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The headlines this year said electricity prices were falling. The comparison energy price the benchmark set by the Australian Energy Regulator each July, actually dropped for most NSW households on standing offers from 1 July 2026. Yet many households are still seeing their bills go up rather than down.
That gap between the headline number and the actual bill isn’t a mistake. It’s due to a few factors the benchmark price doesn’t fully capture.
Before making a switch, it’s worth understanding what’s driving the increase, since the fix is often simpler than changing providers outright. In many cases, it starts with a proper comparison of energy plans against your current rates, rather than assuming your existing plan has kept pace.
1. Network Charges Keep Rising Even When Wholesale Prices Fall
Network charges-the cost of poles, wires, substations, and the transmission network-make up roughly 40% to 50% of a typical NSW electricity bill. These costs are set separately from wholesale electricity prices and have continued to increase due to inflation, higher interest rates, and the recovery of previously under-recovered network revenue. So even in a year when the DMO headline falls because wholesale costs eased, the network component underneath it can still be rising, offsetting some of the savings.
2. Market Plans Don’t Automatically Follow the Comparison Price
The comparison energy price is a safety-net price for standing offers, not something that automatically applies to market plans. If a household signed up to a market offer with its own fixed or variable rate, that price does not adjust just because the benchmark moved on 1 July. A plan that looked competitive against last year’s comparison energy price can now sit well above the new benchmark, and the only way to know is to check the plan’s actual rate against the current comparison price.
| comparison energy price change from 1 July 2026 | NSW impact |
| Residential flat rate | Down 3.4% to 5.0% |
| Small business time-of-use (Essential Energy zone) | Down up to 20.9% |
| Network charges | Continued to rise in most zones |
3. The Discount Period on Your Plan Has Quietly Ended
Most market offers come with a benefit period, often 12 months, during which a discount applies. Once that period ends, many plans revert to a higher variable rate without a clear prompt to compare again. A household that signed up for a competitive deal a year ago may now be paying a rate closer to or even above the DMO without realising the discount has lapsed.
4. Usage Has Crept Up Without Being Noticed
Bills also rise for reasons unrelated to pricing. More devices per household, increased time spent working from home, electric vehicle charging, and heavier air conditioning use during hot stretches all add genuine consumption on top of any rate changes. A household that uses more electricity than in the previous year will see a higher bill, even if the rate remains unchanged, because usage charges scale directly with electricity consumption.
5. Fixed Supply Charges Hit Low-Usage Households Harder
The daily supply charge is fixed regardless of how much electricity a household uses, which means it makes up a larger share of the bill for smaller households. Retirees, singles, and anyone living alone can be disproportionately affected, since their overall usage is lower while the fixed portion of their bill remains the same as that of a larger household. This is one reason two neighbours on the same plan can experience very different percentage increases even when the underlying rate hasn’t changed.
The Bottom Line
A falling benchmark price doesn’t guarantee a lower bill, since network costs, expired discounts, and rising usage all sit outside the comparison energy price headline number. Checking a plan’s actual rate against the current comparison price, and confirming whether a benefit period has ended, usually explains more of the increase than the market itself does.