Your business electricity bill wasn't designed to be understood. It was designed by an industry that's been billing the same way since before the internet, layered with tariff structures that don't work for small businesses today.
Here's what's actually inside that number your retailer charges you, and which parts you can do something about.
What's inside your retail electricity tariff
As an SME, you typically won't see a breakdown of wholesale costs and network fees as separate components. Sometimes you do, but these are often the retailer-marked-up version of the components. But understanding what makes up that tariff helps you spot where you're overpaying.
Most business electricity tariffs are built from four components:
Daily supply charge
A fixed daily fee for being connected to the grid. You pay this regardless of how much power you use. Think of it as the standing charge for having the lights available. It's mostly comprised by network charges, with retailer mark-up. Every retailer charges it.
Usage charge (energy rate)
The per-kWh rate for the electricity you actually consume.
If you're on a flat tariff, this is a single rate around the clock. If you're on a time-of-use tariff, your per-kWh rate varies by time of day (and often by the month/season). Peak during business hours, shoulder on the edges, off-peak overnight and weekends. If your business operates during the afternoon and evening (as many do), much of your consumption falls in the most expensive windows.
Demand charge
This is the line item that surprises most business owners. Not every plan includes it, but if yours does, it can be significant.
A demand charge is based on your highest power draw in any single billing window (typically a 30-minute interval) during the billing period. It measures your peak, not your total energy consumed. One bad afternoon where the compressor, air conditioning, fryer and oven all run simultaneously can set your demand charge for the entire month.
That matters because the charge penalises the shape of your usage, not the volume. You could use the same total kilowatt-hours as another business but pay far more if your consumption is spiky rather than steady. For businesses on a demand tariff, this charge can represent a significant portion of the total electricity bill.
Other fees
Environmental levies. Small per-kWh charges that fund government environmental programs. Every retailer passes these through.
Metering charges. A daily charge for your smart meter's operation and data transmission.
GST. Electricity incurs GST. You should always double-check if you're being quoted prices exc. or inc. GST. If your business is GST-registered (most are), you claim this back as an input tax credit.
The network cost buried in your tariff
A meaningful chunk of what your retailer charges you covers the cost of transporting electricity through the distribution network to your meter. These network costs are set by the Australian Energy Regulator and passed through by every retailer. You can't avoid them by switching retailers, but you can reduce them by drawing less electricity from the grid, shifting the time at which you draw that energy, or reducing your peak demand.
The loyalty tax
This one won't appear as a line item on your bill, but it might be costing you the most.
Traditional retailers don't price based on what it actually costs to serve you. They price at a portfolio level, where good customers subsidise bad ones. They use sign-up bonuses and introductory discounts to attract new customers, while quietly increasing prices on steady, loyal customers who don't shop around.
The result: if you've been with the same retailer for a few years without renegotiating, you're almost certainly paying more than a new customer would for the same electricity. That's the loyalty tax, and it's an industry-wide problem. The best defence is to switch to a retailer that doesn't play that game.
What a Cable Energy bill looks like
We designed Cable's pricing to be the opposite of everything above:
- One flat rate per kWh. The same rate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No peak, no shoulder, no off-peak.
- No demand charges. Our battery flattens your demand profile so we can price without them.
- A daily supply charge. The standard connection fee, same as everyone.
- Guaranteed for 3 years. Your rate is locked in, with only CPI adjustments. No loyalty tax. No repricing surprises.
Every Cable customer gets a bespoke price based on their individual load shape, not a blunt portfolio average. If you're a low-cost customer, you get a low-cost price. We don't do sign-up discounts or retention offers. We just give you the cheapest price we can, from day one, for three years.
The battery at your premises also makes your electricity meaningfully cleaner, storing cheaper off-peak energy and reducing your reliance on the grid during peak periods.
Cable customers typically save 20-40% versus their current retailer. With simple monthly billing and no industry mumbo-jumbo.
Want to see what yours would look like? Get a quote. We pull your smart-meter data and show you the comparison in minutes.