You may consider shopping for new electricity plans if you have been receiving high electricity bills every month. While you can reduce your energy consumption to lower the bill, you may not be able to affect considerable reductions if your energy usage requirements are high.
Besides using energy-efficient appliances, LED lighting, and taking other energy-efficient steps to minimize your energy bill, it’s also critical to compare different energy plans to find the best one.
Alternatively, you may consider modifying your current contract with your energy supplier if you have reasons to believe you are paying for add-ons you do not need. Therefore, before you finalize a retailer for energy compare plans from different suppliers or different plans from the same supplier.
When Do You Need To Compare Energy Plans
High electricity bills are not the only reason to start shopping for electricity and energy plans. You may also start comparing different plans when your electricity consumption requirements change.
For instance, your energy consumption requirements are bound to be higher if you recently installed new air conditioning systems or invested in several new electrical appliances. Your business energy bill is also likely to increase when you carry out an expansion.
Determine Your Business Requirement
It’s vital to analyze your energy consumption requirements before you start shopping for an energy plan. You may fail to choose the right electricity plan if you do not clearly understand your commercial monthly energy consumption requirements. Therefore you may determine your business requirements and the average energy usage before you start comparing plans.
It is recommended you do a detailed examination to identify which machines or appliances are causing your energy bills to soar. Data about your consumption needs and appliance usage will reveal critical information that you may use while negotiating with your supplier.
Check Your Current Energy Plain
You may review your current plan comprehensively to know how much you are paying per kWh. You may also compare the plan rate with rates of other business or residential electricity plans. It’s recommended you shop for a new energy plan before your current contract expires.
Know About Reference Price
The Australian government sets the base reference price for energy usage. This price is a benchmark that private energy suppliers are expected to follow while fixing plan rates. Go through the details in your current energy plan. You may look for electricity plans that don’t show drastic variations from the base price.
When shopping for energy, compare different electricity rates and discounts against the reference price. These comparisons will enable you to find a good deal in your area. You may also find out your area’s reference price before you start searching for electricity plans.
Since the reference price may vary based on the average electricity use in an area, different parts of Australia may have different reference prices.
Local Area Energy Retailers
It might help if you learnt more about the top energy retailers operating in your area to make an educated choice. Energy suppliers are required to have permission to supply electricity and energy in specific locations in Australia. You may check if the retailers you shortlist are authorized energy retailers.
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has only one local area retailer –ActewAGL, while in New South Wales, there are three, namely, Origin Energy, Energy Australia, and ActewAGL. Origin Energy and Ergon Energy Retail operate in Queensland, and Aurora is your local area retailer if you live in Tasmania.
Things to Consider Before Shopping For Energy Plans
You may be able to negotiate with your current retailer for an attractive deal. Your energy retailer may offer discounts or plan modifications in an attempt to retain you as a customer. Hence, discuss your consumption needs and price expectations with your present energy retailer before looking at other energy retailers.
You may also want to retain your electricity bills. You need to check the bills to determine how much energy you consumed and how much you paid. You can use the information to make the energy comparison and find the most suitable energy offer.
If you are unhappy with your new energy retailer, you have ten working days to cancel the contract. You do not have to pay a cancellation fee. However, you may check if your current energy plan is based on a fixed-term contract.
Final Words
You may compare several energy plans to find the best business electricity plan for your home or business. There are several free energy comparison tools available on the internet. You may use one of them to compare the rates and discounts energy retailers in your city offer.
