South Australia Electricity Plans

While prices are constantly changing, some of the providers that are consistently cheapest in South Australia include Globird Energy and OVO Energy.

To most, these won’t be familiar brands, and that’s because the ‘big three’ electricity providers — Origin, AGL and EnergyAustralia — dominate the South Australian power market. While the big three are popular, they’re not always the cheapest, and in this case, it’s smaller challenger brands coming out on top.

Keep in mind that this list changes regularly as power providers shake up their offerings in a bid to be more price competitive. For the best deal, you should compare your rates regularly to ensure you get the best deal possible.

Generally, a good usage rate in SA is 36-37¢/kWh, with a reasonable supply charge sitting at about 95-96¢/day. Bear in mind these figures are approximate and constantly fluctuating.

While both low usage and supply rates are ideal, they’re not incredibly common, so it pays to think strategically. Households with low power usage may prefer a plan with a low supply charge, whereas large families with significant usage needs might save more with a low usage rate.

South Australian households that are financially vulnerable can receive assistance with their electricity bills in the form of a concession. Here are the power bill rebates and concessions available to South Australians:

• Energy Bill Concession: Seniors, pensioners, veterans, and asylum seekers may receive up to $233.60 per year toward their electricity bill.
• Cost of Living Concession: A concession of up to $449 a year available to people who hold a Pensioner Concession Card, Veterans Gold Card, Health Care Card, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, or meet low-income provisions.
• Residential Park Resident Concession: Payment of up to $554 per year toward power for concession card holders and Centrelink recipients who live in a caravan park.
• Home Dialysis Electricity Concession: Households with a home-based kidney dialysis machine receive $165 per year toward their power bills.
• Medical Cooling and Heating Electricity Concession Scheme: An electricity bill concession of $233.60 is available to health care card holders whose medical conditions make regulating body temperature difficult.

How you’re charged for electricity has an impact on your power bill. Contrary to popular belief, tariffs aren’t what you pay for power but rather how you pay for power. There are three main tariff structures in South Australia, which are: 

• Single rate: Where you’re charged the same rates regardless of the time of day.
• Demand: Lower rates than a single rate plan in exchange for ‘demand’ pricing in peak usage periods.
• Controlled load: A separate meter is in place for your hot water system, with different rates.

With so much jargon and marketing in the world of electricity, comparing plans in South Australia isn’t easy. Canstar Blue takes the stress out of finding a good deal by comparing deals based on price, overall value and more. Our tool is easy to use, but here are some steps to help you get started.

1. Enter your postcode into our comparison tool or upload a past bill and press the search icon on the right-hand side.
2. Filter results by provider, contract length, conditional discount, billing frequency, and plan features. If you have a controlled load, edit the blue text in the white box above the tool and change your tariff type in the ‘refine your search section’. 
3. Sort results by value rank, customer satisfaction or price. 
4. Find your perfect plan and click the green ‘See offer’ button to sign up on the provider’s page.