Whether you can actually switch electricity retailer when you move depends on which state you're moving to — Australia doesn't have one national electricity market, and that genuinely changes what "connecting power" means.
Not every state has a competitive electricity market
Most of the country — NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT, and Victoria — sits in or alongside the National Electricity Market, where you can choose your retailer and compare plans. Western Australia and the Northern Territory are different: WA runs its own separate market (the Wholesale Electricity Market) with no real household retail competition, and the NT has effectively none either. Moving to Perth or Darwin means connecting with the local incumbent provider — there's no plan to shop around for the way there is in Sydney or Melbourne.
Comparing and connecting power
Where competition exists, Energy Made Easy is the free, independent, government-run comparison service — it covers NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, and the ACT. Victoria runs its own separate comparison tool (Victorian Energy Compare) rather than being part of Energy Made Easy, since Victoria deregulated its retail market earliest and kept its own system.
Smart meters are being progressively rolled out to replace manually-read meters across the National Electricity Market, with a goal of full coverage by 2030 — mandatory, not something you can opt out of once your retailer contacts you. This actually affects how a move plays out: in Victoria and NSW, a smart meter can be connected and disconnected remotely, so switching happens without anyone visiting the property; in Queensland, South Australia, and the ACT, a technician still needs to visit the site to physically complete the connection — worth knowing before you assume moving day power will just work itself out.
Connecting the internet
Even with the same provider, your plan doesn't follow you to a new address automatically — you need to arrange a new connection. How long that takes depends entirely on whether the new address has been connected to the NBN before:
- Previously connected address: usually same-day to 3 business days
- Never connected, or a new development: a technician visit is required, which can take up to 2 weeks
Book your connection roughly 10 days before your move date if you can, so activation can be scheduled for your actual move-in day rather than leaving a gap.
The overlap window matters more here than it sounds
A few days of paying for both the old and new connection is a rounding error next to the cost of a failed switch. What's actually expensive is discovering on moving day that a technician visit didn't happen, or that a WA/NT incumbent connection wasn't lodged early enough — both take longer to fix reactively than to prevent, and neither is something a phone call can resolve same-day. Treat the "is the new connection definitely live" check as the one thing to confirm before you let the old service go, not an afterthought once you're already unpacking.
Before you move: checklist
- Work out whether your new state has a competitive electricity market, or whether you're connecting with a local incumbent by default (WA, NT).
- Where you can switch, compare plans on Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare before signing up anywhere.
- Check your new address's NBN connection history — a never-connected address needs a technician visit booked well ahead, not the week of the move.
- Read your current electricity and internet contracts for an early termination fee before switching either.
- Get written confirmation the new services are active before cancelling anything at the old address.
Common mistakes
- Assuming Perth or Darwin work like every other capital city for shopping around on electricity — they don't.
- Booking an NBN technician visit in moving week instead of the ~10 days ahead this actually needs.
- Cancelling the old internet the moment the new provider says it's "scheduled," rather than once it's confirmed actually connected.
This guide is general information, not a quote — check current plans, fees, and connection timeframes directly with providers and your state's electricity market before switching.
Useful next steps
Recommended providers
Some of these are affiliate links — see our disclosure.