Reading Your Bill

What's actually on an Australian power bill

Every bill is a bundle of a handful of charges. Once you can name each one, the total stops feeling like a black box.

Anatomy of a bill

Usage charge

c/kWh

The cost of the electricity you actually consumed, usually split into peak / off-peak / shoulder rates on a time-of-use plan, or a single flat rate on a flat plan.

Supply charge

c/day

A fixed daily fee just for being connected to the grid, charged whether you use 1kWh or 100kWh that day.

Controlled load

c/kWh

A cheaper rate for a separately metered circuit (usually hot water) that the distributor can switch on only during off-peak hours. Only appears if you have one.

Solar feed-in credit

c/kWh (credit)

A credit for solar electricity you exported to the grid, shown as a negative line reducing your total. Only appears if you have solar.

GST

10%

Goods and Services Tax, added to the subtotal like most goods and services in Australia.

Discounts

Many retail plans offer a conditional discount (e.g. for paying on time or by direct debit) applied against usage and/or supply charges — read the fine print on what it actually applies to.

Try it yourself

Head to the Bill Breakdown Visualizer and enter your own numbers to see exactly where each dollar of your last bill went.

Peak vs. off-peak (and shoulder) rates

On a time-of-use plan, the usage charge isn’t one flat rate — it splits into two or three bands depending on when you use the power. The exact clock times aren’t universal — they vary by state and by local distributor, and even between retailers within the same distributor area. See typical peak and off-peak windows by state further down this page.

Peak

The most expensive band, covering the retailer’s defined highest-demand window — commonly weekday afternoons into the evening.

Shoulder

A middle rate some (not all) plans use for moderate-demand periods, between peak and off-peak.

Off-peak

The cheapest band — often overnight, or simply defined as “all other times” outside peak.

Here’s what that actually looks like on a real Victorian bill :

Charge	When	Rate
Peak	3pm–9pm, every day	33.0c/kWh
Off-peak	All other times	23.8c/kWh
Supply charge	Daily	97.9c/day
Solar feed-in	At all times	1.5c/kWh

Notice the gap

Peak usage (33.0c/kWh) costs nearly 70% more than off-peak (23.8c/kWh) on this plan — shifting heavy loads like dishwashers, laundry or EV charging outside the 3pm–9pm peak window would meaningfully cut this household’s bill. Notice too how far below both usage rates the solar feed-in credit sits (1.5c/kWh) — see Solar & Feed-in Tariffs for why. This particular plan has no shoulder band, just two tiers — not every plan does.

Distributor vs. retailer — two different companies on one bill

One of the most confusing things about Australian electricity is that two separate companies are involved in every bill, and only one of them sends it to you:

Distributor

Owns and maintains the poles, wires and substations that physically deliver power to your property (e.g. Ausgrid in Sydney, Energex in Brisbane, Powercor in western Victoria). You don’t choose your distributor — it’s fixed by your address — and its network costs are baked into your usage and supply charges even though its name never appears on your bill.

Retailer

Buys wholesale electricity from the NEM, pays the distributor for delivery, bundles both costs into a tariff, and sends you the bill (e.g. AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia, and many smaller retailers). This is the company you can shop around and switch between.

This is why switching retailers can change your price without anything physically changing at your house — you’re still on the same distributor’s wires, just buying the electricity that flows through them from a different seller.

Why did my bill go up?

The usual suspects, roughly in order of how often they’re the actual cause:

More usage. Seasonal heating/cooling is the single biggest swing factor for most households — check kWh consumed, not just the dollar total, against the same period last year.
A rate change. Retailers can and do change tariff rates during a plan term (subject to notice requirements) — compare the c/kWh rate on this bill to a previous one.
Losing a discount. Many discounted plans are conditional (e.g. pay-on-time) — one late payment can silently remove it going forward.
A tariff structure change. Moving to time-of-use pricing, or your usage pattern shifting into more peak-rate hours, changes the effective rate you pay even at identical total kWh.
Solar export dropping. Less export (cloudy season, panel issue, or a lower feed-in tariff) means a smaller credit offsetting your usage charge.

Typical peak and off-peak windows by state

These are indicative only — your distributor and retailer set the actual clock times for your plan, so always check your own bill or plan documents rather than assuming one of these applies to you.

State	Typical peak window
New South Wales (NSW)	Usually 2pm–8pm or 4pm–8pm on weekdays; off-peak overnight (e.g. 10pm–7am)
Queensland (SEQ)	Usually 4pm–9pm on weekdays, with shoulder and off-peak covering the rest of the day and night
Victoria (VIC)	Usually 4pm–9pm on weekdays, with off-peak overnight
South Australia (SA)	Concentrated in high-demand evening windows (e.g. 6pm–10pm during summer)
Tasmania (TAS)	Set via specific distributor codes, e.g. split weekday peaks (7am–10am and 4pm–9pm)