How do Amber's wholesale prices work?

Amber is a totally different way to buy electricity.

So we want to make sure that you understand exactly what you can expect to pay.

Where does the wholesale rate come from and how much does Amber cost?

With Amber we pass through the true wholesale cost of electricity (with no retail markup) - the true price for your usage that Amber (and other retailers) have to pay to provide you energy, including all generation, delivery, environmental and regulatory costs and fees.

Our $22/month subscription fee is our only margin for running our side of the business.

With the wholesale cost of electricity being the generation price of power and the cost of responsibly and reliably getting this power to your home.

The cost of electricity with Amber can be split into 3 parts:

1. Real-time wholesale usage charges (¢/kWh costs)

With Amber, the price you pay for electricity is adjusted every 30 minutes based on the current wholesale price. 

Amber’s wholesale price is made up of the following components:

Base wholesale price (Generation Costs) - the direct price we pay the electricity generators for their energy. This price changes every 30 minutes, based on supply & demand, otherwise known as the AEMO spot rate - You can see the spot market prices from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) here.

• The wholesale price you see in the Amber app also includes the additional energy caused by Loss Factors in the Grid between generation and consumption (which are typically 3-5% across the grid).

Network usage costs (Delivery Costs) - a set price per kWh we must pay to use the poles and wires, and pay the people who maintain them (they’re called your local “network” in energy industry lingo). 

Other costs - regulatory compliance costs, carbon offset costs, and a small hedging cost used to fund our quarterly bill guarantee.

All retailers pay for these costs, and then add their own profit margin on top of that! We simply pass through these wholesale prices at the cost of supplying this power to your home, with no retail markup.

That’s what makes us different.

an example of cost breakdown for a base wholesale price of 10¢/kWh

2. Wholesale daily supply charge (¢/day)

The second part of the Amber price is a fixed daily charge. This includes daily network charges (an additional daily payment for use of the poles and wires) and metering costs.

3. Amber’s monthly subscription fee ($/Month)

Finally, you include Amber's monthly subscription fee. If you're looking for a daily breakdown, take your monthly fee and divide by the number of days in the month.

Solar exports with Amber(¢/kWh)

Amber treats you like a big solar generator, meaning your Feed-in Tariff varies depending on when you export power, and you’ll receive more during summer when wholesale prices are usually higher. You can see the average wholesale FiT here - https://www.amber.com.au/pricing.

What do the charges listed on my bill mean?

For a quick visual guide to our bill - https://www.amber.com.au/bill-help

We want to be ultra-transparent with our customers, so the detailed section of our bills breakdown all of the charges mentioned above in detail. Here's what they mean:  

Usage Fees

These costs make up the same real-time wholesale price you see in the Amber app. We’ve split them out on your bill for maximum transparency.

Generation Cost:

• General Usage Wholesale (Av. Price)
• This is the amount we paid the market for the generation for your usage. The specific charges for each 30 minutes aren't included in your bill (for simplicity sake!) so we have just provided an average cost per kWh of your usage.
• If you want to learn more, data can be found here.
• It also includes the additional energy caused by Loss Factors in the Grid between generation and consumption (which are typically 3-5% across the grid).

Delivery Cost:

• Network - Anytime Energy
• the charge we pay to the network per kWh of usage - this changes depending on what tariff you are on with your network.
• You may have multiple charges here with names like "peak" "off peak" and "shoulder," which would indicate you are on a network tariff that has different charges for your usage depending on when you have used electricity. These tariffs can sometimes be changed but every Network has different rules and regulations surrounding this. Check out our article on tariffs for more info, or get in touch with us.

Other costs:

• Market
• This is the amount that all retailers pay the market operator to run the energy market and provide grid stabilization services
• Carbon Neutral Offset / GreenPower Offset 100%
• You will see one or the other of these charges depending on the plan you are on with Amber (we have 2 plans - our default Carbon Neutral plan and our 100% GreenPower plan - you can read more about that here.)
• For our Carbon Neutral customers, this is our cost to offset the carbon caused by your grid power. We use it to buy carbon credits to offset the usage from the grid.
• For our GreenPower customers, this is the cost under the GreenPower scheme for us to buy additional Environmental Certificates on your behalf equal to 100% of your consumption.
• Environmental Certificate Cost
• This is the cost of purchasing Environmental certificates to meet various government schemes (the primary one being the Australian Renewable Energy Target).
• Under the Australian Renewable Energy Target, all retailers are obliged to buy Environmental Certificates equal to a Government-set threshold (currently ~20% of consumption from the grid)
• Price Protection Hedging
• This is ensuring that on average, over each quarter, you are not paying more than our Quarterly Bill Guarantee (read more here)

Daily Supply Charges

Wholesale Daily Supply Charge - (these charges are in ¢/day or $/annum)

These are costs we must pay to supply power to your property. Your previous retailer would have bundled them into 1 Daily Supply Charge or a similar charge. We pass these through with no retail markup.

• Network - Fixed
• This is the fixed charge per day (or per year) that we need to pay your network for the use of their poles and wires (to connect your home to the total grid).
• It's a regulated amount, and so everyone gets charged the same rate.
• Metering
• This is a daily fee, charged by the meter's owners (the metering companies) for access to your meter data. 

Demand Charges

These charges only apply if you are on a demand tariff, which most Amber customers are not on. This is a separate network charge based on your network tariff. You can read more about these charges here. 

Amber Fees

This is our monthly fee and our only margin for running the retail side of the business! 

• Amber - Monthly Subscription Cost.

If you have a discounted subscription fee, this will reflect in the Credits section of your bill.

Other charges

If we order special network services upon your request, these charges will be passed on here.

Credits

Any discounts you may have will be applied here. Additionally, we pass on the wholesale value of any solar you export to the grid, which will show here under the line item 'Solar Exports'