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One system, broken into the bits that matter
The Australian energy market is built to look complicated, and most explainers leave you none the wiser. These guides do the opposite. Each one takes a single piece of the system, the National Electricity Market, the wholesale spot price, the reference price, your tariff, the ombudsman, and explains how it actually behaves in practice: who it helps, who it does not, and what it means for your power bill. Watch the live market on the right, then read the piece you need.
The ground rule these guides keep returning to: the NEM (Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia) has open retail competition, so you can compare and switch. Western Australia (Synergy) and the Northern Territory (Power and Water) sit outside the NEM with no household competition, so switching is not on the table there. And every NEM state has a regulated reference price, the Default Market Offer, or the Victorian Default Offer in Victoria, that lets you compare any plan against one number.
Why your price is not the spot price
Three layers sit between the market and your bill
The live spot price above is just the raw cost of generation. By the time it reaches your bill, three things have been added on top.
Wholesale and hedging
The five-minute spot price is volatile, so retailers buy hedging contracts to smooth it. You pay the smoothed cost, not the live price, which is why a day of cheap midday power does not show up on your bill.
Networks and schemes
The poles, wires and long-distance transmission that carry power to your home are a regulated, fixed cost, recovered through network charges. Environmental scheme costs sit alongside them. Together they are often the biggest slice of all.
Retail margin and the cap
On top sits your retailer's cost to serve and its margin. The reference price, the Default Market Offer or Victorian Default Offer, caps how high a standing offer can go and gives you one benchmark to judge every market deal against.
The lever you control is the last layer: compare every retailer that supplies your address against the reference price, and match your tariff to how you actually use power.
The guides
Pick the part you want to understand
Each guide takes one piece of the Australian energy market and explains how it really behaves, and what it means for your bill.
How the market is built
What is the NEM?
The National Electricity Market sets the wholesale price across six regions. Here is why that is not the price you pay.
Read the guideWholesale electricity
How the five-minute spot price forms, why your bill ignores it for months, then suddenly does not.
Read the guideThe reference price (DMO & VDO)
What the Default Market Offer protects, what it does not, and how to read "X% off the reference price".
Read the guideThe Basic Plan Information Document
A standardised one-page plan summary. Why its headline cost is a model household, not your bill, and the field that actually compares.
Read the guideHow you are charged
Peak and off-peak pricing
Time-of-use is a bet on your own behaviour. See when it beats a flat rate and when it costs you.
Read the guideControlled load tariff
The cheapest power in your house is the one you cannot compare online. Here is the trade-off.
Read the guideLPG: bottled and bulk gas
The one energy bill no regulator caps, and the one market you can shop anywhere in Australia.
Read the guideYour rights and protections
The energy ombudsman
A free, independent umpire that retailers pay for. Find your state scheme and the lever that fixes disputes fast.
Read the guideWhen your retailer closes
Your power never stops. The real risk is the default plan you land on. What the RoLR scheme does.
Read the guideSeniors and energy bills
There is no single seniors rebate. It is about the card you hold, not your age, and the discount that costs you money.
Read the guideLooking for smart meters? See our smart meter guide in the energy guides.
Keep exploring
Understanding the market is one lever of three
Once you can read the market, the other two ways to beat your bill are using less and making your own power.
Energy efficiency
See what every appliance costs to run, then cut it. The saving repeats every year, on every plan.
ExploreRenewable energy
Why a greener grid has not cut your bill yet, with the same live National Electricity Market mix.
ExploreRooftop solar
Generate your own power for the daytime hours, and read your roof before you buy panels or a battery.
ExploreCommon questions
A Selectra expert answers your energy market questions
Because wholesale generation is only one layer of the price. On top of it sit network charges for the poles, wires and transmission, environmental scheme costs, your retailer's margin, and the cost of hedging against volatile spot prices. The wholesale spot price can be near zero at midday and your bill will barely notice, because those other layers do not move with it.
Not everywhere. The National Electricity Market regions, Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, have open retail competition, so you can compare and switch. Western Australia (Synergy) and the Northern Territory (Power and Water) sit outside the NEM with no household retail competition, so switching is not on the table there.
It is a single regulated benchmark, the Default Market Offer in most NEM states or the Victorian Default Offer in Victoria, that every market offer must be compared against. It lets you judge any plan with one number: a plan advertised at "20% off the reference price" is genuinely cheaper than the cap, which makes shopping far easier than reading the fine print of every tariff.
Only if your usage actually fits it. Time-of-use rewards shifting heavy loads, dishwasher, washing, pool pump, car charging, into off-peak windows and punishes peak-time use. If your life genuinely runs off-peak it can beat a flat rate; if it does not, a single flat rate is often safer.
Your power does not stop. The Retailer of Last Resort scheme moves you automatically to a designated backup retailer, but onto its default plan, which is rarely the cheapest. The risk is not losing supply, it is quietly landing on an expensive default and staying there, so it pays to compare and switch promptly afterwards.