Commercial electricity bills are not designed to be readable. That’s not an accident.
Retailers know that most owners glance at the total, pay it, and move on. The ones who break it down line-by-line save money. This guide is the line-by-line.
What you’ll get out of reading this:
- Every section on a typical Australian commercial power bill — explained
- Which lines are fixed by the network (non-negotiable) and which the retailer sets (negotiable)
- The three lines that quietly drift above market
- How to spot a billing error (we’ve found one in roughly 1-in-25 bills we audit)
- What “good” looks like on each line
If you’d rather skip the reading: upload your last bill — we’ll annotate it for free and tell you what should change. We’re paid by the energy retailer when you switch, never by you.
The four parts of a commercial bill
Strip away the branding and a commercial electricity bill has four sections:
- Identity block — who you are, where the meter is, who supplies it
- Usage block — kWh consumed, broken into peak / off-peak / shoulder / demand
- Charges block — energy, network, demand, supply, and any extras
- Total + payment block — GST, total, due date, payment options
The trick is knowing which of those lines you can negotiate and which the network sets in stone.
Section 1: Identity — who, where, what
You’ll see five things at the top of every bill. Skim past the obvious (your business name, address). The ones that matter:
NMI — National Metering Identifier
A 10 or 11-digit number that uniquely identifies your meter on the national grid. Looks like 3000123456 or 30001234567. It’s the most important number on the bill — every retailer pricing you needs it.
Where you’ll find it: usually top-right of the first page. Sometimes labelled “Supply address” or “Site identifier.”
MIRN — Meter Installation Reference Number (gas only)
Same idea as NMI, but for gas. Looks like a longer string with letters and digits. Only on gas bills.
Tariff code
This is the network-set tariff your site is on. Common SEQ codes:
- 8500 — small business demand (≤ ~100 MWh/year, demand-billed)
- 7100 / 7200 — small business demand variants
- 7400 — small business time-of-use (no demand line)
- 8400 — larger commercial demand
- CAC — flat-rate small commercial (rare)
The tariff dictates what charges apply. If you’re on 7400 but your usage now exceeds 100 MWh, you’re probably overdue for a tariff review.
NMI status
Active, deactivated, or in transfer. Should always say “Active” on a normal bill. If it says “transfer in progress” you might be mid-switch.
Network operator
For SEQ: Energex. Further west and rural: Essential Energy. Different operator = different network charges.
Section 2: Usage — what you used
This is the consumption breakdown. You’ll see:
Total kWh
Total kilowatt-hours used in the billing period. Compare to last bill — if it jumped more than ~15% with no obvious reason (new equipment, hot summer, longer hours), question it.
Peak / off-peak / shoulder split
If you’re on a time-of-use tariff:
- Peak — usually 4pm–8pm weekdays. Most expensive.
- Off-peak — overnight + weekends. Cheapest.
- Shoulder — morning + early afternoon. In between.
A common saving: shifting energy-hungry tasks (heavy ovens, equipment cycling, EV charging) into off-peak hours can drop your average rate by 20–35%.
kVA / demand reading
If you’re on a demand tariff, you’ll see a kVA figure. This is your worst 30-minute spike — see our full demand charges guide for what to do about it.
Average daily use
Total kWh ÷ number of days. Useful for spotting anomalies — if your average daily use jumps without explanation, something has changed.
Section 3: Charges — the bit that’s mostly negotiable
This is where the money lives. Most commercial bills break charges into four groups.
Energy charge — negotiable, retailer sets it
The cost of the actual electricity, in cents per kWh. Quoted at one rate (flat) or three (peak/off-peak/shoulder).
What “good” looks like in 2026:
- SME flat rate: 24–32 c/kWh (Brisbane, depending on retailer)
- SME peak rate: 28–38 c/kWh
- SME off-peak: 14–22 c/kWh
- C&I (above 100 MWh/year): much sharper — 14–25 c/kWh range depending on volume
If you’re above the upper end of those ranges, your contract is probably out of term.
Network charge — fixed by network, not negotiable
Pays for the wires, poles, substations. Made up of:
- Network usage charge — c/kWh, set by Energex / Essential
- Network demand charge — $/kVA, set by Energex / Essential
- Network supply charge — c/day, set by Energex / Essential
These are the same across every retailer. If a retailer claims they’ve “lowered your network charge,” they’re misleading you — the only thing they can lower is the retailer-side margin.
Demand charge — partly negotiable
Two components:
- The kVA reading itself (you can lower by staggering load — see the demand guide)
- The rate per kVA (the retailer’s mark-up on the network-set rate — this is negotiable)
A typical retailer mark-up on demand is $0.50–$3.00 per kVA per month above the network rate. Sharp retailers offer flat pass-through. We push for pass-through in every C&I tender.
Retailer supply charge — negotiable, often inflated
A daily fixed fee from the retailer, on top of the network supply charge. Typically 20–80 c/day. This is separate from the network supply charge — some retailers stack both, charging you twice for the same conceptual thing.
If your bill shows two supply charges that together exceed $1.50/day for a small site, ask your retailer for a single combined supply rate.
Other line items to watch for
- Metering charge — usually $1–$3 per month. Network-set, non-negotiable.
- AEMC market charge — small, regulator-set, non-negotiable.
- Environmental certificate cost — LRET, SRES, VEET (in Victoria), QRET — typically 1–3 c/kWh, pass-through.
- Late payment fee — always negotiable. Some retailers waive it for businesses with good payment history.
Section 4: Total + payment
GST
10% on all charges except some pass-through items (GST-free network charges in some configurations — rare). Listed as a single line. If your GST line doesn’t match 10% of the pre-GST subtotal, query it.
Due date
Standard commercial terms are 14 or 21 days from invoice issue. Some retailers offer extended terms (30 days) for established C&I customers — worth asking for if your cash flow benefits from it.
Payment options
Direct debit (cheapest — usually 1% discount with some retailers), BPAY (free), credit card (often 1.5–2.5% surcharge — avoid for big bills), cheque (do retailers still take these? Yes, but slow).
The three lines that quietly drift above market
If you read nothing else, read this. These are the three places we save the most money for clients.
1. The demand rate (retailer mark-up)
We covered this in the demand guide. On a small site, the retailer’s mark-up on the network demand rate is the single most-negotiable number on the bill. On a C&I site, it’s worth thousands a year.
2. The retailer supply charge
A retailer supply charge above 50 c/day for a small site is high. Above 80 c/day is excessive. The network supply charge is already in there — anything the retailer stacks on top is pure margin.
3. The energy rate (flat or peak)
Energy rates auto-renew above market more often than any other charge. If your last contract was signed 18+ months ago and never reviewed, your energy rate is almost certainly 8–22% above what the panel would quote you fresh today.
How to spot a billing error
The 1-in-25 bills we audit with a billing error usually have one of these:
- Estimated reading instead of actual — bill shows “estimated” or “E” next to kWh. Demand a re-bill on actuals.
- Wrong tariff applied — shouldn’t be on a small-business tariff if you’re consistently above 100 MWh/year. Ask for a tariff review.
- Network charge mismatched — Energex publishes network charges; cross-check yours against the Energex tariff schedule if your bill seems high.
- GST applied to a GST-free line — rare but happens. Worth a 10-minute check.
- Demand reading from a freak event — fridge failure, brief power surge, contractor running heavy gear. Disputable.
Found one? Email your retailer with the specific line item and the issue. If they don’t resolve it in 21 days, the Energy and Water Ombudsman Queensland is free, neutral, and quick.
Multi-site and C&I — same logic, more lines
If you run multiple sites, expect:
- A separate breakdown per site (good retailers consolidate; some still send 12 invoices for 12 sites — annoying)
- A portfolio-level summary
- Sometimes a “wholesale pass-through” component if you’re on an indexed contract
- A tender-specific energy rate that differs per site, depending on the load shape
For C&I clients we don’t just audit a single bill — we build a portfolio-level model showing where each site sits on each charge type. Two of our larger clients found $40k+ a year in saving from the audit alone, before we even rebid the market.
If you’re a procurement manager reading this: the bill itself is a starting point, not the answer. The half-hourly meter data is where the real story lives.
Common questions
My bill went up significantly but my usage didn’t. Why?
Most common reasons (in order): (1) network charge increases (yearly tariff updates), (2) demand reading from a peak you didn’t notice, (3) contract anniversary triggering a rate review onto a higher published rate, (4) seasonal adjustment on a quarterly bill.
Why does my retailer break the same charge into two lines?
Often to make individual lines look small. The network supply charge + retailer supply charge add up to your true daily supply cost. Same for energy rate vs “service fee” — sometimes one is split into two lines.
Should my bill have a separate solar feed-in tariff line?
If you’ve got solar exporting to the grid: yes. Look for “FiT” or “solar export” — usually a credit (negative number). If you have solar and there’s no FiT line, your retailer might be paying you nothing for exports. Ask.
What’s a “small market customer” vs “large market customer” classification?
NEM regulatory thresholds. Roughly: small market = ≤ 160 MWh/year, large market = above. Different retail competition rules apply.
Can I get a copy of my interval meter data?
Yes. Email your retailer asking for “half-hourly meter data for the last 12 months in NEM12 format.” They have to provide it. Or sign an LoA and we pull it for you.
One last thing
Most owners spend 30 seconds on their power bill and pay it. The ones who spend 10 minutes a quarter typically find $500–$5,000 a year in saving that nobody else was going to find for them.
If you’d rather we did the 10 minutes for you: that’s the job. Upload your last bill on this page or email hello@smartaswitch.com.au. Comparison sheet back to you within 24 hours.
Joe Lawrence — Co-founder, Smarta Switch Australia
0435 642 592 · joseff@smartaswitch.com.au