Electricity competition has progressively been introduced to Tasmania since the State joined the National Electricity Market and many businesses can now choose their electricity retailer.

Starting with the largest users of electricity, access to licensed retailers and the wholesale electricity market has been made available through staged tranches. Five tranches of customers have become contestable since 1 July 2006. Each tranche has been determined by annual consumption and, once eligible to participate, you are known as a contestable customer.

Find out more

From 1 July 2011, if you are a business customer who uses between 50 MWh and 150 MWh of electricity per year at your business site (that's an electricity bill of between around $10 000 and $30 000) then you are eligible to enter into a market contract with a licensed electricity retailer operating in Tasmania. You have become a 'standing offer contestable customer'.

As a standing offer contestable customer (or SOCC) you are now able to negotiate a price and service package for your electricity supply. Note that, of Tasmania's licensed retailers, only Aurora Energy is currently offering market contracts to contestable customers that use between 50 MWh and 150 MWh per year.

You will know that you are a SOCC if you received a letter from Aurora Energy in June 2011 advising you of this.