The short version
- Food businesses have unusual hours, so the tariff type (flat vs time-of-use) can matter as much as the retailer.
- Gas is often half the story. Compare every usage block, not just the headline rate.
- A Sydney bakery we work with saved about $40,000 a year on energy, then added solar and batteries at its new site.
Why bakeries and food producers are different
Most "average business" energy plans assume 9-to-5 usage. Yours probably looks nothing like that:
- Overnight and early-morning production - ovens and mixers run while peak rates are off.
- Cool rooms and freezers - running 24/7, they give you a high, steady base load.
- Gas ovens and fryers - big volumes that push you into higher or lower gas pricing blocks.
- Seasonal peaks - Christmas, Easter and wholesale orders all change your usage month to month.
When the tariff doesn't match this pattern, you pay for it every single day.
Real result: a Sydney bakery
We started with the bills: rates, tariffs and errors. With the energy costs under control, the business planned its next site with solar and batteries built in from day one.
Anonymised client. Saving is an estimate based on the client's bills compared with its previous rates. Individual results vary.
What we check for food businesses
- Tariff vs production hours - we run your interval data against flat and time-of-use options.
- Gas block pricing - each step compared, plus whether bundling with electricity actually helps.
- Contract end dates - a rolled-over contract on a production site costs real money. What to do when your contract is ending.
- Price-change notices - most rises land in July. What to do with a price rise letter.
- Billing errors - wrong network tariff, estimated reads, and charges that don't belong on the bill.
- Small vs large customer - whether your site is near the 160 MWh line, which changes the contracts available to you.
Beyond the bill: cool rooms and solar
After rates, the next savings usually come from refrigeration (door seals, defrost settings, condenser maintenance) and from when equipment runs. Food producers with daytime packing or chilling loads are often strong candidates for solar, and batteries can shift that solar into the evening and overnight. Any estimate we give is worked out on your own usage.
General information only, current as at October 2026. Savings depend on your usage, location, tariff and contract, and past results do not guarantee future savings.
Common questions
We bake overnight. Does that help on energy costs?
It can, a lot. If most of your usage falls in off-peak hours, a time-of-use tariff with a low off-peak rate may suit you better than a flat rate. The right answer depends on your interval data, which we check for you.
Do you review gas as well as electricity?
Yes. Many bakeries and food producers spend as much on gas as on electricity. Gas is priced in usage blocks, so we compare each block on your real volume.
We're planning a new or bigger site. When should we talk to you?
Before you sign the lease or fit-out if you can. Tariff, connection and solar decisions are cheaper to get right at the start. We can look at retail rates, solar and batteries together.
Is our business too big for you?
We work with small sites through to multi-site food businesses. Sites using more than 160 MWh of electricity a year are large customers with different contracts, and we can still review them.