Your electricity bill covers several different parts of our energy system - generation, transmission, distribution and consumption. Each part represents an essential link in the supply chain providing electricity to your home, and the development of more sustainable, reliable and affordable electricity. The distribution network is one part of the supply chain.

What does the network tariff cover?

As an electricity distributor, Ausgrid is responsible for maintaining the electricity network (poles and wires) that supply electricity to your home or business. Some of the costs of running the network are fixed costs, meaning the same per household, whereas other costs vary depending on the amount of electricity going through the network, these are variable costs. That’s why we charge both fixed and variable costs. The way these costs are structured is commonly referred to as a tariff, or a pricing plan.

Network tariff charges cover the costs of transporting electricity, as well as environmental costs and government schemes.

How are network tariffs determined?

The tariffs are developed with customer consultation and reflect how residential and business customer's use electricity now and in the future and are set every five years by the Australian Energy Regulator.

Why are tariffs changing?

New ways of living and working are leading to new patterns of energy use and customers are expecting individualised and affordable, zero emissions energy solutions. Given the various ways our customers use the electricity network it is necessary for us to have a number of tariffs that anticipate these requirements – but regardless of which tariff is applied our goal is to ensure we are developing tariffs that that fairly reflect the way each customer uses the network, whilst lowering the overall cost of the system.

You can find out more about our role in the electricity network at 'Engaging with your electricity retailer'.  

The role of the retailer

Our tariffs are intended to act as price signals for retailers to encourage the most efficient use of our network. The retailer ultimately decides the best way to manage these costs across all their customers and can choose how they charge their customers. That is why on your electricity bill you may only see some of these charges itemised. Each retailer can structure their prices differently.

More Information on Ausgrid's Network Tariff is available in the links below. For information on Ausgrid's current network prices see Ausgrid's Network Price List.