Methodology
How we compare. What we check. Where we get our data.
We think you deserve to know how this works. No black box — here's the full methodology, the data sources, and the assumptions behind every number.
What happens when you compare a plan
You tell us about your home.
We ask a few quick questions: where you live, whether you own or rent, what kind of home it is, and who your current retailer is. This shapes everything — a renter in an apartment gets different advice to a homeowner in a house.
We identify your distributor and network tariff.
Your distributor (the company that owns the poles and wires to your home) determines which tariff structures are available to you. We match your address or postcode to the distributor, then use our NTC mapping table to identify which network tariff codes your meter is likely assigned — this is what drives the demand-tariff advisory.
We fetch every plan available for your address.
We pull from the AER's Energy Made Easy plan dataset, which all licensed retailers must publish. We filter to plans available in your distribution zone and eligible for your housing situation. No retailers are excluded because they don't pay us.
We model your costs under three scenarios.
As-is (your current usage pattern), realistic-shift (modest behaviour changes with the new plan), and max-shift (full optimisation). Each scenario produces an annual cost estimate with a confidence band — we tell you when we're estimating, and why.
We surface structural advisories.
Before ranking plans, we check for things that would affect every plan you're comparing: a demand tariff you didn't choose, a packaging structure hiding your real rates, an introductory period that escalates after 12 months. These go above the plan list because they matter regardless of which plan you pick.
We rank and explain.
Plans are ranked by realistic-shift annual cost. We show you the top recommendation prominently, with a plain-English explanation of why it fits your usage. The full ranked list is below, with a three-scenario toggle so you can see how each plan performs across the range.
Our data sources
Every piece of data we use has a public source. We don't buy proprietary retailer data, and we don't accept data from retailers in exchange for placement.
AER Energy Made Easy dataset
All licensed Australian energy retailers must publish their plan information to the AER's Energy Made Easy scheme. We pull from this dataset to ensure complete coverage — no retailer can be excluded.
NTC mapping table
Network Tariff Codes (NTCs) determine how your distributor charges your retailer for the electricity you use. We maintain a curated mapping of which NTCs are assigned to which plans in each distribution zone. This is the data that powers the demand-tariff advisory.
State tenancy authorities
The renter standards content on the /your-rights page is sourced directly from Victorian Consumer Affairs, NSW Fair Trading, Access Canberra, and the RTA Queensland. We cite the specific legislation for each standard.
IPART and AER regulatory determinations
Structural advisory claims are sourced from regulator publications. The demand-tariff opt-out right is sourced from IPART's December 2024 determination. The embedded network framework is sourced from the AER's Network Exemption Guideline 2022.
What we're honest about
Confidence bands
Every cost estimate has a confidence band. We show it. High-confidence estimates come from complete bill data; low-confidence estimates come from postcode-only inputs. We don't hide uncertainty behind false precision.
When we can't help
If you're in an embedded network, we tell you plainly that we can't compare plans for you — and explain what we can do instead. We don't show you a ranked plan list that doesn't apply to your situation.
NTC mapping confidence
Our network tariff mapping table has confidence scores. Where confidence is low (inferred from plan name rather than corroborated by a bill), we flag the advisory as indicative rather than confirmed.
No affiliate commissions
We do not receive commissions from retailers when you switch plans. Our ranking algorithm has no paid placements. The ranked order is purely by estimated annual cost.
How we make money
The engine behind this site is licensed to enterprise customers: energy distributors, governments, comparison aggregators, retailers building tools for their own customers, electrification companies, and EV brands.
They pay for the engine. Consumers get the public site for free. The engine is the same one — there is no cut-down consumer version.
Enterprise customers benefit from having real consumers test and improve the engine continuously. Consumers benefit from an enterprise-grade tool they don't have to pay for. That's the deal.