What is the average electricity bill in Sydney in 2026?

The 30-second take

• AER Default Market Offer 2026–27, residential flat rate: Ausgrid $1,899/yr at 3,900 kWh, Endeavour $2,328/yr at 4,900 kWh, Essential $2,604/yr at 4,600 kWh.
• That is a benchmark for standing offers, not an average of what people pay. Market offers sit below it, and the gap on Essential Energy runs to several hundred dollars a year.
• Prices fell 3–7% for NSW households on 1 July 2026. Usage rates on typical plans are in the mid-30s c/kWh; daily supply charges run from about $1.66 (Ausgrid) to $2.72 (Essential).
• Household size and air conditioning move the bill more than the retailer does. A western Sydney family using 22–26 kWh a day pays roughly double an inner-city apartment on 15–18.
• A 6.6 kW solar system produces around 25 kWh a day averaged across the year in Sydney — close to a typical household’s whole consumption, though only the daytime share is used directly.

The benchmark bill, by network

Sydney does not have one electricity price. It has three distribution networks, and the Australian Energy Regulator sets a separate Default Market Offer for each. The DMO is the most a retailer can charge a customer on a standing offer, and it is the reference price every market offer is advertised against.

For the year from 1 July 2026 the residential flat-rate reference bills are:

• Ausgrid — inner and eastern Sydney, the north shore, the Central Coast and Hunter: $1,899 a year for a household using 3,900 kWh. Usage cap 33.1c/kWh, supply cap $1.66/day.
• Endeavour Energy — western and south-western Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Illawarra: $2,328 a year at 4,900 kWh. Usage cap 33.7c/kWh, supply cap $1.85/day.
• Essential Energy — regional and rural NSW: $2,604 a year at 4,600 kWh. Usage cap 35.0c/kWh, supply cap $2.72/day.

The modelled usage differs between networks because the AER bases it on what customers in each area actually consume. Western Sydney households use more, mostly because of summer air conditioning, and pay more for it.

What a real bill looks like

The DMO is a cap, not an average. Most Sydney households are on market offers below it, and the AER’s own comparison of cheapest tracked plans against the standing offer shows a gap of several hundred dollars a year on every NSW network, widest on Essential Energy.

On a typical market plan in 2026 the usage rate sits in the mid-30s cents per kilowatt-hour: Canstar’s May 2026 survey averaged 36.2c on Ausgrid, 36.8c on Endeavour and 40.4c on Essential. Its representative annual cost for a Sydney household ranged from about $1,350 to $1,650 depending on the plan’s discounts.

Divide the annual figures by four and a quarterly bill of $340 to $475 is the normal range for an Ausgrid household, and $500 to $600 in the west.

“The spread between an inner-city apartment and a western Sydney family home is larger than the spread between any two retailers.”

What moved on 1 July 2026

Residential flat-rate prices fell in the order of 3 to 7 per cent across the three NSW networks in the 2026–27 determination, and the DMO published comparison prices for time-of-use tariffs for the first time. That matters for solar households, because a time-of-use plan interacts directly with when a system generates.

The 2026–27 determination is also the first to cap the daily supply charge separately rather than only the annual bill, which is where the $1.66 to $2.72 a day figures come from.

Usage: the number that actually drives the bill

The AER’s modelled customer uses 10.7 to 13.4 kWh a day depending on the network. Real households vary far more than that. The AER’s retail market reporting puts the NSW residential average at roughly 18 to 20 kWh a day; western Sydney homes with ducted air conditioning commonly run 22 to 26; inner-city apartments 15 to 18.

That variation is why two neighbours on the same plan can have bills $1,000 apart, and why the first step in any solar decision is your last four bills, not a state average.

What solar changes

A 6.6 kW system in Sydney produces roughly 25 kWh a day averaged across the year, which is close to a typical household’s entire consumption. But a house only uses part of that as it is produced — around 30 to 35 per cent for a working household without a battery — and the rest is exported at a feed-in tariff of 3 to 6 cents.

So the saving is not the whole bill. It is the daytime share at 33 to 36 cents plus the exported share at a few cents, less the supply charge that never goes away. A battery moves most of the exported share back into the house, which is why the battery case in Sydney rests on the mid-30s usage rate rather than the export rate.

Get matched with 2-3 vetted solar installers — typically 2+ years in business, with a track record of decent reviews — and ask each of them to size the system against your actual bills rather than a state average.

Read next

• NSW solar feed-in tariff 2026–27
• Average electricity usage per day in Australia
• How much does a 6.6 kW system cost?
• NSW solar and battery rebates
• Is solar worth it?

Sources

• aer.gov.au — Default Market Offer 2026–27 final determination (reference prices, usage, tariff caps)
• aer.gov.au — AER releases final Default Market Offer 2026–27
• canstar.com.au — average electricity costs per kWh by state (18 May 2026)
• aer.gov.au — Annual Retail Markets Report (residential consumption)