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What, Why and When?
Electricity and gas rates changed for some of our customers in Victoria from 1 January 2021.
These include,
- All Victorian customers on our Basic Home plan
- All customers on our Basic Business plan
- Bulk Hot Water
Some retail market offer electricity and gas rates and solar feed-in tariffs have changed for some of our customers in Victoria from 1 February 2021.
These include,
- All Victorian customers on non-fixed rate market retail offer plans, such as Anytime Saver, Flexi Saver, Flexi Saver Business and Everyday Saver Business just to name a few.
- All Victorian solar customer on flat and time of use feed-in tariffs.
What’s a market retail offer?
An energy plan with the prices set by the retailer (that’s us) typically with a benefit or incentive (e.g. a discount or a credit to your bill) for a fixed amount of time.
Customers not impacted:
- Our Managed Builder Partners
- Customers on a fixed rate plan such as Total Plan Home, Total Plan Plus Home, No Frills Home, Secure Saver, Rate Fix Home, Total Plan Business, Total Plan Plus Business, No Frills Business and Rate Fix Business. However, if you have solar, feed-in tariffs are not fixed and will change.
For existing customers
Emails or letters to let you know about the rate change were sent between 16 - 22 December 2020 for those customers whose rates changed from 1 January 2021.
If you’re a customer with rate changes from 1 February 2021, email or letters were sent between 14 - 19 January 2021.
You can also view your new rates on your first bill issued after the date your rates change.
For new customers
You’ll also be able to contact us.
- For residential customers call us on 1800 001 772 (Monday to Friday, 8.00am-8.00pm)
- For business customers call us on 1800 249 630 (Monday to Friday, 8.00am–6.30pm)
The Essential Services Commission (ESC) have released new prices.
If you’re on a Basic Home or Basic Business electricity plan on a:
- Flat rate or a flat rate with controlled load, your rates have changed.
- Standing offer time of use rate. This rate changed to the Victorian Default Offer rate.
If you are on these plans, we sent you an email or letter to let you know about the rate change.
View our new Basic Home and Basic Business rates.
Find out more about the Victorian Default Offer.
In an email or letter to let you know about the rate change.
You can also view your new rates on your first bill issued after the date your rates change.
Fees and charges eg: reconnection and disconnection fees will change from 1 February 2021.
The amount your electricity and gas bill will change by will depend on your usage, the energy plan you're on and the distribution area you live in.
When we sent you an email or letter to let you know about the rate change, we provided an estimated cost or saving of the change.
Energy travels through four main stages on its journey from generation to the point where you turn
on a switch. Each stage incurs costs that are passed on to you via your energy bill. It is changes in these four main areas that generally influence energy rate changes. These include:
- Wholesale costs – to purchase electricity and gas from generators and producers
- Network costs – charged by distributors for energy transmission and maintenance of the pipes, poles and wires that delivers your energy
- Retail costs – charged by us for servicing and billing your account
- Other costs – incurred by us to comply with government schemes such as the Renewable Energy Target
To find out more, take a look at our video, ‘How energy gets to you’.
Electricity customers on the Victorian Default Offer rates
The Victorian Default Offer rates are set by the Essential Services Commission (ESC) in Victoria. The ESC reviews the reference price every year on 1 January.
The rates used to calculate your energy bills are made up of both usage rates and supply charges.
- The supply charge is a fixed daily service charge to supply energy to your home or small business
- Usage charges are rates charged for the energy you use. Some tariffs have different usage rates depending on the time of day and day of the week you use energy.
Rates are also known as tariffs. For more information go to our tariff pages.
Typically, we review our rates every year:
- in Victoria rate changes usually occur in January and the Essential Services Commission (ESC) reviews the Victorian Default Offer price every year on 1 January.
- in Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia they tend to happen in July and the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) reviews the Default Market Offer price every year on 1 July.
There may be occasions where a rate change needs to happen at another time.
You can have important notices, including information about rate changes sent direct to your email inbox. Here’s how:
- Register or log in to My Account
- update your ‘bill delivery preference’ to email, to receive your bills and rate change notices via email
- update your ‘communication preference’ to email, to receive important information about your account via email
When you register for My Account, you’ll also receive alerts about upcoming rate changes once you log in.
Your bill will be split pro-rata:
- all rates and charges before and after the change will be detailed on the bill
- your bill will be calculated with the old rates for any of the billing period before the rate change date
- your bill will be calculated with the new rates for the billing period after the rate change date.
The short answer is yes.
A Regular Pay plan is a convenient way to pay your energy bills. Here’s how it works:
- you arrange to pay an instalment amount each week, fortnight or month
- you continue to receive your bills as usual. They’ll show how well your payments are covering your actual usage and charges
- we check to make sure you’re not paying too much or too little, and get in touch if anything needs to change.
Please contact us as soon as possible, so we can work with you to arrange an extension and/or set up a payment plan.
- visit My Account
- chat with us by clicking on the Need Help? Button at bottom of our home page
- For residential customers call us on 1800 001 772 (Monday to Friday, 8.00am–8.00pm)
- For business customers call us on 1800 249 630 (Monday to Friday, 8.00am–6.30pm)
We’ll be happy to help.
We’re all for helping you find smarter ways to use energy. Just head to our ‘Better Energy’ blog to find tips on how to reduce your energy bills, info on going solar, the latest on battery storage and more.
If you receive a Life Support rebate, the daily rate has moved in line with any overall change in rates for your home electricity bills from the date your rates change.
There's no change to PureEnergy GreenPower.
Solar feed-in tariffs are under review and may change from 1 February 2021.
Yes, the cost of your bulk hot water changed on 1 January 2021. You’ll find this rate on your rate change letter or your bill issued from the 1 January 2021.
- chat with us by clicking on the Need Help? Button at bottom of our home page
- For residential customers call us on 1800 001 772 (Monday to Friday, 8.00am–8.00pm)
- For business customers call us on 1800 249 630 (Monday to Friday, 8.00am–6.30pm)
We’ll be happy to help.
Outside of these hours?