Australian Energy Bills to Drop as Renewables Surge

Energy bills for households and small businesses will fall by up to 10% per cent from July across parts of the eastern states, as a new industry survey shows record levels of renewables and batteries in the power grid. The final default market offer, which sets out the maximum amount retailers can charge on plans, shows price reductions for households and even bigger drops for small businesses. Household standing offer time-of-use prices will fall by up to 10.7% across South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland’s south-east. Small business standing offer time-of-use prices are set to fall by up to 20.9%. The Australian Energy Regulator sets the default market offer as a benchmark for residential and small business electricity bills in NSW, south-east Queensland and South Australia. The government said the 2026/27 determination is the first under a reformed framework designed to bolster protections for customers and deliver a better deal. The determination comes a day after Victoria’s own default offer for 2026/27 was released, which ruled an average 5% cut for households, taking $84 off their annual electricity bill. The energy minister, Chris Bowen, said there were three key reasons behind the fall in prices. These include more renewable energy available and batteries lifting pressure off coal and gas that is used at peak times at night time. “We’ve got the best sun and wind in the world, and we’re using our sovereign renewables to shield our grid from global energy volatility and to bring down your energy bills,” Bowen said. “We know energy bills are still too high – because when coal breaks down, your bill goes up – but this news shows steady progress.” The government has also implemented new consumer rule changes to add extra help for customers. From 1 July, the changes mean plan benefits will have to last the whole contract, price increases during fixed contracts will be stopped, unfair fees and dodgy discounts will be banned and price increases will be limited to once a year. The news comes as the renewable industry’s annual snapshot found Australia is now a top-three global player in batteries and renewable energy met nearly half of the nation’s power in 2025. But the Clean Energy Council warned that progress could stall as investment in new wind and solar plummeted. The report found renewable energy supplied 43% of Australia’s power throughout 2025, up from 39% in 2024. The year ended on a high, with clean energy generating more than 50% of power in the national grid in the final quarter. Australia ranked third in the world for utility-scale batteries, behind only China and the United States – with 2GW of large-scale battery capacity connected to the grid, up 233% on the previous year. Yet despite these achievements, the CEC chief executive, Jackie Trad, said the energy transition was approaching a “critical juncture”. “The next five years matter most,” she said. “Our sector’s highest priority in 2026 must be to remove the barriers slowing investment in new large-scale wind and solar projects that will ultimately replace unreliable coal generators that threaten the security of our energy system.” A 48% fall in new investment in onshore wind and solar signalled a likely slowdown. This was most evident for wind, with 0.9GW reaching financial close in 2025, compared with 2.2GW the previous year. According to the report, rising inflation, regulatory bottlenecks, slow delivery of transmission and delayed coal closures contributed to weakening investor confidence. Investment in battery storage remained strong. The uptake of home batteries surged 260%, compared with 2024, helped by the federal government’s cheaper home batteries program. More than 268,000 small-scale storage systems were added during 2025 - a number that has since grown to 400,000.