Business tariffs are a different animal
When a premises is used mainly for business — a shop, cafe, office, salon or workshop — the connection is usually classified as a small-business tariff rather than a residential one. The retailer sets rates based on how much energy the site uses over a year, and once your annual consumption crosses certain thresholds you move into higher tariff categories with different structures. Two units in the same street can be on very different tariffs purely because one is a home and one is a business.
This matters because the consumer protections differ. The Default Market Offer and Victorian Default Offer price caps that protect households also cover small-business customers below a usage threshold, but larger businesses fall outside that safety net entirely and negotiate rates directly. If you assume your business is protected the same way your home is, you can end up on a poor plan for years.
Demand charges — the line item that catches people out
The biggest surprise on many business bills is a demand charge. Instead of only paying for the total energy you use, you also pay for your peak rate of use — the highest amount of power you drew in any short interval (often 15 or 30 minutes) during the billing period, measured in kW or kVA. One afternoon where your air conditioning, ovens and equipment all ran at once can set a demand charge that you then pay every day for the rest of the month.
Demand charges reward smoothing your load rather than just reducing total kWh. Staggering when heavy equipment starts, avoiding running everything simultaneously, and shifting non-urgent loads out of the peak window can cut the demand component even if your total usage barely changes. When you compare business plans, you have to weigh the demand charge structure, not just the usage rate — a plan with a cheap c/kWh but an aggressive demand charge can cost a spiky business far more.
Not every small business has a demand tariff, but they are increasingly common as networks push cost-reflective pricing. Check your current bill for a "demand" or "capacity" line before you compare, so you are comparing like with like.
How to compare business energy properly
- Gather a full year of bills if you can — business usage is seasonal, and a single bill can mislead.
- Identify your tariff type and whether you have a demand charge, a controlled load, or time-of-use periods.
- Separate the components: supply charge, usage rate(s), demand charge and any metering fees — a headline usage rate alone tells you little.
- Match the plan to your operating hours: a business open evenings and weekends has a very different peak profile to a nine-to-five office.
- Compare the whole of the market on your real usage rather than accepting a broker who only quotes a panel of retailers that pay them.
- Re-check annually, because business rates drift and many premises quietly roll onto expensive standing offers.
Why an unbiased comparison matters for business
The business energy market is full of brokers paid a commission or trailing fee by the retailer they sign you to. That is a direct conflict: the plan that pays the broker most is not always the plan that costs you least. It is one reason many small businesses are on rates they would never have chosen if the numbers were laid out plainly.
EnergySorted takes no retailer commissions and compares the full market on your actual usage for a flat annual fee of around $39. For a small business, that independence is the whole point — you get a ranking built to minimise your bill, including the demand and supply components that brokers often gloss over, rather than one steered by who pays the referral. If you also run electricity at home, the same account covers both.