As households struggle with the cost of living, with expensive power bills stretching people’s ability to pay, some are ditching their electricity retailer and taking matters into their own hands.Andre Obradovic, from Eltham, Melbourne, moved six years ago to a relatively new energy market player, Amber Electric, which gives subscribers access to wholesale electricity prices rather than a retail price.
Obradovic estimates the average monthly bill for his family, which has rooftop solar panels but no household battery or electric vehicle, is now around $210, a saving of around 25 per cent a year compared to his previous retailer.“Some months, my energy bill is more than I would expect. But the upside of that is in summer and spring, they’re really, really low. You need to look at it from a long-term perspective over the year,” he says.
With a large rooftop solar installation at his home and three batteries, Maguire is keen to play his part in the clean energy transition by exporting some of the power he generates back into the grid. The wholesale price fluctuates constantly. It is generally cheaper in the middle of the day when renewables are plentiful and more expensive from the early evening when power from coal and gas plants kicks in, and can vary from season to season as demand for heating or cooling changes.