Following on from the ACCC’s inquiry into electricity affordability, the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) is launching a national survey of small businesses, to investigate the impact of energy bill shocks and price rises on small business.

COSBOA hopes the project will help ‘future proof’ small businesses against rising energy bills and predatory pricing.

This announcement follows the release of the ACCC’s final Retail Electricity Pricing report earlier in the month, which suggested electricity retailers may be price gouging Australian small businesses through their use of ‘standard offers’. These standard offers were found to lack transparent pricing and charged businesses well above market rates – often even higher rates than charged to households.

Small businesses could be saving $1000 - $3,500 per year by moving from ‘standing offers’ to median market offers, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

COSBOA wants to work with its members to achieve these savings. The national survey forms part of COSBOA’s new advocacy project on small business energy costs, funded by Energy Consumers Australia and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman’s Office.

CEO Peter Strong said COSBOA would gather information to better inform the debate and bring facts on the effect on business people to the table. 

“We are tired of the on-going debate around the energy crisis,” he said. “The government has a plan which the great majority of people agree on, so let’s do it.” 

He said COSBOA’s policy and advocacy would be better informed if businesses complete the survey and also become a case study, anonymously if they wish. 

Small businesses are invited to participate in the national survey, which takes 7 minutes to complete online. Results of the survey will be used to advocate for policy and regulatory changes, and to develop simple tools, with industry-specific tips and info, to help small businesses in a range of sectors reduce their energy costs.

One of the small business owners COSBOA interviewed as part of the project, a café in Byron Bay NSW, said “I’ve seen our power bills go up every single month since we opened a year ago, and I can only see it getting worse. There has to be a better way for small businesses like mine to have some real purchasing power in the electricity market, not just be at the whim of the retailers.”
 
“Clearly, there is currently very little transparent information available to small businesses to allow them to compare prices and products, and in many cases uncovered by the ACCC they are being gouged” said Peter Strong, CEO of COSBOA.

Preliminary results of the project will be released at COSBOA’s National Summit in Sydney on 30 and 31 August.

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