Electricity bill announcement sees SA buck positive trend
There’s good and bad news today for businesses and homeowners struggling under the weight of electricity bills, one Adelaide hospitality owner saying any relief will help.
Electricity bill relief is incoming for small businesses in South Australia, with the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) today releasing its final prices for 2026-27.
But local households are not winning the same gains with a 1.4 per cent increase hitting power bills – South Australia is the only state to see residential flat rates rise next year.
Energy Minister Tom Koutsanonis blaming the state’s “very-high transmission costs” and the “longest transmission line in the country…. basically the length of Germany and France” for the rise, and saying business rates were a win.
The AER’s Default Market Offer (DMO) was released today. It is a priced energy plan applied as a standing offer to households and small businesses in SA, New South Wales and South East Queensland, designed to protect those who do not sign up to a more competitive retail market offer.
AER said only eight per cent of households and 15 per cent of businesses remain on it, but retailers are obliged to show how their plans compare to the DMO in advertising and promotion.
For 2026-27, South Australian residential DMO customers will see between a 1.1 per cent (-$25) decrease to a 1.4 per cent increase (+$33). While small business customers will see a decrease in prices between 6.8 per cent (-$379) and 12.1 per cent (-$673).
In comparison, both residential and business customers in NSW and South East Queensland have won pricing falls next year.
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The news was welcomed by Adelaide city cocktail bar Hains & Co owner Marcus Motteram, who told InDaily that any price decrease was “a very rare thing these days”.
He said electricity bills were expensive for a business like his, “When you run as much refrigeration as we do, we run with a lot of high costs”.
“A couple of years ago, I had solar put on top of the roof, that’s helped reduce our costs, but we use every bit of the solar power we create,” he said.
“But we don’t have a big enough roof to create enough solar power to cover our bills.”
It comes as Hains & Co was going through a “tough” period. Motteram – who opened the bar 11 years ago – said trading was down by about 11 per cent during Gather Round and by the same amount over Easter.
This was despite figures released by the state government today saying during Gather Round it was the “busiest ever week in the state’s history” at Adelaide Airport that provided a significant contribution to SA’s visitor economy.
For Motteram, his business’s experience was “a little bit concerning,” noting that despite the fall during Gather Round and Easter, the business was seeing turnover year-on-year still rising over the past decade.
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“Then we had the Showdown on a Friday night, thinking everyone would come out and drink afterwards, but it didn’t really move the needle.”
“No matter what you turn on, they’re saying doom and gloom. Financially, even if you have money, you subconsciously are going to start to tighten up, and we’re probably seeing that.”
The business was also under pressure from newly imposed fuel surcharges from suppliers after the price of petrol skyrocketed during the conflict in Iran.
He said he was unable to increase prices “because consumers are just tightening up anyway”.
“It’s definitely economically a tough position to be in,” he said.
Motteram said any relief for his “huge” gas bills would be welcome, “especially through winter, because we have an enormous heater outside that’s always running to keep people warm”.
Energy and Mining Minister Tom Koutsantonis called on retailers to pass on lower wholesale prices to their customers.
“It’s heartening to see wholesale prices heading in the right direction, with the majority of residential customers and all small business customers seeing a decrease in their bills under the Australian Energy Regulator’s final Default Market Offer determination for 2026-27,” he said.
“It’s important to emphasise to consumers that the DMO is not the cheapest option on the market – the majority of customers are already on better deals and they should always shop around for the best deal they can find.
“We are seeing a genuine reduction in wholesale prices, and the Malinauskas Government is taking action to ensure generation capacity – including gas – is available to maintain this.
“It is incumbent on retailers to pass on the cost savings of these lower wholesale prices – and the government now expects them to do so.”
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