Electricity prices are skyrocketing! What should I do?

You may have heard a bit of doomsday talk about the recent electricity prices. The regulator is increasing its benchmark prices, ReAmped Energy has told all of its customers to go find someone else and the wholesale price has more than doubled over the course of a year.

The biggest piece of advice we have for solar customers is: don’t panic (even if you’re being asked to leave)! You can thank your past self for investing in solar energy - you’re already far more sheltered from rising electricity prices. And with Solar Analytics, you already have the tools to protect you from future price hikes.

Here are our tips for surviving the price hikes:

1. Use more of your solar energy

Guess the one tariff on your energy bill that is not increasing? Wouldn’t you know it, it’s the solar feed-in tariff - what you get paid when you send solar energy back to the grid.

This means that the single best thing you can do is to use more of your solar energy yourself. It’s free so snaffle up as much of it as possible instead of paying for the stuff from the grid. To help see how you can do this, follow your My Energy Usage graph closely and use your load-hungry appliances (washing machines, dryers etc) when you’re producing solar. As our amazing Kathleen says, “Get your purple in the yellow!”

A site 'getting their purple in the yellow'
A site 'getting their purple in the yellow'

2. Don’t get caught out by surprise price increases!

Almost all electricity providers will be increasing their rates over the next few months. The good news is that electricity companies must inform you of rate increases, so keep an eye out for any emails, letters and notes on you next electricity bill.

We can help you here as well! Confirm your last bill was what you expect with My Electricity Bill, and update your rates when they change. This way, you’ll be able to keep on top of your electricity costs before the dreaded bill arrives…

3. Keep an eye out for better deals with Plan Optimiser

Especially if your rates have recently increased, now is the time to check Plan Optimiser (if you're not already a Solar Analytics customer you can compare plans with the free version here) and see if there’s a better plan out there for you.

We know that currently, rates and offers available are changing daily. So here's what we’re doing to ensure Plan Optimiser is accurate:

  • We’re updating all plans weekly
  • And checking manually to confirm retailers are still allowing new customers to sign up online and removing retailers that aren’t accepting new people.
  • Collecting feedback from you in our survey on your switching experience. Please fill this out if you find that a retailer won't offer you a plan, had changed its rates or any other issues, so we can update Plan Optimiser.

Oh, and we’ve also made some updates so plans are easier to compare, and added a range of tips on how to switch plans.

Image showing Alinta Energy's HomeDeal (TOU) rates on Plan Optimiser

Published: 2nd June 2022

Solar Analytics
We are Australian Photovoltaic Engineers, Software Developers, Scientists, Solar Technicians and Designers, all passionate about sustainable energy and the power of solar.
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