Power prices reset on 1 July 2026. Here's what actually works — and what won't.
The regulators' default prices — the DMO in NSW, south-east Queensland and SA, and the VDO in Victoria — reset on 1 July. The twist the headlines missed: most default prices went down this year. So if your bill still went up, the problem is almost certainly your plan, not the market. Below is the ranked, honest list of what actually cuts a bill — starting with the free fixes. We install solar and batteries for a living, and even we'll tell you: try the free fixes first.
Reviewed by the Mission Green Energy Team · Updated July 2026
What actually happened
on 1 July 2026?
Mostly, default electricity prices fell. If your bill went up anyway, that's a signal about your plan — and it's usually fixable for free, this week.
The numbers, from the regulators themselves. The AER's final Default Market Offer 2026-27 (issued 26 May 2026, applying from 1 July 2026) cut residential flat-rate standing offer prices by 3.4% to 5.0% in New South Wales (roughly $66–$137 a year depending on your network area) and by 7.2% in south-east Queensland (about $155). The one rise: South Australia, up 1.4% (about $33) on the flat rate — though SA time-of-use residential prices fell 1.1%. Time-of-use prices dropped in all three regions, by up to 10.7% in SEQ, and small business standing offers fell everywhere — by as much as 20.9% in NSW (source: AER final DMO 2026-27, as at 26 May 2026).
Victoria's story is the same direction. The Essential Services Commission's final Victorian Default Offer 2026-27 decision (published 20 May 2026, applying from 1 July 2026) cut the average annual VDO bill by about 5% for households — from $1,675 to $1,591, a drop of $84 at typical 4,000 kWh usage — and about 6% for small businesses ($3,620 down to $3,380), driven by lower wholesale, network and environmental costs (source: Essential Services Commission, as at 20 May 2026).
Two honest caveats. First, these are the default and reference prices — the regulated safety net. Your retailer's market offer is its own animal and can move in either direction when plans reprice around 1 July. Second, a July bill in most of Australia is a winter bill: heating pushes usage up even in a year when rates fall. So if your bill jumped, don't assume "prices went up" — check which of plan, tariff or usage actually moved. The ranked fixes below sort that out, cheapest first. (This page is part of our honest guides series.)
You're probably on a worse plan
than the reference price.
The single biggest lever for most households costs nothing: compare your plan against the reference price and switch if you're above it. No installer will lead with this, because there's nothing to sell you.
The DMO and VDO exist precisely so you can tell whether your deal is any good: every market offer must be advertised against them. Retailers routinely price below the reference — but older plans drift: sign-up discounts and "benefit periods" quietly expire, and a plan that was sharp in 2024 can be well above the reference by 2026. If you haven't compared in more than a year, the odds are good a cheaper plan exists for your address.
- Use the free government comparison sites — Energy Made Easy (AER-run; NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, ACT) or Victorian Energy Compare (Victorian Government). They're independent, they don't take retailer commissions, and with a recent bill (or your NMI) the comparison takes about 15 minutes.
- Check the box already printed on your bill. In DMO regions, retailers must tell you at least once every 100 days if they could offer you a better plan (source: AER, as at May 2026). In Victoria, electricity bills must carry a "best offer" message at least every three months (source: Essential Services Commission). Most people never read it.
- Switching is genuinely painless. No wiring changes, no interruption to supply, no cost — the new retailer handles the transfer. The main thing to check is any exit fee on a fixed-term plan, which your current bill must disclose.
Whether switching saves you money — and how much — depends entirely on how far above the reference your current plan sits, which is exactly what the comparison tells you. Do this step before spending a dollar on anything below.
Check what tariff
you're actually on.
Plenty of July bill-shock isn't the price per kilowatt-hour — it's being on the wrong kind of tariff for how you live. The smart meter rollout has quietly moved many homes onto time-of-use or demand tariffs.
Your bill names your tariff — flat rate (one price all day), time-of-use (peak, off-peak and shoulder windows), or demand (a charge based on your single highest half-hour of use). Each suits a different household, and being on the wrong one can cost real money even on a "cheap" plan: a time-of-use tariff punishes a home that runs everything at 6pm, while a flat rate wastes the cheap overnight and midday windows for a home that could shift its load. Our guide to time-of-use vs flat vs demand tariffs explains how to read the codes on your bill and which pattern each one rewards.
One new option worth knowing about: from 1 July 2026, retailers in the DMO regions must offer the Solar Sharer Offer — an opt-in plan for smart-meter households giving three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day, regulated at the same annual price level as the time-of-use DMO (source: AER, as at 26 May 2026). If you can genuinely shift laundry, dishwashing, hot water or EV charging into that window, it can be worth comparing — we've written an honest breakdown in the Solar Sharer free power window, explained, including who it doesn't suit.
The unglamorous efficiency wins
nobody advertises.
Nobody runs ads for these because nobody profits from them. They won't transform a bill — but in winter they trim it for close to nothing, and they stack with the plan fixes above.
Mind the setpoint
Heating dominates winter bills, and every extra degree on the thermostat makes it work harder. Set it modestly, heat the rooms you're actually in, close doors, and let it be a jumper's job to close the last gap. Free, immediate, and reversible if you hate it.
Time the tank
Electric hot water is one of the biggest single loads in the house. If you're on a time-of-use tariff — or have solar, or the new Solar Sharer window — running the tank in the cheap or free hours instead of the evening peak shifts a large load to the lowest rate you have.
Seal the leaks
Draught-stopping doors and windows, closing off unused rooms, and switching off the second fridge in the garage are the classic cheap wins. None is dramatic on its own; together they lower the baseline your heater has to fight against.
Right-sized solar helps —
if you use power in daylight.
This is where we declare our interest: Mission Green installs solar. It's also the point in the list where spending money can genuinely make sense — for the right usage pattern, and only after the free fixes.
Solar's economics in 2026 are blunt: feed-in tariffs for exported power are now very low, so the value is overwhelmingly in replacing the daytime grid power you'd otherwise buy at retail rates — not in selling surplus. (Our guide on near-zero feed-in tariffs covers why, and what it changes.) That makes the case strongest when someone is home during the day, or you can shift hot water, laundry and EV charging into daylight — and weakest for a house that's empty 9-to-5 with everything running at night.
Two honest rules if you go down this path. Right-size it: a system matched to your actual daytime usage beats the biggest quote a salesperson can fit on your roof, because exports earn cents. And run the numbers before the quote: our full breakdown in is solar worth it in 2026? walks through payback honestly, including the cases where the answer is no. If you already have solar and your bill still jumped, that's usually a plan, tariff or metering issue rather than the panels — see why a power bill goes up after solar.
When solar or a battery
is not the fix.
A price-reset headline is a terrible reason to buy hardware. Here's who should stop at the free fixes — and why a battery is rarely the answer to a July price change at all.
Renters & short stays
If you rent, plan to move within a few years, or have a heavily shaded roof, the plan and tariff fixes are your levers — they follow you to any address and cost nothing. Hardware bolted to a roof you don't own or won't keep rarely pays you back.
Low daytime users
Empty house in daylight, no EV, no shiftable loads, gas hot water? Solar's main value — replacing daytime grid purchases — barely applies to you. Exports earn very little now, so panels feeding an empty house are a slow way back to break-even.
Batteries bought on headlines
A battery is rarely the answer to a one-off price reset — especially one where most default prices fell. It's a five-figure decision that stands or falls on your own solar surplus, tariff spread and installed cost. Judge it on those numbers, not on this month's bill.
The order of operations,
if it were our bill.
We sell solar and batteries. The first three items on this list pay us nothing — do them anyway, and first.
First, spend 15 minutes on Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare with your latest bill, and read the better-offer box printed on the bill itself. In a year when most default prices fell, a bill that rose is usually a plan problem — and plan problems are free to fix. Second, check which tariff you're on and whether it matches how you actually use power — our tariff guide shows you how to read it. Third, take the boring efficiency wins: heating setpoint, hot water timing, draughts. Fourth, and only then: if you're a genuine daytime user with a roof you own, run the solar numbers honestly with is solar worth it in 2026? — and treat a battery as its own separate economics decision, never a reflex to a headline. What we'd urge against is the reverse order: buying hardware in week one and discovering in week two that a free plan switch was most of the answer.
The July 2026 price reset
— your questions, answered.
Mostly, no — default prices fell. The AER's final Default Market Offer for 2026-27, issued on 26 May 2026, cut residential flat-rate standing offers by 3.4 to 5.0 per cent in New South Wales and 7.2 per cent in south-east Queensland, with South Australia the exception at a 1.4 per cent rise; time-of-use residential prices fell in all three regions, and small business prices fell everywhere. In Victoria, the Essential Services Commission's final decision of 20 May 2026 cut the average Victorian Default Offer bill by about 5 per cent for households and 6 per cent for small businesses from 1 July 2026. These are the regulated default and reference prices — individual market plans can still move differently. If your own bill went up, the likeliest explanation is your plan, not the market: an expired discount, a repriced market offer or a tariff that doesn't suit how you use power.
A few common reasons. Your retailer may have repriced your market offer — retailers reset most market plans around 1 July, and they don't have to move in the same direction as the default price. A sign-up discount or benefit period may have quietly expired, dropping you onto a worse rate. A smart meter installation may have shifted you onto a time-of-use or demand tariff that charges more for the hours you actually use. And July bills in most of Australia are winter bills, so heating pushes usage up even when rates fall. Pull out your latest bill, find the plan name and tariff, and compare it against the reference price on Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare — that tells you within minutes whether the problem is your plan or your usage.
Compare and switch — it's free, takes about 15 minutes with a recent bill, and works this week rather than in years. Use the government comparison sites: Energy Made Easy for New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, or Victorian Energy Compare in Victoria. Retailers in Default Market Offer regions must tell you at least once every 100 days if they could offer you a better plan, and Victorian electricity bills must carry a best-offer message at least every three months — so check the box on your own bill first. Switching retailers involves no wiring, no interruption to supply and no cost. Only after the plan is fixed is it worth looking at tariff choice, efficiency and — for the right homes — solar.
From 1 July 2026, retailers in the three Default Market Offer regions — New South Wales, south-east Queensland and South Australia — are required to offer a Solar Sharer Offer: an opt-in plan for households with a smart meter that provides three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day, priced overall at the same regulated annual level as the time-of-use DMO. The idea is to let households — including those without rooftop solar — use Australia's abundant midday solar generation by shifting flexible loads like washing, dishwashers, hot water or EV charging into the free window. Whether it beats your current plan depends entirely on how much usage you can actually shift, so compare it against your real usage pattern before opting in.
Not as a reflex — but for the right home it's the one investment on this list with a genuine long-term case. Solar mainly pays by replacing daytime grid purchases, because feed-in tariffs for exports are now very low. That means the case is strongest if someone is home during the day, or you can shift loads like hot water, laundry and EV charging into daylight hours, and you own the roof. It's weakest for low daytime users, renters and heavily shaded roofs. Size the system to your actual usage rather than the biggest quote, and be aware we say this as a company that installs solar: fix your plan and tariff first, because they cost nothing — then run the solar numbers properly.
Rarely — and almost never as a reaction to a single price reset, particularly one where most default prices fell. A battery is a five-figure decision that stands or falls on your specific numbers: how much surplus solar you generate, the gap between your peak and off-peak rates, and the battery's installed cost after the federal rebate. For some homes it genuinely stacks up; for many it doesn't yet. The federal battery rebate also steps down gradually over several years, so a price headline is not a deadline to rush a battery purchase. Do the plan, tariff and efficiency fixes first — they're free — and then judge a battery on its own economics, not on this month's bill.
Where these figures come from.
Price figures on this page come from the regulators' final 2026-27 determinations and were current as at July 2026. Default prices reset annually and market offers change constantly — confirm at the source before relying on a figure.
- AER — final Default Market Offer 2026-27 news release, 26 May 2026 (price changes by region, 100-day better-offer rule, Solar Sharer Offer)
- AER — Default Market Offer 2026-27 final determination (full pricing and tariff detail)
- Essential Services Commission — Victorian Default Offer price review 2026-27, final decision 20 May 2026
- Essential Services Commission — getting the best energy offer (Victoria's best-offer bill message rules)
- Energy Made Easy — the AER's free, independent plan comparison site (NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, ACT)
- Victorian Energy Compare — the Victorian Government's free plan comparison site