Dan Mercer

And there's a view that the exporters are playing very nicely in the local market to avoid aggravating the situation for themselves.

And, you know, it's been a little while coming in Western Australia.

There's been one of these for 20 years now, but last year the Feds decided to push the button and go ahead with one at a national level.

So there's not one number, but a bunch of them, depending on where you live and what sort of tariff you're paying.

But in short, the Australian Energy Regulator sets what are known as default market offers, which are basically ceiling prices retailers can charge punters who can't or don't shop around for deals.

Relatively few consumers are actually on default offers, about 1 in 10, but they're very important because they are the reference price by which retailers set all their other prices.

And this week, the regulator cut those prices in most areas where it has jurisdiction.

So in South East Queensland, rates will fall up to 10.7%, while in New South Wales, they'll go down as much as 5%.

The one exception is South Australia, where prices will actually rise a tad by 1.4%.

In all these states, though, small businesses will get a much bigger break.

In New South Wales, for example, small business rates will fall 20%, 20.9% to be precise.

So if you're a householder, this is maybe a couple of hundred dollars a year off your power bills.

While if you're a small business owner, it's potentially a lot more.

Well, arguably all households should be on a better deal than the default offer, which is there, after all, as a safety net, as a last resort, really.

And certainly retailers will usually market deals which are a discount to the default.

But, Sam, it's not like banks with interest rates where your lender tends to drop the price as wholesale costs fall.

That's generally the experience of people with mortgages.

In the energy game, you've got to hustle, and that definitely goes for punters as well.

The savings can be big if you shop around, but typically only if you really kind of make those calls and you do hustle.

These companies won't just pass on savings to you.