers, there is a big spread in market offers, so you could be on an ordinary market offer and freshening that up could save hundreds of bucks as well.’’

SVDP said the average annual electricity bill for a consumer on a market offer was around $2925, an 11 per cent jump on last year.

Mr Dufty said many people were also on market offers that had “lapsed’’, meaning they would also be able to find cheaper deals.

“You need to keep them on their toes because if you snooze you lose,’’ he said.

The price jump was even steeper for consumers still on default market offers, with bills up by 24 per cent to $3205 on July 1 this year, compared to 12 months ago.

“If you’re on the what’s called the DMO offer, you are paying premium pricing, an enormous amount of money,’’ Mr Dufty said.

The survey also found gas prices had risen sharply, with standard marker rates increasing by 18 per cent for an annual bill of $1440. The pain for those on marker contracts was less severe, with an increase of $100 to $1395. GioBird Energy had the lowest gas offer at $1219, while Simply Energy was the most expensive at $1641.

However, Mr Dufty warned the combination of rising prices and increased consumption during winter could lead to bill shock for some customers.

“We’re in winter and people will be running their heating, so consumptions gone up, so any increase in price on top of increased usage means you’re going to have a scary bill,’’ he said.

St Vincent de Paul also found households with a 3kw solar system, paid $1185 less a year for electricity than non-solar users.

However, Amber chief executive Dan Adams disputed the figure, saying the company was a provider of wholesale electricity and that was the highest figure they could pay.

Mr Adams said that in reality most customers could pay significantly less by switching away from traditional energy suppliers to wholesale energy plans, which let customers choose to use energy when it’s cheaper and greener.

“While regulation requires comparison sites to show this maximum possible rate, this pricing is in no way representative of what most Amber customers are actually paying when buying their energy wholesale. The cost of wholesale electricity has decreased 60% since July last year and a nine month view of Amber customer’s rates shows that the average customer in Adelaide is likely to pay around $2,184 a year.”

Originally published as You’ve got the power: How to save $1200 on your electricity bill