Power bills to fall by up to 10% from July as renewables and batteries soar across Australia | Energy
Energy bills for households and small businesses will drop by as much as 10 percent starting in July in some parts of the eastern states, as a new industry study shows record levels of renewable energy and batteries on the power grid.
The final default market offering, which sets the maximum amount retailers can charge over the plans, shows price reductions for households and even bigger reductions for small businesses.
Household standing bid tenure prices will fall by up to 10.7% in South Australia, New South Wales and south-east Queensland.
Small business standing offer tenure prices are expected to drop by up to 20.9%.
The Australian Energy Regulator sets the default market quote as the benchmark for residential and small business electricity bills in NSW, south-east Queensland and South Australia.
The government said the 2026/27 ruling was the first under a reformed framework designed to strengthen protections for customers and offer a better deal.
The decision comes a day after Victoria’s own default proposal for 2026/27 was announced; This proposal would impose an average cut of 5% for households, reducing their annual electricity bills by $84.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said there were three main reasons behind the drop in prices.
These include finding more renewable energy and batteries that take the pressure off coal and gas used during nighttime peak hours.
“We have the best sun and wind in the world, and we use our dominant renewable energy sources to protect our grid from global energy fluctuations and lower your energy bills,” Bowen said.
“We know energy bills are still very high because when coal goes bad your bill goes up, but this news shows steady progress.”
The government has also introduced new consumer rules changes to provide extra help to customers.
From July 1, the changes mean plan benefits must last for the entire contract, price increases during fixed contracts will be stopped, unfair charges and dodgy discounts will be banned and price increases will be limited to once a year.
The news comes as the renewable energy industry’s annual report revealed Australia is now among the top three global players in batteries, with renewable energy providing almost half of the country’s power by 2025.
But the Clean Energy Council has warned that progress could stall as investment in new wind and solar energy declines.
The report found renewable energy will provide 43% of Australia’s electricity through 2025, up from 39% in 2024. The year ended on a high, with clean energy generating more than 50% of electricity on the national grid in the final quarter.
Australia ranked third in the world for grid-scale batteries behind China and the US, with 2GW of grid-connected large-scale battery capacity, a 233% increase on the previous year.
But despite these successes, CEC chief executive Jackie Trad said the energy transition was approaching a “critical juncture”.
“The next five years are very important,” he said. “Our industry’s top priority in 2026 should be to remove barriers that slow investment in new large-scale wind and solar projects to replace unreliable coal generators that threaten the security of our energy system.”
A 48% decline in new investments in onshore wind and solar energy signaled a possible slowdown. This was most obvious for wind; 0.9 GW had reached financial close in 2025, compared to 2.2 GW in the previous year.
According to the report, rising inflation, regulatory bottlenecks, slow delivery of transmission and delayed coal shutdowns have contributed to weakening investor confidence.
Investment in battery storage remained strong. Uptake of home batteries is up 260% from 2024, helped by the federal government’s cheaper home batteries program. More than 268,000 small-scale storage systems added in 2025; this number later increased to 400,000.
