Energy Locals

I’ve been with Energy Locals for a number of years now and love everything about their service from their. Environmental values to their nonprofit design to their fantastic customer service. I just changed The location of both our electricity and gas as we are moving house with the help of Steve H and it was such a positive experience. What is… Read more ·  1

often a frustrating part of moving was , with his support , smooth, warm, and dare I say even nourishing! Thanks Steve H!

Arash was very helpful and polite over the phone, taking his time to understand my query and identifying for me way to get a break from paying my bills as I had not realised I had accumulated enough credit to be able to do this for hopefully the next 2 months. Thank you Arash! Show details ·  1

I dealt with Varsha P from energy locals, who was extremely helpful, fast, efficient and professional. My call was about organising a new connection and called during busy time but Varsha took time to explain everything in details, but very clear and as a result all my requests were resolved in a short period of time. Thank you Varsha for your excellent service. Show details ·  1

I initially signed up with Energy Locals because they were reasonably priced, and their customer service over the phone was excellent. Unfortunately, the experience has steadily degraded over time. Their email response turnaround has become abysmal, leaving straightforward billing enquiries hanging for far too long. Navigating their digital… Read more

platform is equally frustrating (the website feels completely archaic, sporting a terrible UI that offers virtually no meaningful access to usage data or analytics, but whatever)

The final straw, however, was the recent wave of price hikes. Squeezing in massive fee increases (such as pushing peak usage rates up over 130% - not kidding) is incredibly tough to swallow.

The timing of this price hike is particularly cheeky. The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) announced that the official safety-net benchmark price (the Default Market Offer) for the Sydney Ausgrid network is actually decreasing by about 3.4% starting 1 July 2026. For Energy Locals to raise their rates to sit right on that maximum benchmark means they are squeezing extra margin out of loyal customers while wholesale costs are retail-wide actually easing.

Between the deteriorating support, the outdated platform, and the uncompetitive pricing shifts, they have completely lost what made them a "fair" alternative.

Highly recommend – I called in to transfer 2 seperate power supply's and the gentleman was very helpful and knowledable I highly recommend energy locals for there great energy rates and fantastic customer support Show details ·  1

Informative and very helpful considering a slightly confusing connection status. Thankyou for the assistance in clearing it up. Show details ·  1

The staff that I spoke to were very polite and understanding. At the time of signing up with Energy Locals I had to get a new air-conditioner, I have been pleased with Energy Locals as my payment comes out of my pension and that way I don't have to worry about having to pay the bill. Show details ·  1

Check your account closely false $3,000 disconnection notice on a fully paid account: I'm sharing this mainly to advise other Energy Locals customers to monitor their accounts closely, because what happened to us could happen to anyone relying on the portal to reflect their true balance. In late May / June 2026 we received a disconnection notice… Read more

claiming we hadn't made a payment since February and that around $3,000 was overdue. Both claims were false. Every invoice had been paid including roughly $950 in March and just over $1,000 in May and when the account was properly reconciled, the actual balance was $8.36 (a credit-card fee), not $3,000. The cause appears to be that received payments weren't being allocated against the relevant invoices. Bills we'd paid months earlier going back to August 2025 were still shown on the portal as "overdue by 89 / 179 / 273 days," and the disconnection process fired off those un-reconciled figures rather than the real net balance. Disproving a $3,000 "debt" that didn't exist took several hours of cross-checking bank statements, emails and the portal. For a regulated essential service, a disconnection threat generated from the company's own un-reconciled data isn't acceptable a wrongful disconnection notice is genuinely stressful. In fairness, the support staff were responsive and courteous: they confirmed the $0 balance, waived the fee as a goodwill gesture, and fixed our contact details. The matter is now largely resolved, with one question still pending from Energy Locals to fully close it out an explanation of how a disconnection notice came to state false arrears on a paid account, and confirmation it was issued in error. My advice to other customers: don't assume the portal reflects your real position. Check that your payments are being allocated to your invoices, keep records of every payment, and query any "overdue" flag immediately it may simply be unallocated rather than genuinely owed.

Update (12 June 2026): Energy Locals has since confirmed in writing that the 1 June disconnection notice was issued in error and apologised. Account remains at $0. Crediting them for acknowledging and resolving it the review stands as a heads-up on the billing-allocation issue that caused it

After the horrible experience with Energy Australia described in https://www.productreview.com.au/reviews/6c971401-70d9-50b3-8c23-2ca1ab352958 , next day the metering provider has confirmed that the "smart meter", that nobody wanted and was not notified about the installation, was converted from Type 4 to Type 4A ( non-transmitting,… Read more ·  1

telecommunication feature is disabled ) switched over to Energy Locals in Feb 2025.

The metering provider and Energy Australia did not take it easy and attempted to over-bill monthly with somebody putting 1000 kWh estimates by hand. I suspect, to encourage me to enable the telecommunication feature back. No actual readings were taken from Feb 2025 to Nov 2025, all estimates.

Few weeks of working with Energy Locals and explaining that it is a legal requirement under National Energy Retail Rules (NERR) to obtain actual reading after 2 consecutive estimates (usually 6th month total) . The metering company tried to wiggle out with usual "we don't read smart meter .." , but thank you to Local Energy team helping to get through the metering company.

Got the credit for the over-billing by estimates. As of now, have not charged me for reading the meter.

Thank you Energy Locals folks.

Love the monthly billing and rates. Good communication as well, if you know what you are asking for.

Per https://www.ergon.com.au/network/contractors/power-of-choice-for-contractors : "A customer can opt out of having a Type 4 smart meter with communications, in which case, the communications capability is disabled. This meter is known as a Type 4A. The Type 4A meters are not recommended as many of the benefits of having a smart meter are lost."

After spending about 1 week looking at all of the numerous plans, rates, FITs, discounts and freebies covering a large number of suppliers and discussing with comparison sites staff, we decided to remain with Energy Locals. The change was necessitated by Tesla ceasing their VPP Plan we had been on for a few years. Even though Energy Locals was… Read more ·  1

not the cheapest we reviewed it has the distinct advantage of call centre staff that are located in AU and I can actually understand. The cheapest had absolutely terrible reviews on this site and elsewhere and that was collaborated by a friend who had recent difficulties with that provider.

The assistance we received from Patrice was outstanding. She explained matters I raised clearly and added info I found useful and she did that without applying any pressure or an overtly pushy sales pitch - much appreciated. I am hoping that the continuation with Energy Locals under a new plan will be as satisfying as the experience I just had over the phone.

I'm not a prolific reviewer but was prompted to write these comments as I found the reviews I read on this site very helpful in examining what was currently available in the electricity market.

The representative of your company who handled my request was Angelica and she was a polite courteous and treate3ed me with respect. Her knowledge was excellent and she was efficient in resolving my issue Show details ·  1

Neval assisted me with a delicate situation and provided an outcome that demonstrated empathy and respect for the circumstance. I'm grateful for the fantastic service Neval has provided. Show details ·  1

I had a great experience with Ambroscia from Energy Locals. She provided excellent customer service throughout the entire process. She was friendly, professional, patient, and took the time to answer all my questions clearly. Her knowledge and willingness to help made everything easy and stress-free. Show details ·  1

Just received my price increase letter as of 1 July 2026. 17.5% increase in daily supply charge 8.7% increase in my peak usage rates 33% DECREASE in solar feed in tarrif. No justification....inflation is around 5%. I will be looking for another retailer ASAP. Show details

The complete lack of care and handballing from Energy locals has been very disappointing to say the least. Because they are late transfering my final payment to AGL (AGL bought all the solar rights) This now has gone against my credit rating. Their care factor is ZERO. AGL tells me It's Energy locals fault, Energy locals tells me it"s AGL . I had… Read more

to pay the same bill to AGL because they wanted payment for the same bill (as I didn't want it to be worse for my credit rating) . So that was fun! Trying to call Energy locals for a refund, You just have to leave your name with someone and it took them 4 days to return my call and If I'm honest, I would have received more empathy from a cold rock. So I guess I'll never see that refund. VERY POOR FORM!

Don’t be fooled by the name change. This is the same scam company previously known as Arc Energy now changed the name. This embedded network company is absolutely a scam. They deserve only negative stars. Before you move into an apartment check if they are the embedded network provider. Because you can only get power and gas from them in that… Read more

monopoly. They charge you crazy rates and fees and your energy bills will go up crazy. My bills were double the normal rates. I really don’t understand how rogue companies like this are allowed to operate in Australia that extorts people.

The customer service is great. Good service. Particularly Kathleen helped us with some billing issues and we are really grateful for that. Keep up the good work folks. Thank you Show details ·  1

The customer service representative , Hiroshi, from Energy Locals Urban was extremely patient, professional, and helpful in resolving my online account login issue. She quickly identified the problem, and made the whole process smooth and stress-free. I really appreciated her excellent communication skills and willingness to help. Excellent customer service experience. Show details ·  1

I have only been with Energy Locals for just over a month now but their set up at my unit in Canberra was completely straightforward and seamless for my electricity and hot water usage. Their communication and customer service is excellent. I recently moved to a direct debit style payment system as opposed to a monthly invoice (saves money on card… Read more ·  1

fees etc.!!) and the representative I spoke to, Neval, couldn’t have been more knowledgeable and obliging. Again a seamless transition. And big bonus - the power has always worked perfectly!!!

Hi I just made phone call for resolve my issue. The lady was amazing and so responsive and helpful for resolve my problem. Her name is Patrice.. thank you so much for your support.. Show details ·  1

Nev's customer service was great and she was efficient in handling my new electricity account enquiry. Clarifies that ELU are a real people service. Thank you, Margaret, Doncaster, Vic. Show details ·  1