Business electricity plans in Queensland, compared on your actual bill

Upload a recent Queensland business electricity bill and we read the usage, tariff structure and rates printed on it, then price the published plans available at your site against those numbers and rank them by projected annual cost. No phone call, no callback, no panel.

What follows is the part that is specific to Queensland, and Queensland is the one state where the answer genuinely changes depending on which part of it you trade in. Everything about how a business bill differs from a household one holds wherever you are, and it is on business electricity plans.

Who sets the default electricity price for a Queensland small business?

Two different bodies, depending on where your site is, and this is the most consequential state difference in the country.

In South East Queensland, the Australian Energy Regulator sets the Default Market Offer, which caps standing offers for residential and small business customers. It is the same annual cap that applies in New South Wales and South Australia, taking effect each 1 July.

In regional Queensland, prices are set by the Queensland Competition Authority under a delegation from the responsible Minister, published as notified prices in the Queensland Government Gazette and applying from each 1 July. Notified prices for small customers in the regional network area are based on the cost of supply in South East Queensland rather than the cost of supplying the region, and the difference is met by the Queensland Government. That is why a regional Queensland business does not pay the full cost of its distance.

One detail with practical consequences: notified prices are set exclusive of GST, which is the same basis we price plans on, and a different basis from the GST-inclusive figures most comparison tables publish. If you are reconciling a quote against a table and the numbers are out by about a tenth, that is usually why.

Which electricity network is my Queensland business behind?

One of two. Energex distributes across South East Queensland. Ergon Energy distributes across regional Queensland, which is one of the geographically largest distribution areas in the country.

That split is the same line that decides which pricing regime covers you, so in Queensland your distributor tells you more than it does elsewhere. The network also sets the tariff assigned to your site, which decides whether you are charged for demand, what your time-of-use windows are, and how your supply charge is structured. Your bill names your distributor.

Am I a small business electricity customer in Queensland?

Queensland draws the line at 100 megawatt hours a year, which is 100,000 kilowatt hours, the same threshold as New South Wales. Below it your site buys published retail plans and keeps the small customer protections in energy retail law. Above it your site is a large customer and buys on a negotiated contract instead.

The threshold is not uniform nationally. Victoria draws the same line at 40 megawatt hours, so a business with sites in both states can be a small customer in Queensland and a large one in Victoria on identical consumption.

Do Queensland business plans use time-of-use windows?

Many do, and in regional Queensland the regulator publishes the windows. The small business time-of-use tariff in the Queensland Competition Authority's notified prices for 2026 to 2027 puts peak at 5pm to 8pm on weekdays, with a separate daytime rate from 11am to 1pm and a third rate covering all other hours. The regional default for a small business that has not chosen otherwise is a flat-rate tariff rather than a time-of-use one.

A three hour evening peak is a very different proposition from the twelve hour weekday peak the Victorian regulator publishes, and it is close to ideal for a business that closes at five and awkward for one that trades into the evening. Those are the regulated structures; market offers and Energex tariffs define their own windows, and yours is fixed by the tariff code on your bill. What the split does to your annual total, with the arithmetic worked, is at how business time-of-use windows change your annual cost.

Is there a Queensland concession or rebate for business electricity?

Not a concession. Queensland energy concessions and rebates are household measures and do not extend to a business account, though the regional pricing arrangement described above is itself a subsidy that a regional business receives without applying for anything.

For businesses specifically, Queensland runs the Business Energy Savers Program, which provides energy audits and co-contributions towards efficiency upgrades for eligible customers, and PeakSmart incentives for air conditioning that can be stepped down when the network is under stress. The second is worth noting on this page in particular, because reducing what your site draws at the network's worst moment is exactly what lowers a demand charge, which is covered at demand charges explained.

What is the same wherever your business is?

Most of it. Business plans are published as separate products from household ones, business sites are more often placed on a tariff that charges for demand as well as usage, and business rates are usually quoted without GST. None of that changes at a state border.

The full treatment is on business electricity plans. If the bill in front of you is the puzzle, how to read a business electricity bill walks it line by line.

Start with the bill

Upload your Queensland business electricity bill and the engine prices the published plans available at your site against your own usage, tariff and demand, and ranks them by projected annual cost with the workings shown. Estimates, not quotes.