Your network tariff is unique to the needs of your business: could yours be costing you money?

Find significant energy savings by re-classifying your network tariff and associated demand charges to better reflect your site’s power needs. Your tariff and demand charges can add up to more than 60% of the total charges on your energy bill, so if yours isn’t correctly aligned, you might be paying more than you need to. Could this be a sunk cost for your business?

Tariffs are unique to each site, so if your business works over a range of locations you might see a difference between them.

Your network tariff classification and associated charges are negotiable, dependent on:

✓ How much power your business consumes

✓ How you use power in peak and off-peak times

✓ What type of business operations you run.


For businesses that spend more than $2500 per month, these charges are often split out as a line item on your bill and are negotiable. When your retailer passes on these charges, they don’t usually go out of their way to tap you on the shoulder and correct you if you’re paying more than what you need to be - and that’s where we come in.

Energy Tariff Australia

How can network tariffs affect my bills?

While distributors are the owners of the infrastructure that supplies power to your site, tariff charges are set by the government regulator — the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) — and reviewed annually on a five-year forecast.

But distributors regularly bid to the government about how much of their supply and infrastructure costs they’ll recover through these regular network tariff variations. This means new tariff variations are available for consideration each year, despite your business energy network tariff classification possibly being set years ago.

Your tariff can be affected by these variations because your tariff no longer reflects the energy demand your site requires to function. For example, you may have previously utilised a piece of machinery for 12+ hours, whereas now you have innovated with new technology, or perhaps you have moved part of your energy-intensive business to another location. This has greatly lowered your demand requirements, and potentially qualified you for a new tariff classification without you realising it.

Review your network tariff
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What If I’m on a demand tariff?

If you are on a demand tariff, Choice Energy can review your demand rates and deliver a demand review. If we identify a difference between your contract demand and the demand profile, we can formally request a demand reset through your local distributor.

If you are billed either ‘kW’ or ‘kVA’ demand on your energy bill, your network demand charges are the amount charged by your energy network distributor to essentially reserve an amount of energy for your business, calculated based on an analysis of your previous energy demand.

Your network tariff for usage (kWh’s consumed) may vary from 2 cents to 20 per unit used. These rates will be reflective of what network tariff you are on.

What tariff you are on is typically based on your load profile (how much and when you use power)

How Choice Energy Can Help

Your Choice Energy consultant is well practised in finding fair and reasonable ways to categorise your energy network tariff. Your new tariff will be aligned to supply you with adequate power – based on an analysis of your energy demand – to run each site. We’ll work with your network service provider to put the changes in place and optimise the overall network charges component of your energy bill.

If your business energy use has changed since the tariff was set – for example your power factor may have improved – we’ll negotiate a more relevant tariff on your behalf.

Get Started Today

We make analysing your tariff classification simple

Your dedicated energy management consultant will ask for your most recent energy bill.

As part of our commercial energy procurement process, you’ll have provided a letter of authority for Choice Energy to check your metering.

With your energy bill on hand, and access to metering data, your consultant now has all they need to analyse your data to find a better cost reflective network tariff, so you pay less. If a change to your network tariff or demand charges is required, we’ll work with your Network Service Provider (NSP) to ensure the changes take effect.

Want ongoing confidence that you’re paying the right charges for your business energy use? Explore our metering and monitoring service now.

Find out today if a Network Tariff and Demand Analysis is right for you.

Simply fill out the form, and a Choice Energy expert will be in contact with you to learn more about how we can help you use less and pay less for energy.

✓ No obligations

✓ Organised to suit your busy work day

✓ Simple to start and takes less than 2 minutes

Register now

Figures and assessments relevant to retailers in the NEM area only

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