Electricity.
Bills down 38%.
Household electricity bills have fallen by 38% — from $1,800 to $1,112 per year for ten million households. Business electricity bills have fallen by 41% — from $10,000 to $5,910 for 200,000 firms. Aggregate customer savings are $7.7 billion per year, and a further $7 billion of subsidies that had propped up the dysfunctional retail market have been retired.
The four mechanisms
- Retailer fees capped at $40 per customer per year, down from approximately $300, enforced through smart-meter rollout and AER rule changes.
- Transmission charges trimmed through AER direction to $7 billion per year nationally, saving customers $2.43 billion.
- Wholesale-price stabilisation through AEMO authority to cap wholesale prices at $100/MWh during high-volatility events, eliminating the hedging premium that previously inflated retail rates.
- Domestic gas security through the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, securing 300 PJ of gas annually at $8/GJ for the domestic market.
These reforms operate during the transition period before CANDU power displaces fossil-fuel generation. They are bridge measures. The structural fall in cost arrives once the reactor fleet is online.
How the savings are calculated
The 38% and 41% reductions are calculated against the current Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) regulated default offer as the baseline. The figures are steady-state outcomes once all four mechanisms are fully in effect and the CANDU rollout has retired the high-volatility wholesale exposure. The $7.7 billion is the annual aggregate customer saving against that baseline — not a cumulative total.