Why Your Power Bill Keeps Going Up (Even When Your Usage Doesn’t)

If you’ve opened a power bill recently and felt confused about why the total keeps climbing even though you haven’t changed how you use electricity, you’re not alone. Right now we’re fielding more calls from customers across Cowra, Orange and Forbes asking the same question: “I haven’t used any more power, so why is my bill higher?”

The answer almost always comes down to one line item most people skip past: the daily supply charge, also called the access charge or service-to-property charge. And it’s about to jump again.

What the access charge actually is

Every electricity bill is made up of two parts. There’s the usage charge, which is what you pay per kWh you actually consume, and there’s the daily supply charge, a flat fee you pay simply for being connected to the grid. It doesn’t matter if you use 5kWh or 50kWh that day, the supply charge stays the same.

This charge is set by the network distributor, not your retailer. In our region that’s Essential Energy. Retailers like AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia pass this cost straight through to you on your bill. Switching retailers won’t get you out of it, because your distributor stays the same no matter who you buy your power from.

Why it’s rising sharply from 1 July 2026

Network charges across most of the country are increasing for the 2026–27 financial year, and the increases are landing almost entirely on the fixed daily charge. Usage rates are mostly flat or even dropping slightly. The regulator’s own data shows the 2026-27 increases are mainly in the fixed daily charges and the network shoulder charge, while peak and off-peak usage rates barely move.

In NSW specifically, some of that increase is tied to the NSW Energy Infrastructure Roadmap, the state’s push to upgrade transmission and distribution infrastructure to handle more renewables, more EVs, and more rooftop solar feeding back into the grid.

We’re not just reading about this. We’re seeing it firsthand on real bills, including our own:

One customer’s daily supply charge nearly doubled, from 93.30c to 183.28c per day, while their usage rate actually dropped slightly. Net result: roughly $312 a year worse off, even after accounting for the usage saving.
Another saw their daily charge jump from 81.26c to 162.92c per day, more than doubling, while usage rates fell.
An AGL customer reported their per-kWh rate dropped 1 cent, but their daily supply charge rose 20 cents and their peak rate rose 18 cents.
A South Sydney customer on Globird saw their daily charge rise by 26 cents, alongside new time-of-use pricing.
Our own shed connection went from $2.90 to $3.80 a day. This isn’t just a household issue, it’s hitting small business and commercial connections too.

The pattern is consistent everywhere we look: networks are leaning harder on the fixed charge because it’s guaranteed revenue, regardless of how much solar, battery, or efficient usage reduces the energy people actually buy from the grid.

The “free power” scheme won’t fix this on its own

You may have seen news about the Solar Sharer Offer, a federal scheme starting 1 July 2026 that requires retailers to offer households in NSW, SA and South East Queensland at least three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day, when solar generation is at its peak and wholesale prices are often near zero. It’s optional, available whether you have solar or not, and capped at a reasonable-use level designed for a family of five.

It’s a genuinely useful program if you can shift some usage into the middle of the day. But it doesn’t touch the daily supply charge. If your home or business is empty during the day, or you’re not using power then, it does very little for your bottom line. The structural problem; a fixed charge that keeps climbing regardless of your usage, remains.

What you can actually do about it

You can’t negotiate the access charge away, and you can’t out-shop it by switching retailers. What you can control is how much grid power you’re buying in the first place, and when you buy it.

Solar reduces your usage charge. A correctly sized system cuts the amount of grid electricity you’re paying for during the day, which is the part of your bill that’s still tied to consumption.

Battery storage protects you from rising peak and shoulder rates. Instead of exporting your solar for a shrinking feed-in tariff (several of the bills above show feed-in rates falling to 2-5c/kWh), a battery lets you use that stored power in the evening peak, when grid electricity is most expensive, and lets you ride out further fixed-charge increases with less exposure.

Zoned, properly sized air conditioning stops you paying to run a system harder than it needs to, or cooling and heating empty rooms, which adds up on the usage side of your bill year-round in the Central West climate.

If you want an independent comparison of retailer plans in the meantime, Energy Made Easy is the federal government’s free comparison site, and it’s worth five minutes of your time. It won’t fix the structural shift toward fixed charges, but it ensures you’re not also overpaying on top of it.

Why now is the time to act, not wait

Here’s the part that matters most for anyone who’s been thinking about solar or battery and putting it off: the federal incentives that make these systems affordable right now won’t be around forever.

Both the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (which reduces the upfront cost of solar through STCs) and the Cheaper Home Batteries Program step down over time. The rebate value is highest now and reduces in future years as the schemes wind toward their legislated end dates. Network charges are heading one direction. Government battery and solar incentives are heading the other. The earlier you lock in a correctly designed system, the more of that gap you capture.

We’re not going to oversell you a system you don’t need, and we’re not interested in being the cheapest quote in your inbox. What we will do is size it properly, explain the compliance and approval requirements clearly, and make sure what goes on your roof or in your switchboard is built to last and backed properly.

If you’re in Cowra, Orange, Forbes or anywhere across the Central West and you want a straight answer on whether solar, battery, or both make sense for your situation, including the real numbers based on your own bill, get in touch. We’ll tell you plainly if it’s not worth it yet. If it is, now is the right time to get the quote in and the install locked in before the daily charges climb further and the rebates step down again.