Your Guide to ACT Electricity Providers
Your Guide to ACT Electricity Providers
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Who are some of the ACT’s Electricity Providers?
ACT is a powerhouse of Electricity Providers. iSelect can even help you compare some of the big-name retailers, like:
Along with having different Electricity Retailers, the ACT also has its share of distributors. These are the people making sure that the infrastructure is there to get the electricity to you. Evoenergy takes home the title as the ACT’s largest distributor, so you’ll likely see their name on your bill along with your chosen Electricity Retailer. However, you could be with one of the ACT’s other distributors, like Essential Energy. It all comes down to where you’re located.
How does the electricity market work in the ACT?
As with other parts of the country, Electricity Retailers can pick a price to charge, including something low to tempt you. However, there’s a Bush Capital twist too. The Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission sets the prices for ActewAGL’s standing offers. This means you can compare and pick an Electricity Plan you like, or simply choose ActewAGL’s standing offer plan. The standing offer may not be the cheapest plan, but it helps to ensure that you won’t be overpaying for electricity, whether you don’t want to or can’t get involved in the retail market.
How much does electricity cost in the ACT?
Something handy about that standing offer is it also gives you a baseline for what to expect ACT electricity prices to be like. While what you end up paying can be higher or lower, it’s a fair assessment of the costs of selling you electricity, like buying the electricity and paying to use the network to get it to your place.
For 2024–25, assuming you’re using 6,500 kWh and without our friend GST getting involved, you’d be paying $2,334 on the standing offer.1Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission – Commission releases final report on regulated retail electricity prices for 2024-27, p6 To put this into perspective, the equivalent standing offers elsewhere in Australia come in at least 3% more, some even over 20% more. And if you can get a market offer that’s even less than the ACT standing offer? Well, you’d be laughing.
Source: Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission – Commission releases final report on regulated retail electricity prices for 2024-27, p6
What should I keep in mind when comparing ACT Electricity Providers?
Whether you’re a proud Canberran or hail from Hall, there’s a few things to keep in mind as you look over Electricity Plans.
Charges
The core of your overall electricity bill, your supply and usage charges are going to ultimately dictate what you need to pay when your bill comes home to roost. The supply charge is a flat rate each day (even if you aren’t home or using any electricity), while the usage charge is applied to how much electricity you use. Both are important but one could get you into some hot water if you’re living free and wild with your electricity usage.
Tariff types
Usage charges come in a variety of flavours known as tariffs.
- Single rate is vanilla with the same rates charged no matter the time of day.
- Time of use is like choc chip with peak times seeing higher usage charges and off-peak times coming in cheaper and sweeter.
- Demand is double chocolate because they come with your usual usage charges along with an additional rate for how intensely you’re using that electricity, like running the air con, oven and washing machine all at once.
- Controlled load is like Neapolitan with certain electricity-hungry appliances, like electric hot water systems, getting their own tariffs and sometimes meters.
Contract types
Flexibility isn’t just for pilates enthusiasts. Electricity Plans can either be flexible, allowing you to come and go as you like, or have fixed periods. If you leave before the end of the fixed period, you may be charged an exit fee. However, in exchange for a little less flexibility, the Electricity Provider might offer cheaper rates or fixed rates which won’t change during the contract term.
Fees
Speaking of fees, different plans and providers may mean getting friendly with a variety of fees. These can include ones for late payments or paying by credit card, as well as some for disconnecting and reconnecting your electricity supply. Although you might not be dealing with fees all that often on your bill, they can be worth keeping an eye on as you compare Electricity Plans.
Discounts
While you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, it could be worth closely inspecting any discounts from ACT Electricity Providers. Discounts can be unconditional or conditional — either you’ll get the discount no matter what or you’ll need to meet certain conditions for the discount to apply. You might want to find your calculator and do a few sums to decide if a discount is worth it for you, particularly if you think you mightn’t always be able to meet the conditions.
Helpful Tip:
Try reviewing your electricity usage before you start looking at plans, it should give you a better idea of how you use your energy so you can tailor the right plan for your usage. For instance, if you’re on a time-of-use plan, it might be worth taking a look at when you’re using electricity the most. You could then aim to reduce your usage during the plan’s peak hours or look for a plan that offers a lower peak rate. Either could be your way to a cheaper bill.
What rebates and concessions apply in the ACT?
It’s not the Dark Ages — electricity is an essential service these days. So, if you’re doing it tough, you shouldn’t have to go without. That’s why there’s the ACT Utilities Concession to help cover the cost of your electricity needs. This is a daily concession that totals to $750 a year. For 2023–24, this also comes with a further $50 rebate. You just need to have one of the following cards to claim the concession:
- Health Care Card
- Low Income Health Care Card
- ACT Services Access Card
- Pensioner Concession Card
- Veteran Gold Card (Prisoner of War, War Widow or Totally Permanently Incapacitated)
For 2023–24, the ACT Government is spreading some electricity bill relief further around in the form of the Energy Bill Relief Fund. With it, you can claim a $175 rebate. If you receive the Utilities Concession, you’re all good to apply for this one too. Additionally, if you got the Carer Allowance or the Family Tax Benefit (A or B) for the 2023–24 financial year, you could also be eligible. A few other concession cards, like the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, might also see you make the cut for this rebate.
Even if you can’t claim a concession, you could still make use of other ACT Government rebates to try to tame your electricity bills. There’s a few floating about to make it a little easier to get your home running a bit more efficiently, like buying a hot water heat pump or installing reverse cycle air conditioning.
What does the future of electricity prices look like in the ACT?
While the future is where the unexpected lives, early signs are positive that coming electricity prices might be something to smile about for ACT residents. This is, in part, due to the ACT’s forward-thinking adoption of renewable energy. Since 2020, the ACT has sourced all of its electricity from renewables. Not only is this impressive, it has also helped with electricity prices, even when other Australian states and territories have seen their prices skyrocket.
And while the ACT may already be at the 100% renewable electricity target, they’re not stopping yet. Things could get even better with more households able to produce their own electricity (and reduce those bills) with 10-year zero-interest loans for solar panels and batteries, along with other energy-efficient products.
Even if you’re renting you could be enjoying the benefits of sun-sourced electricity, like cheaper bills. It’s all thanks to the more than $3.5 million in funding from the ACT Government that’s pledged as rebates and concessional loans to get solar on multi-unit dwellings, including apartments.
The ACT might be the youngest of Australia’s states and territories, but it’s arguably years ahead of the rest when it comes to electricity.
How could iSelect help me save on electricity?
The ACT may be small but that doesn’t mean you have to put up with big electricity bills. In fact, the power is yours to seek out savings, whether that means switching Electricity Plans or Providers. And iSelect is here to make it even easier. Compare energy retailers online, we’ll take care of the legwork and find you a selection of plans from a range of providers. Alternatively, you can always call our team on 13 19 20 to discover just what your future electricity bills could look like.
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Save time and effort by comparing a range of energy plans with iSelect
iSelect does not compare all energy providers or plans in the market. The availability of plans may change from time to time, depending on who iSelect’s providers are and what plans they make available to iSelect. Not all plans made available from iSelect providers may be compared by iSelect either due to commercial arrangements, area or availability, so not all plans or providers compared by iSelect will be available to all customers. Some plans and special offers are available only from iSelect’s contact centre or website. Energy plans are available only for properties located in eligible areas of Victoria, New South Wales, South East Queensland, South Australia and ACT. Click here to view iSelect’s range of providers.
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- 1.Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission – Commission releases final report on regulated retail electricity prices for 2024-27, p6