Imported plans come from the Australian Energy Regulator's Product Reference Data, the same government dataset behind the official Energy Made Easy comparison site. We use each retailer's generally available flat-rate plans with GST-inclusive reference rates, matched to your New South Wales postcode's network area. The dataset is a dated snapshot, and the retrieved date is shown next to the import tool.

The import uses reference rates: the standing rates retailers publish to the regulator for a flat-rate tariff, shown here with GST included, the same way Energy Made Easy displays them. Retailer websites often lead with conditional discounts, sign-up credits or time-limited offers that aren't reflected in reference rates, and prices can change after our snapshot date. Treat the comparison as a like-for-like starting point and always confirm the current rate with the retailer before switching. Retailers also sell variants of the same plan family at different rates, for example demand-tariff versions, so quote the plan ID shown under each imported plan to make sure you are looking at the same one.

A controlled load is a separately metered tariff for appliances like electric hot water or slab heating, billed at a cheaper rate because the network can limit when they run. NSW networks offer Controlled Load 1 (a minimum of around six hours supply, usually overnight) and Controlled Load 2 (longer availability, including some daytime hours). The calculator has separate Controlled Load 1 and Controlled Load 2 inputs, each an opt-in checkbox in Your Usage; tick the one you have (or both) and enter its daily usage. Imported plans fill each rate from the published data, and if a plan doesn't publish a rate for a circuit you ticked, that usage is billed at its general rate and the plan is tagged. If you don't have a controlled load, leave them unticked. Some controlled load tariffs also carry a small daily supply charge of their own, which this calculator's estimate does not include.

Yes. Turn on the solar option, enter your average daily export from a recent bill, and each plan's bill is reduced by its feed-in credit, so solar homes are ranked on net cost. The calculator uses each plan's standard ongoing feed-in rate and doesn't credit headline rates that are capped to the first few kWh a day or only paid at certain times, because a single daily export figure can't value those fairly; those plans are tagged instead. Enter your grid import (what you draw after your panels), not your total solar generation.

New South Wales has three distribution networks: Ausgrid (Sydney, Central Coast and the Hunter), Endeavour Energy (western Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra) and Essential Energy (regional NSW). Retailers publish different plans and prices for each network, so the plans for a regional postcode won't match an inner Sydney one. That's a feature of the market, not missing data.

Look for a section like "your usage" or "average daily usage" on your bill, usually shown in kWh per day. If your bill only shows total kWh for the billing period, divide it by the number of days in the period. Controlled load usage is listed separately, usually labelled controlled load 1 or 2.