How to fix your electricity rates in Australia.
Energy retailers who will lock in your rates and help you avoid bill shock.
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In late May, New Zealand based ReAmped Energy surprised and then relentlessly spammed their Australian customers in an effort to get customers to leave.
The retail energy market in Australia is known its armies of telemarketers interrupting dinner.
In an abrupt about face, those same aggressive marketing tactics were being turned in reverse — desperately urging customers to go somewhere (anywhere) else.
ReAmped was not alone.
A few days earlier, the Australian Energy Regulator had initiated the ‘Retailer of Last Resort’ process for customers of Pooled Energy and Weston Energy.
Both retailers were suspended from their respective markets, unable to keep up with the spike in wholesale prices.
‘Retailer of Last Resort’ or RoLR provisions help ensure customers have continuity of supply even when their chosen retailer is no longer able to participate in the market.
These provisions ensure supply, but while the Retailer of Last Resort will take on the customers, customers do not retain their previous pricing.
Customers are safe in their supply, but not in their bills.
When ReAmped took the unusual step of pushing customers to find a new retailer, they encouraged customers to lock in their rates with a fixed rate energy provider.
ReAmped’s hypothesis was that higher than usual energy prices will be here for sometime and customers will be better served by setting their rates now rather than later.
Most retailers offer variable rate electricity plans. Relatively few offer fixed rate plans.
The rules are not uniform across the country, but variable rate plans allow retailers to vary their rates, while fixed rate plans fix the rate for the agreed duration, sometimes referred to as the ‘Benefit Period’.
This list contains the providers in each State and Territory that offer fixed price energy plans for any period. Providers are listed alphabetically by State.
