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Energy Locals review

Energy Locals has over 46,000 customers in Australia. Here's what you need to know before deciding whether to switch to Energy Locals.

energy energy locals
CHOICE staff
CHOICE staff
Last updated: 09 February 2023

Energy Locals sells electricity to over 46,000 households, or just under 0.49% of Australia's residential customers, according to 2021–22 figures.

It joined the Australian market in 2016 and claims to offer carbon offsets, solar feed in tariffs and smart meter installation and operation. It's also one of the few energy retailers that has a fixed fee membership that claims to give you the cheapest usage rates.

Energy Locals is an Australian owned retailer with headquarters, and call centres, in Richmond and Melbourne respectively. It partners with and enables a number of community renewable energy initiatives including Manilla Solar, Indigo Power and CoPower. It has a strong orientation towards renewables.

The company does not own any power generation plants, it buys its power from power stations and sells it on.

Contact details for Energy Locals

energylocals.com.au

1300 693 637

Which states does Energy Locals supply?

CHOICE Expert Rating on Energy Locals

CHOICE verdict on Energy Locals

Environmental

  • Energy Locals is a well-rated energy retailer in the Green Electricity Guide, with 8 stars out of 10.
  • It has a strong position against investing in fossil fuels, though it also buys energy from markets where coal still dominates.
  • Energy Locals' export prices for solar are above state averages.
  • It does not promote energy efficiency and is not involved in demand management/response programs.

Customer service

  • 471 (or 1%) of Energy Locals' customers lodged complaints against the company in 2021–22.
  • 40% of calls made to Energy Locals are answered within 30 seconds. This is a notable decrease from the 73% of calls in 2019–20.
  • The average wait time is 78 seconds, slightly more than the wait time of 62 seconds in 2020–21.
  • 28.2% of callers hang up before their call is answered, much higher than the 5.8% in 2020–21.

Energy Locals energy sources

We have found references to Energy Locals' use of a bio generator (Cape Byron Power) that uses waste to generate power, but we couldn't locate a comprehensive breakdown of the mix of energy sources that Energy Locals uses for all power generation.

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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.