The Victorian Default Offer for 2026-27, what changed

Every year the Essential Services Commission sets the Victorian Default Offer, the regulated electricity price underneath the Victorian retail market. The 2026-27 prices took effect on 1 July 2026 and run to 30 June 2027. For a typical household they are lower than last year. Here is what the offer is, what moved, and what it means if you have solar or are thinking about a battery.

What the Victorian Default Offer is

The Commission describes the default offer as a set of standing offer prices for Victorians who don't, or can't, shop around. The prices are set by the regulator, not the energy companies, and are meant to reflect the efficient costs a retailer needs to recover.

• Retailers must make the default offer available to anyone who asks for it, whether you are a household or a small business using under 40 MWh a year.
• If you never signed a contract, moved into a home without one, or your market contract ended, you are probably on a standing offer.
• The default offer is also the reference price retailers must use when they advertise discounts. A plan that says "15% off" means 15% off the default offer for your area.

It is not a cap on every plan in the market. Retailers can sell market offers priced differently from it.

The 2026-27 figures

The Commission published its final decision on 25 May 2026. Its typical bill is a household using 4,000 kWh a year on a flat tariff. On that basis, the yearly bill in each distribution zone moved like this:

• Powercor (western suburbs of Melbourne and western and central Victoria, including Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo): $1,703 down to $1,633, a fall of $70 or 4%.
• CitiPower (Melbourne CBD and inner suburbs): $1,546 down to $1,481, a fall of $65 or 4%.
• Jemena: $1,638 down to $1,563, a fall of $75 or 4%.
• AusNet: $1,908 down to $1,748, a fall of $160 or 8%.
• United Energy: $1,579 down to $1,529, a fall of $50 or 3%.

The Victorian average fell from $1,675 to $1,591, about 5%. The Commission says the cut was driven by lower environmental, wholesale and network costs, partly offset by retail operating costs rising with inflation. Its method did not change from last year.

The flat rates in each zone

For the domestic flat tariff, including GST, at the time of writing (November 2026):

• Powercor: $1.3805 a day supply, 28.22 cents per kWh.
• CitiPower: $1.2114 a day, 25.96 cents per kWh.
• Jemena: $1.2713 a day, 27.47 cents per kWh.
• AusNet: $1.2824 a day, 31.98 cents per kWh.
• United Energy: $1.1912 a day, 27.35 cents per kWh.

Notice that the usage rate fell almost everywhere, while the daily supply charge went up in the Powercor, Jemena and United Energy zones. We look at why in our article on daily supply charges.

The time of use offer has a new shape

The bigger structural change is in the time of use version. In 2025-26 the default time of use tariff had two periods: peak from 3pm to 9pm and off peak at all other times. For 2026-27 it has three:

• Peak, 4pm to 9pm: 41.67 cents per kWh in the Powercor zone.
• Off peak, 9pm to 11am: 22.49 cents per kWh.
• Solar soak, 11am to 4pm: 17.26 cents per kWh.

Those are Powercor's figures including GST. The other zones follow the same windows, with peak rates from about 38 cents (Jemena) to about 48 cents (AusNet). The new middle of the day window reflects how much solar is now on the grid around lunchtime, and it matches the way the networks themselves now price their wires, which we explain in our guide to Powercor's time of use tariffs.

How to compare your plan

The default offer is a benchmark, not a recommendation. Market offers can be cheaper or dearer than it, so it is worth checking where you sit. To check:

1. Find your last bill and note your daily supply charge, your usage rates and when they apply.
2. Look at how much you use in each time window, not just the total.
3. Compare plans on the whole yearly bill, supply charge included, rather than on one headline rate.

The quickest way is to upload a recent bill to the Energy Plan Finder. It ranks every Victorian retail plan, the default offer included, on your own usage. We take no commission and get nothing from any energy retailer.

What solar and a battery change

Once you have solar, the plan that suited you before may not suit you now.

• Solar cuts what you buy in the middle of the day. On a flat plan, every kWh you avoid saves the same amount. On a time of use plan, the solar soak hours are already the cheapest, so solar saves less per kWh there than on a flat rate.
• The evening becomes the expensive part. Most of what a solar home still buys is after the sun goes down, which falls in the 4pm to 9pm peak. That is the window a battery covers.
• A battery tends to favour time of use. With stored solar running the house from 4pm, the high peak rate matters much less, and the cheaper off peak and solar soak rates work in your favour.
• Feed-in tariffs have shrunk. Victoria has had no regulated minimum feed-in tariff since 30 June 2025, so exported solar is worth whatever your retailer chooses to pay. Our feed-in tariff guide covers what that means.
• Free midday power is another option. The Victorian Midday Power Saver, available since 1 October 2026, gives households with a smart meter who opt in free power from 11am to 2pm, up to 24 kWh a day. It can top up a battery on cloudy days. See our guide to the Midday Power Saver.

The right plan depends on when your house uses power, and that changes the day the panels go on.

See it on your own roof

If you are weighing up solar or a battery against these prices, start with what your roof can actually hold. You can design a system on your own roof in a few minutes and see the price straight away, then run your bill through the plan finder to see which tariff fits it best.