The Liberal and National Government’s plan for affordable, reliable 24/7 power is continuing to deliver, with help on the way for hardworking Australian small businesses.
The Business Energy Advice Program will deliver tailored advice to help small businesses find the best energy deal and identify opportunities for them to use energy more efficiently.
The Business Energy Advice Program responds to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Retail Electricity Pricing Review, which found that small businesses tend to have limited bargaining power to lower their prices and limited resources to identify and implement energy efficiency measures.
The $11.6 million program will open for tender in the first quarter of 2019, for organisations including industry associations interested in providing support to small business on switching energy retailers and identifying energy reduction opportunities.
The Government will support the development, incubation and delivery of innovative digital applications that provide a tailored service to Australian SMEs.
The program combines grant funding for digital application development; and an incubation period that will include advice from a team of Government energy experts and an experienced digital incubation partner, that will work with the application developers to deliver their solutions.
The Liberal and National Government knows that Australia’s 2.2 million small businesses are the backbone of our economy, which is why we are backing them to get ahead and create more jobs.
Small businesses consume 16 per cent of business electricity in Australia, but pay 27 per cent of all business electricity costs.
This new initiative builds on our action plan for affordable, reliable 24/7 power. Our plan is already delivering, with price cuts announced in November 2018 for standing offer customers of up to 15%.
This means half a million Australian families and small business will benefit from lower power prices from 1 January 2019.
