#BetterTogether - Customer-Led Tariffs
The Customer-Led Tariffs initiative is a sector-first collaboration driving smarter, fairer electricity pricing to empower customers and support the energy transition. It brings together industry, government, consumer representatives and community voices to reimagine how energy tariffs and retail offers can deliver better outcomes, not just for the grid, but for all Australians.
Why we’re doing this work
Electricity pricing plays a crucial role in shaping how customers use, manage and invest in energy. But too often, pricing is complex, inconsistent, and disconnected from how people actually live. As we shift toward a cleaner, more dynamic energy system, where solar, batteries, and smart devices are becoming more common, we need pricing and offers that are simple to understand, fair in impact, and powerful in enabling participation.
This #BetterTogether initiative is about making that vision real. Through practical testing, modelling and co-design, it explores how customer-led tariff and retail plan combinations can support better bill outcomes, smarter grid use and greater uptake of customer energy resources (CER). It’s not about one-size-fits-all solutions, it’s about creating the conditions for a future where everyone can benefit.
CEO-led leadership
This work is championed by the CEOs of EnergyAustralia, Essential Energy and SA Power Networks, who have come together with a shared commitment to deliver pricing reform that puts customers first. Their leadership has created the space for strategic experimentation, open collaboration, and transparent learning across the sector. It’s a powerful example of the kind of cross-sector cooperation needed to drive genuine transformation.
Our CEOs endorsed key principles to guide this work and future pricing reform:
- Simple – Retail offerings should be easy to understand, explain, and compare. They should reduce complexity for customers.
- Universal – Retail offerings should be available to all residential and small business customers. They should be consistent across networks and include an ‘obligatory offer’ to act as a safeguard.
- Fair and equitable – Retail offerings should be affordable and ensure no one is left behind. One customer’s choice should not negatively affect others.
- Certainty for customers – Retail offerings should be predictable over time, with clear and consistent bill amounts and no surprises.
- Supporting customer choice – Retail offerings should support customer agency and enable meaningful choice.
- Safeguarding customers – Retail offerings should minimise harm, especially for vulnerable customers
AEMC Pricing Review
This #BetterTogether initiative is aligned with the Australian Energy Market Commission’s Pricing Review: Electricity Pricing for a Consumer Driven Future.
Global insight, local impact: Dr Ahmad Faruqui
Dr. Ahmad Faruqui, a globally recognised energy economist with over 40 years of experience, shared his expertise during one of the workshops, providing valuable insights into equitable and efficient electrification. His extensive international experience in advising utilities, regulators, and policymakers has been instrumental in shaping discussions. There is work underway for future engagements with Dr. Faruqui to explore network tariff design ideas with The Energy Charter to help shape the future of equitable and efficient electrification.
His recent guest blog, Promoting Electrification Through Technology-Specific Rates, outlines how tailored rate design can support decarbonisation while keeping energy affordable for for customers.
Stage 1 Update - November 2024
Stage 1: Building Customer-Centric Tariffs (Complete)
Stage 1 built a strong foundation for developing future energy tariffs that are customer-focused, support the energy transition, and enable better outcomes for both customers and the energy system.
What happened in Stage 1.
- Deep customer engagement: Over 20 diverse customer voices were involved across three jurisdictions (NSW, VIC, QLD), including vulnerable customers, First Nations people, and small businesses.
- Co-design workshops: These helped unpack how different customer segments view energy pricing and choice.
- Development of design principles: Key principles emerged from this engagement (such as simplicity, fairness, safeguarding vulnerable customers), shaping what “good” looks like in future tariffs.
- Shared understanding: The process helped build a common language between networks, retailers, advocates, and regulators.
Key outcomes
- Strong support for a customer-first approach to tariff reform.
- Agreement on the need for choice, simplicity, and safeguards.
- Recognition that tariff reform must be grounded in real customer experience and led with empathy.
Download the #BetterTogether Customer-Led Tariffs – Stage 1 Update.
Stage 2 – July 2025 (in progress)
Building on the customer insights from Stage 1, Stage 2 focuses on a proof-of-concept model where network tariffs, retail offers, and customer energy resource (CER) orchestration work seamlessly to deliver long-term value for both customers and the energy system.
To support this next phase, we’ve engaged Endgame Economics, a specialist energy economics and modelling consultancy known for its rigorous, real-world analysis of future-facing market design. Endgame brings deep expertise in network tariff reform, cost-reflective pricing, and the dynamic role of CER in electricity markets. Their independent, evidence-led approach ensures the modelling is grounded, practical, and focused on outcomes that can be implemented in the real world.
Endgame is testing how different tariff structures perform when:
- Subscription-based retail models are introduced
- Solar and battery storage are actively coordinated through orchestration
- Retail cost stacks are optimised to deliver shared customer and system benefits
- Peak demand is reduced — and new challenges like midday solar peaks are managed.
Endgame trialled six innovative network tariffs paired with two types of retail plans, a basic subscription and an advanced plan with CER orchestration, to understand their impacts on customer outcomes, system performance and retailer cost stacks.
Key preliminary findings:
- Tariffs paired with advanced retail plans delivered the strongest customer and system outcomes
- Retailers reduced cost stacks and passed through real savings to customers
- Most tariffs supported greater CER uptake and improved grid performance
- Well-designed retail offers were critical to unlocking the full benefits.
Collaborators
Customer Outcomes Group:
- Energy and Water Ombudsman NSW (EWON)
- Energy Consumers Australia
- Individual lived-experience members from customer councils
- Justice and Equity Centre (formerly Public Interest Advocacy Centre)
- Rheem
- St Vincents de Paul Society
Industry Collaborators: EnergyAustralia, Essential Energy and SA Power Networks, led by their CEOs Mark Collette, John Cleland and Andrew Bills.
Want to learn more about this #BetterTogether initiative?
If you would like to learn more about the #BetterTogether Customer-led Tariffs initiative, or how you can get involved, please reach out to Bec Jolly, Director Energy Equity.