Power bill bigger than the till? A plan for cafés, bakeries and food businesses

If the business power bill is bigger than the cash in the account, ring your retailer before the due date and ask for an extension or instalments. Then check two things: whether you are on a standing offer, and whether your tariff suits the hours your ovens, fridges and coffee machine actually run. Borrow to cover it only if the bill is a genuine one-off.

That is the short version. The rest of this guide walks through the first week after a nasty bill lands, the checks that stop the next one doing the same, and how to tell a cash-flow blip from a business that is quietly losing money on every kilowatt.

Why are food businesses hit so hard by power bills?

A café or bakery is a small factory with a shopfront. Cool rooms, display fridges and freezers run all day and all night. Deck ovens, combi ovens, fryers, dishwashers and espresso machines draw heavily during trade. In summer, air conditioning fights the heat coming off the kitchen. Gas, if you have it, often arrives on a separate bill with a different cycle.

Three things tend to turn a normal quarter into a shock:

• Estimated reads catching up. A few quarters of estimates, then an actual read, and the difference arrives in one hit.
• A hot quarter. Refrigeration works harder when the room is warmer, and summer bills land just as trade can dip after the holidays.
• A contract quietly rolling over. When a market deal ends, some businesses drift onto a standing offer without noticing.

There is also a timing problem. Power is a bill you pay after you have used it, often quarterly. By the time it arrives, the cash from those sales has long since gone on wages, ingredients and BAS.

What should I do in the first week?

Work through these in order. Most owners skip straight to step four.

1. Check the bill is right

Look at whether the reads are actual or estimated, compare usage with the same quarter last year, and check the meter number matches your premises. If it was estimated, ask for an actual read or submit your own photo of the meter. A wrong bill is cheaper to fix than to fund.

2. Call the retailer before the due date

This is the most valuable call you will make. Ask for:

• an extension to the due date;
• instalments over the next few weeks or months;
• confirmation in writing of whatever you agree.

The federal government’s Energy Made Easy site explains that a payment plan lets you pay in regular, smaller instalments and that you should “make sure you can afford” each one. It also notes that a retailer “can’t cut off your power if you keep up with your payments” on an agreed plan. Its detailed hardship framework is aimed at households, so a small business may get less automatic help, but retailers still deal with business payment arrangements every day. Ringing early, with a number you can genuinely meet, is what gets a yes.

If you cannot agree on a fair arrangement, or you dispute the bill itself, you can take it to your state’s energy ombudsman after you have tried the retailer.

3. Map the next eight weeks of cash

Before agreeing to any instalment, write down what else is due. Wages and super every pay cycle, the next BAS, rent, supplier accounts. With Payday Super in place from 1 July 2026, super now leaves the account close to each payday rather than in a quarterly lump, so it sits in the same weeks as the power instalments. Our Dough gap calculator helps you see how many weeks of runway you really have once everything is counted.

4. Only then decide whether to fund it

If the instalment plan covers the gap comfortably, you may not need to borrow at all. If it does not, you have a clearer picture of exactly how much you need and for how long. If a short bridge would help, check what’s possible in about 60 seconds.

Am I on the wrong offer or tariff?

This is where many food businesses leave money on the table every single quarter.

Standing offers versus market offers. In New South Wales, south-east Queensland and South Australia, the Australian Energy Regulator sets the default market offer, a cap on standing-offer prices for households and small businesses. In Victoria, the Essential Services Commission sets the Victorian Default Offer. Both reset on 1 July each year, and the 2026–27 decisions were published in late May 2026. These offers are a safety net and a benchmark. They are rarely the cheapest deal, and only a minority of small businesses are on them.

Flat versus time of use. A flat tariff charges the same for every unit, whenever you use it. A time-of-use tariff charges more at peak and less off-peak. Which is better depends entirely on when your kitchen runs. The Victorian Default Offer for small businesses, for example, sets peak at 9 am to 9 pm on weekdays and off-peak at all other times. A bakery that proves and bakes overnight and is quieter in the afternoon may come out well on time of use. A café with all its heavy cooking between breakfast and lunch on weekdays may not.

Size thresholds. Small-business default offers have usage limits. In Victoria, small businesses using less than 40 megawatt hours a year can ask to go on the default offer. A busy kitchen can sit near or above that, which changes what is available.

To compare, use Energy Made Easy (or Victorian Energy Compare in Victoria) with a full year of bills in front of you. Look at the total annual cost for your actual usage pattern, not the headline discount.

Did a rebate disappear from my budget?

Possibly. The federal Energy Bill Relief Fund gave eligible small businesses up to $150 off electricity bills for the period from 1 July to 31 December 2025, usually as two quarterly credits. Business Queensland’s page on the scheme sets out how it was applied there. That round has finished. If your budget still assumes a credit on each bill, the first quarters of 2026 may have felt heavier for that reason alone. Check with your state government and retailer for any current local support.

An illustration: a bakery’s summer bill

Here is an example, using no real business, to show how the pieces fit.

A family bakery in regional New South Wales gets its summer quarter electricity bill in late February. It is roughly 40 per cent higher than the same quarter last year. Two of the previous bills were estimates; this one is an actual read, so it includes a catch-up. The bank balance is healthy enough for wages, but not for wages, the March BAS and this bill in the same month.

What the owner does:

1. Confirms the bill. The meter photo matches the read. The catch-up is real.
2. Calls the retailer three days before the due date. Agrees to pay a third now and the rest over two months, confirmed by email.
3. Checks the offer. The bakery’s market contract ended the previous year and rolled onto a standing offer. The owner compares market offers using a full year of usage and switches to a time-of-use plan that suits the overnight baking schedule.
4. Looks at the gear. An ageing display fridge is running constantly. The owner gets a quote for a more efficient unit.
5. Maps the cash. With the instalments, wages and BAS laid out week by week, there is still a tight four-week stretch in March.

The owner covers that stretch with a small short-term facility sized to the four weeks, and separately funds the new fridge over a longer term so the saving on the bill helps pay for it. Two different needs, two different shapes of funding.

When does funding a power bill make sense?

Borrowing to pay a utility bill is not wrong. It just needs to pass a few honest tests.

It makes sense when:

• the bill is a one-off spike (a catch-up, a heatwave quarter, a missed rollover) and the next bill should be normal;
• you have already arranged what you can with the retailer, and the gap left over is clear;
• the repayments fit your quietest month, not your best one;
• it protects something bigger, such as keeping a big catering order or a peak trading period on track.

It does not fix the problem when:

• every bill is too big for the cash the business generates;
• the menu prices have not moved while energy, ingredients and wages have;
• the gear is so inefficient that the bill will keep climbing.

In those cases, borrowing only buys time. Use the time to reprice, renegotiate and replace, and let the funding be part of a plan rather than the plan itself.

For a short gap, a short-term business loan sized to the weeks you need is a common fit. For businesses whose bills swing every quarter, a line of credit you draw only when needed may suit better. For replacing a thirsty cool room or oven, equipment funding spreads the cost over the life of the asset. Unsecured and cash-flow options for trading businesses are typically $5,000 to $500,000, sized on turnover and bank statements, and same-day funding is possible for smaller amounts.

How do I stop the next bill being a shock?

A few habits make energy a predictable cost rather than a quarterly fright.

• Read the meter monthly and note it in your bookkeeping. You will see a bad quarter coming weeks before the bill does.
• Set aside a weekly amount for power and gas the way you would for GST, in a separate account. Divide last year’s total by 52 and add a margin.
• Diarise your contract end date and compare offers a month before it ends.
• Ask for monthly billing if your retailer offers it. Smaller, more frequent bills are easier to carry.
• Maintain the refrigeration. Clean condenser coils, check door seals and keep cool room doors shut. It is unglamorous, and it is often the cheapest saving in the kitchen.
• Review menu pricing when energy costs shift. Our cafés and restaurants page and the bakeries and food producers page cover how food businesses cash-flow costs that move.

Keeping the ovens on while you sort it out

A power bill can feel like a small thing until it lands in the same week as wages and BAS. We talk to café, bakery and restaurant owners about exactly this kind of squeeze, and we know the difference between a business in trouble and a good business having a bad quarter.

If you have done the retailer call and the numbers still leave a gap, it takes about 60 seconds to tell us about it. There is no credit check when you first enquire. We don’t send your details to a pile of lenders, so your phone will not start ringing off the hook. A real person reads your situation, from the size of the bill to how your trade moves through the year, and calls you to talk it through. Please fill in the form accurately, with your real turnover and the actual amount you need, so we can match the right option first time.

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