Multi-site business energy gets messy for a simple reason: the portfolio grows one meter at a time.
One site renews in March, another is month to month, a new warehouse opens in July and nobody has one clean list of NMIs, networks and contract dates. The business then tries to buy the whole portfolio from incomplete information.
The fix is not automatically one retailer and one contract. The fix is one accurate view of the portfolio, then a buying structure that reflects the sites inside it.
I’m Joe from Smarta Switch in Brisbane. We assess multi-site enquiries against retailer panel coverage and site eligibility. We’re paid by the energy retailer when you switch, never by you.
The short answer
A good multi-site energy process does five things:
- creates one verified site and contract register;
- groups sites into compatible buying cohorts;
- gives retailers the same data and commercial brief;
- compares every offer on the same portfolio model; and
- writes clear rules for billing, reporting, new sites, closures and renewal.
Aggregation can improve buying power and administration, but only when the portfolio is packaged honestly. It should not hide a poor site, a mismatched end date or an exit cost.
Build the site register before calling retailers
The site register is the foundation. For every electricity or gas account, record:
- legal entity and ABN;
- trading name and site address;
- NMI for electricity or MIRN for gas;
- state, distributor and network tariff;
- current retailer and account number;
- annual consumption;
- demand unit and recent maximum demand where applicable;
- contract start and end date;
- notice, rollover and exit position;
- billing contact and cost centre;
- whether interval data is available; and
- planned opening, closure, relocation or load change.
Mark unknown fields instead of guessing. A blank contract date is a task. A made-up date is a future problem.
The NMI guide explains where to find the identifier that stays with each electricity connection point.
Do not assume aggregation changes customer class
Small and large customer thresholds are set by jurisdiction and site rules. Combining five small accounts under one ABN does not automatically declare every meter a large customer.
Aggregation is a commercial procurement method. Customer classification is a regulatory question.
Read the large versus small market guide and confirm each site’s position before deciding whether it belongs in a published-offer comparison, negotiated tender or separate cohort.
Group sites that can genuinely be bought together
One portfolio can contain several sensible cohorts.
By contract timing
Sites with similar end dates can usually be compared together. Sites with distant expiry dates may need future-dated offers, separate renewal rounds or a documented cost to align them.
By state and network
Retailer eligibility, tariffs, customer protections and pass-through charges vary. A national portfolio can still run one coordinated process while pricing regions separately.
By load and site type
A steady industrial site, a seasonal venue and a small office have different profiles. Retailer appetite and contract terms may differ even when the sites sit under the same company.
By operational plan
Do not lock a closing site into a long term merely for portfolio neatness. Flag planned acquisitions, closures, electrification, solar, batteries and production changes before pricing.
Align the data period
Comparing sites on different data windows makes the portfolio model harder to trust.
Use a common 12-month period where possible. Explain exceptions such as:
- new sites without a full year of data;
- temporary shutdowns;
- abnormal weather or production;
- meter replacements or missing intervals;
- renovations or plant changes; and
- solar or battery commissioning.
For demand-billed sites, include interval data. Annual kWh alone does not show when the portfolio peaks or whether sites peak together.
Coincident demand can matter operationally. Ten sites with individual peaks at different times present a different portfolio from ten sites that all spike at 4 pm.
Write one tender brief
Tell every eligible retailer what to price and how to return it.
The brief should state:
- sites and cohorts in scope;
- contract start and preferred term;
- load data and forecast adjustments;
- fixed, progressive or other pricing preference;
- treatment of network and pass-through charges;
- environmental and renewable energy requirements;
- metering and data requirements;
- invoice and cost-centre format;
- site-add and site-remove rules;
- volume tolerance and load-change treatment;
- credit and security requirements;
- price-validity window; and
- response template.
The Australian Government advises large users to ask retailers to separate network, metering, renewable and retail cost components. That makes proposals easier to compare and reduces the chance that a low headline energy rate hides a higher cost elsewhere.
Compare the portfolio and every site
One total annual number is useful, but it is not enough.
Your model should show:
- total evaluated portfolio cost;
- cost by site and cohort;
- energy, network, environmental, metering and fee components;
- contract term and material departures;
- site-add and closure exposure;
- data and billing fit;
- renewable energy treatment; and
- broker or adviser payment.
Why keep site-level detail? Because a portfolio total can hide cross-subsidies. One retailer might be sharper for large sites and weak for small ones. Another might win the total only because one assumption is treated differently.
Normalise the assumptions first, then decide whether one retailer or a split award is better for the business.
Handle different end dates without forcing the wrong switch
There are four common options:
- Expiry cohorts: tender groups of sites as their contracts end.
- Future-dated contracts: agree an offer now that starts when the existing term finishes, where available and commercially sensible.
- Short bridging term: use a shorter arrangement to align dates, after comparing its premium and risk.
- Early exit: leave before expiry only when the documented benefit exceeds the exit exposure and other costs.
Do not treat alignment as free. The early-switch guide explains how to compare staying, leaving and future-dated options.
For a large portfolio, start the review early. Data collection and internal approval often take longer than expected.
Put site changes into the contract
A portfolio rarely stays still for the full term.
Before signing, check:
- how a new site is priced;
- whether a removed site triggers exit exposure;
- what evidence is needed for a genuine closure;
- whether relocation counts as removal plus addition;
- how acquisitions are treated;
- whether the contract has volume bands or tolerance;
- what happens after a major load change; and
- whether a site can move between customer classes.
If the business plan already includes three new stores and one closure, put that forecast in the tender. Surprise volume is harder to negotiate after signing.
Design billing and reporting for the people using it
The cheapest contract can still create expensive administration.
Ask finance and operations what they actually need:
- one consolidated invoice or separate invoices;
- purchase order and cost-centre fields;
- site-level usage and cost exports;
- interval-data access;
- billing exception alerts;
- emissions and renewable energy reporting;
- portal permissions by business unit; and
- a process for disputed bills and meter changes.
Confirm whether data can be exported in a usable format and retained after the contract ends.
Review demand across the portfolio
Multi-site procurement is a chance to spot operational patterns as well as prices.
Look for:
- sites with short demand spikes;
- high overnight baseload;
- repeated equipment starts;
- similar peaks across many sites;
- tariff mismatches;
- solar export affecting daytime load; and
- capacity settings that no longer match operations.
The load-factor guide and demand-charge guide explain how to read these patterns without confusing energy use with capacity.
Operational changes need site input. Do not move loads, alter controls or change electrical equipment from a spreadsheet alone.
What a multi-site energy broker should deliver
Ask for a decision pack containing:
- the verified site register;
- cohort and customer-class logic;
- retailers approached and responses;
- data dates and modelling assumptions;
- portfolio and site-level evaluated costs;
- contract risks and departures;
- billing and reporting assessment;
- payment and commission disclosure;
- implementation responsibilities; and
- the next renewal calendar.
That is a procurement record. A one-line email naming a winning retailer is not.
National portfolios need honest market boundaries
The National Electricity Market covers Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Retailer eligibility still varies by region, network, usage, credit position and contract type. Western Australia and the Northern Territory use separate market arrangements.
Smarta can assess national commercial enquiries, but we do not promise that one panel or one contract fits every Australian site. Where a site falls outside the panel, the comparison should say so.
What to do next
Start the site register now, even if the next contract is months away.
If you already have the list, upload one representative bill and send the remaining site details. We’ll identify the missing data, group the sites into sensible buying cohorts and tell you whether the portfolio belongs in a small-business comparison, a C&I tender or a mixed process.
Official sources: Australian Government retail procurement guidance, energy procurement overview, and Australian Energy Regulator business energy information.