I’m Joe from Smarta Switch in Brisbane. People sometimes assume that because we’re based here, we can only help businesses in South East Queensland. That’s not right, and the reason comes down to one thing: the National Electricity Market, or the NEM. Here’s what it actually is, which states run on it, and why it means we can genuinely quote a business well outside Queensland, not just the ones down the road from our office.
We’re paid by the energy retailer when you switch, never by you.
The one-line version
- The NEM is the wholesale electricity market shared by Queensland, NSW, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
- It’s run by AEMO, the Australian Energy Market Operator, and it’s where retailers buy the electricity they go on to sell to you.
- Western Australia and the Northern Territory are not part of it. They run their own, completely separate electricity systems.
- Because the big retailers operate across the whole NEM footprint, a broker accredited with them can genuinely quote a business anywhere in those six NEM states, not only their home city.
What the NEM actually is
The National Electricity Market is a wholesale spot market. Generators feed electricity into a shared grid, and AEMO matches supply with demand and sets a spot price for it. Retailers, the companies whose name actually appears on your bill, buy their electricity out of that wholesale market and then sell it on to homes and businesses.
That’s the wholesale layer, and it’s mostly invisible to you as a business owner. On top of it sits retail competition, which is the part you actually deal with. Retailers compete for your account with different rates, contract terms and service, even though underneath they’re all drawing from the same shared pool of electricity. That’s the whole reason switching retailers works at all: you’re not changing where your power physically comes from, you’re changing who bills you for it and what you pay.
Which states are actually on the NEM
Six states and territories run on the NEM:
- Queensland
- New South Wales
- The ACT
- Victoria
- South Australia
- Tasmania
If your business sits in any of those, you’re on the NEM, whether that’s a warehouse in Brisbane, a cafe in Melbourne, an office in Sydney or a workshop in Hobart. Same wholesale market underneath, same rules, same pool of retailers competing for your account.
Western Australia and the Northern Territory run their own systems
This is the part most business owners have never had a reason to think about. Western Australia is not connected to the NEM. It runs its own separate system called the SWIS, the South West Interconnected System, covering Perth and the state’s south-west corner.
The Northern Territory is the same story: its own separate electricity system, with no connection to the NEM either.
These aren’t just smaller versions of the same market. They’re structurally different: different wholesale market rules, different operating arrangements, and a different, shorter list of retailers actually active in each. A retailer that’s a major player right across the NEM might not sell electricity in WA or the NT at all.
Why a Brisbane broker can quote you in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide or Hobart
Here’s the practical part, and the reason this matters if you’re a business owner outside Queensland reading this. The major retailers, names like Origin, AGL, EnergyAustralia, Alinta, Momentum and Shell Energy, all operate across the whole NEM footprint. They sell electricity in Queensland, NSW, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania alike, not just their home state.
That means the retailer panel we quote against isn’t a Brisbane panel, it’s a NEM panel. If your business is in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide or Hobart, we’re putting your bill in front of the same retailers, on the same underlying wholesale market, using the same process we’d use for a business two suburbs from our own office.
Worth remembering: “Brisbane-based” describes where our office is, not where we can quote. The NEM is one market with a set of national retailers sitting over the top of it, and a business anywhere in a NEM state is a genuine quote for us, not a favour or an exception.
So if you’re running a business in a NEM state outside South East Queensland, you don’t need to track down a broker in your own city first. The broker still needs the right retailer panel and site eligibility. Our Australia-wide business electricity broker guide explains what to check before granting authority or signing.
Why Perth and Darwin are a different conversation
This is the flip side, and it’s worth being upfront about it. If your business is in Perth or elsewhere in WA, or in Darwin or elsewhere in the NT, you’re not on the NEM. You’re on a structurally different market, with a different, shorter list of retailers actually active there.
That doesn’t mean nobody can help you, it means it’s a genuinely different market and a different panel to the one our accreditations are built around. We’d rather tell you that plainly than pretend the same process applies when it doesn’t.
The poles and wires are still local
One thing the NEM doesn’t change: the distribution network, the actual poles and wires carrying electricity to your premises, stays separate and region-specific, even within NEM states.
A few examples:
- Queensland: Energex in the south east, Ergon Energy across regional Queensland.
- Victoria: AusNet, CitiPower, Powercor, Jemena and United Energy, split by region.
- NSW: Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy, also split by region.
So while the wholesale market and many of the retailers are shared right across the NEM, the network actually delivering power to your door is still a local, regulated monopoly specific to your patch. That network charge sits on every bill no matter which retailer you’re with, it’s the retail side, the part we work on, that’s genuinely competitive.
What to do this week
- Check which market you’re actually on. Queensland, NSW, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia or Tasmania means you’re on the NEM, and a proper multi-retailer comparison applies to your business.
- If you’re outside South East Queensland but still in a NEM state, don’t rule us out because of the “Brisbane” in our name. The retailer panel is national, so the comparison works the same way wherever your meter sits.
- Send us your bill. Upload it on this page or email hello@smartaswitch.com.au, wherever you are in a NEM state. We’ll tell you which retailers are actually competing for your business and what a sharper deal looks like. No cost, no commitment, because we’re paid by the energy retailer when you switch, never by you.
The NEM is the reason a Brisbane broker quoting a Melbourne business isn’t a stretch, it’s just how the market is actually built. Same rules, same retailers, same process, wherever your meter happens to sit.
Joe Lawrence, Co-founder, Smarta Switch Australia 0435 642 592 · joe@smartaswitch.com.au