First, check whether you can choose at all
Before you compare plans, confirm you are a "market" customer and not inside an embedded network. In a standard apartment, each unit has its own meter and its own account, and you can pick any retailer that services your distribution area. In an embedded network, the whole building is metered as one connection and the body corporate or an operator on-sells power to each unit — which usually limits or removes your choice of retailer.
The quick test: is your bill from a retailer you recognise (or could look up), addressed to you, with your own meter number? If yes, you can compare and switch. If you pay the building manager or a single operator a rate set by them, read our embedded networks guide first, because the advice below assumes you have real choice.
What makes apartment plans different
Apartments and units typically use less electricity than freestanding houses. There is usually no gas connection for some households, less floor area to heat and cool, and shared walls that hold temperature better. Lower usage sounds like it should always mean a lower bill, but it changes which plan is cheapest: the daily supply charge becomes a much larger proportion of your total, so a plan with a low supply charge often beats one with a slightly lower usage rate.
You also generally cannot install your own rooftop solar — the roof is common property controlled by the strata scheme. That means the feed-in tariff, which is a big deciding factor for houses, is usually irrelevant to your plan choice unless the building has shared solar. Instead, focus on the supply charge, the usage rate and whether a time-of-use or single-rate structure suits your hours at home.
Because you cannot self-generate, the raw price you pay per kWh matters more than for a solar household. A whole-of-market comparison on your real usage is the most reliable way to find the cheapest plan, rather than trusting a single advertised rate.
No solar? Here's where to focus
- Prioritise a low daily supply charge, because your smaller usage makes that fixed fee a big share of the bill.
- Decide single-rate vs time-of-use honestly: if you are out all day and use power mainly in the evening peak, a flat single rate can beat a time-of-use plan.
- Ignore feed-in tariffs unless your building has shared solar — they will not apply to a standard unit.
- Watch for conditional discounts that require pay-on-time or direct debit, and only count them if you will reliably meet the conditions.
- Upload a recent bill and compare the whole market on your actual usage, so the winner reflects your evenings-and-weekends pattern rather than a marketing average.