Wholesale energy: 
The smarter way to charge

Amber was founded by climate advocate Dan Adams and his techie mate Chris Thompson to solve the biggest problem holding Australia back from reaching 100% renewable energy: making it easier and rewarding for more Aussies to use more green energy and take action on climate change. While other green energy providers focus on offsetting your fossil fuel energy use, we’re laser-focused on helping you reduce your fossil fuel use in the first place, by empowering you to use energy when renewables are most abundant in the grid. It's a win/win for your wallet and the planet.

Unlike other retailers, Amber has only one “plan”. We give you direct access to the wholesale market for our $19/month subscription fee (the subscription fee is the only income we generate to run the business as we don't make profits on your energy usage).

The wholesale market low daily cost and below average costs during the night gives you access to cheaper and cleaner power, which can really drive your charging costs down. We believe this is a great way for you to save big on charging your car.

Other energy retailers pay the wholesale price for their power and then pass this through with a mark-up. Often the offers they propose look very appealing on one hand, and less appealing on the other. For example, if you have access to “free energy” during the day, you are likely to get charged a high price at all other hours. We recommend assessing these offers with this in mind.

All energy retailers buy their electricity from the same wholesale electricity market, where prices are set every 30 minutes by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). The wholesale price is the true price for your usage that Amber (and other retailers) have to pay to provide you energy. 

It’s normal for the wholesale price to fluctuate up or down in each 30 minute period depending on supply and demand, encouraging more power generation when the grid needs it, and less when it doesn’t.

The wholesale price that Amber passes through includes wholesale energy costs (which vary every 30 mins), hedging costs (a small fee to cover the cost of offering our Amber price guarantee), the rates charged by your local network (who own the poles and wires), metering costs and regulated charges for environmental schemes and market operations. We also add on a carbon offset to make your energy use carbon neutral.

Amber makes nothing at all from your energy usage. Our $19/month subscription fee is our only margin for running Amber.

Check out this explainer to learn more about what drives the wholesale price up and down. You can find out more about what your bill with Amber would include here.

Charging your car at the right price is crucial. Both to look after your wallet and of course, also to use less dirty energy from the grid. Right now, we do have solutions in place through third party products e.g. Charge HQ that allow you to stop charging your EV if prices are reaching a fixed threshold. In 2024 we will launch Amber's own smart charging solution.