Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Each apartment or lot and the common services will have an electricity meter and an electricity account with Source. The account holder will be billed for the electricity consumed through that meter in accordance with our standard retail contact.

Sources standard billing cycle is once a month. This is to help you avoid any surprises (“bill shock”) over summer or winter months, when electricity usage peaks with heating or air conditioning usage.

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If you or someone at your home uses life support equipment, please let us know by calling or emailing us;

(08) 6500 1243

accounts@sourceenergy.com.au

so we can help keep you safely connected to power.

https://sourceenergy.com.au/help-centre/life-support-equipment/

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Source have made paying your bills as convenient as possible. You can pay your bills online by logging in to your online customer management system via HotSource™. Here you can view your most current invoice and quickly pay your bill via credit card, BPAY or register for direct debit.

Direct debits we will automatically debit the amount that is due that month on the invoice due date from your nominated bank account or credit card.

Have you considered setting up your own payment arrangement in HotSource?

At Source we understand that circumstances change and paying bills can sometimes be difficult – we are here to help. If you find yourself in this situation please contact us as soon as possible and we can work together to make it easier to manage your bills and avoid getting into debt.

There are many reasons why your bill may appear higher or different to what you might have expected.

At Source we work incredibly hard to ensure our tariffs are lower (5 per cent to be exact) than the big utilities.

While we enjoy doing a better job than the others in the industry, in supplying you with electricity, we don’t like seeing this precious resource go to waste. So if your bills are big we are here to help and we’ve got a secret weapon – Good Advice and HotSource. 

There is a surcharge for payments made by Mastercard, Visa and American Express as listed under our “Fine Print” section under the relevant Standing Offer Tariffs.

To avoid additional fees please utilise any of the other available payment methods.

Changing your payment details is simple with our online customer account system. Simply head online to HotSource™ and log in to your customer dashboard. On the right hand side click on “payment details” you may make any changes to your payment details here.

The strata will have an account with Source and will be billed for all of the electricity used in the common areas and services.

Because we manage the solar, the meters and the billing system the strata doesn’t have any headaches regarding maintenance or buying and selling electricity. Lower prices and no headaches – what’s not to like!

If you’re concerned with your common area energy usage, Source will meet with the property manager or the Council of Owners to help identify ways to reduce electricity costs.  Simple changes to things like when pool pumps are turned on can reduce common area costs substantially.

The supply charge is a fixed amount charged each day to your account regardless of how much energy you use. It is used to cover some of the fixed costs of the infrastructure required to supply electricity to you including the power stations, power lines and meters. Even if you only use electricity one day a year all of that infrastructure has to be ready on demand.

Electricity used in the South West Interconnected System (“SWIS”), the electricity grid running from Geraldton to Albany and Perth to Kalgoorlie, is not part of the National Electricity Market.  Our market is designed to ensure we have enough capacity to meet demand to minimise the risk of any black outs.

In Western Australia we have one of the most challenging electricity networks to manage in Australia for three main reasons:

1. Our network covers an area around the size of the UK but with less than 5 per cent of the population. That means a large network of poles and wires with not many people to pay for them.
2. We have a great climate for most of the year except in the middle of summer when we have a run of hot days. Suddenly everyone has the air conditioners going flat out both at work and at home resulting in a huge demand for electricity. To ensure we have enough power generation and enough capacity on the power lines to service this peak load means a lot of it is sitting idle for most of the year. Again a rather costly exercise and largely driven by everyone’s use of energy.
3. We demand a very high standard of supply with minimal outages and good voltage and frequency control. This means top notch power generation and distribution infrastructure built and maintained by top notch labour on first world salaries. Another rather costly exercise.

One way to understand the fixed supply charge is to think of owning a car. Regardless of if you drive it or not you are still having to pay for registration, insurance and depreciation. You could then say “well I will just hire a car or use uber” but then your variable cost would be far higher and considering most of us do use some electricity every day the current model of supply charges is by far the best outcome.

It is also helpful to put it in context with other household expenses. Our average account is running at about $4 per day (one cup of coffee) including supply charges. Considering most of our accounts would be supplying two or more people in an apartment that is a pretty small cost.

The average household spends more per week on eating out than electricity, more on alcohol than electricity and more on telecommunications than electricity (Source: ABS – we didn’t make it up).

Considering that you rely on electricity to see at night, keep food fresh in the fridge, have a warm shower, keep you cool in summer and warm in winter and enable you to run all of your appliances, computers, tablets, phones and Wifi it’s a pretty good deal.

If you hold an appropriate concession card you may be eligible for the Energy Concession Extension Scheme, administered by the State Government.

Details of eligibility and how to apply are located here:

Apply for the Energy Concession Extension Scheme »

A link to the information you will need to make an application can be found here:

Application checklist »

If you wish to make an application please contact us and we will provide you with the details relevant to your electricity account.

It is Source Energy Co.’s aim to always be under the gazzetted rate for residential customers. According to relevant regulations we can not charge any more than the gazzetted rate.

Yes, but you will need to work with that retailer and Western Power to install a new meter and establish an account with associated fees. While Source Energy Co. is offering a cheaper energy it would be a hard move to justify.

If it is a shared or common charging station it is owned and managed by the strata. Please check with the strata for how to access it and how the electricity used is accounted for.

If it is dedicated to a specific unit owner it is more than likely owned, managed and paid for by that unit owner. However if your are unsure please check with your strata.

Please contact us and we will work with strata to have it installed for you or a shared charging point for your building.

Always CALL EMERGENCY SERVICES ON 000 if there is any risk to someones life or property.

Source Energy Co. is responsible for metering and billing, electricity supply is managed by Western Power and inside the building the strata is responsible.

However here are some quick steps you can take if the power does go out:

Firstly check if it’s just your building or the street. If it’s the street then please head to the Western Power website to see if there has been a network outage in your area and when they expect to have it back up and running.

If it’s just your apartment then it’s likely that one of your RCD’s or fuses has tripped. Turn everything off that may have caused the fault and then head to your switch board to turn back on the tripped switch. If that doesn’t fix it or you don’t feel confident it’s best to contact an electrician to help.

For all other electrical faults within your building please contact the strata or property manager.

If you are stuck, you can always email us and we’re happy to help out as much as we can.

You are still connected to Western Power so the only time the power will go out is if there is Western Power fault or an internal electrical issue. If the central solar stops working you will still enjoy the same discounted energy rates and Source will be responsible for getting it back up and running.

If you have your own individual solar system and you think it’s not working you will need to contact the strata manager or the original installer.

Depending on the length of the planned power outage and your particular situation here are some good ideas and tips on how to prepare before and what to do during:

• Adjust your fridge to the coldest setting leading up and try and keep closed as much as possible during.
• Lifts, security gates and garage may not function so ensure you have a plan for getting you and your car out of the building. Check with the building manager for details.
• There maybe power fluctuations when the power is restored so it’s worth unplugging any sensitive equipment.
• If you leave a light switched on you will know when the power comes back on.

All our meters are National Measurement Institute pattern approved and compliant with NMI M6-1 standards with Class 1,2 accuracy. They are supplied with a valid NATA accredited test report. In short, they are as accurate or more accurate than the retail meters used by the large energy companies.

If at any stage you feel the meter is not reading correctly we can arrange to have it tested. A fee will only apply if the test shows the meter is reading incorrectly. Refer this page for relevant charges and tariffs

To ensure the data integrity an electricity meter, once installed at a location, it cannot be reset to zero. Much like an odometer in a car it is designed to ensure electricity consumption can always be traced and cross checked.

Source will only take the meter reading from the day you establish your account so you will not be billed for consumption from the previous occupant.  We log our meter reads in a secure database, so even if you forget to tell us you’ve moved in, we can still read the meter for the day you actually moved in.

No. The quality of electricity supplied to your building is determined by the Western Power Network (the connection to the grid) and the electrical services and infrastructure located at your premises.

Our meters only meter the flow of electricity and our solar can only input power at the same voltage and frequency that it sees coming from Western Power. In short, Western Power is responsible for the quality of electricity to your building.

Potentially but it is likely to be significantly more expensive than a standard residential installation (like the ones you see advertised) with reduced financial benefit. In most buildings, where Source is the electricity supplier, we have installed solar panels during construction enabling you to benefit from lower costs 24/7.

A few factors to consider in regards to the additional costs to install on a multi-story building include roof access, longer cable runs and challenges in finding a suitable inverter location. You will also need to consider amendments to applicable bylaws and agreement from other owners on the location of equipment. Also if there is an existing solar system at the building it is likely that Western Power will charge additional fees and charges for any new systems installed over the 30kVA threshold.

A good way to test the viability is to call a few local solar suppliers, discuss your specific situation, mention the above considerations and get their opinion. Feel free to put them in contact with us if they need to clarify the configuration of the building.

Source Energy Co. was founded in Western Australian in 2016 by a developer trying to solve the challenges of providing solar energy to their occupants in the most efficient way possible.

Today, Source remains a proudly Western Australian operated company, with its office in Perth.

Source Energy Co. was initially built to enable developers to continue rolling out a more sustainable product by increasing the volume of solar PV installed on their buildings. Our purpose has evolved to accelerate the transition to a better, smarter, greener energy future.

Source Energy Co. will own, manage and maintains the infrastructure associated with the Integrated Energy Network. Source Energy Co. establishes agreements to install, maintain and operate the hardware enabling us to provide provide a better energy outcome for all stakeholders.