Canberrans will rake in some of the biggest savings in the nation following the repeal of the carbon tax, more than four times the money back from their power bills than people living in Tasmania.
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Impacts of the withdrawal of tax will vary widely from state to state, experts have warned, with Victorians and Canberrans well positioned to make savings.
The federal government has been predicting overall savings for Australian households of $550, including more than $200 directly off their electricity bills.
However, Grattan Institute energy program director Tony Wood calculated the average Canberran household would save $175 on their electricity bills, while Tasmanians could expect as little as $40 per household.
"The amount of the tax you are paying varies depending on where you live,'' he said.
"The carbon intensity changes a lot. Canberra and most of NSW get most of their electricity produced from black coal with a bit of renewable energy from wind.
"In Tasmania it's mostly from hydro power so you are paying virtually no carbon tax. In South Australia it's mostly gas and wind power so the intensity is a lot lower and carbon tax is a lot lower and so the savings will be a lot lower.
"It means national averages are very dangerous things.''
Mr Wood said politicians could arrive at the $200-plus figure for electricity bill savings by assuming the average household was large, had three to four children and was situated in Victoria.
Mr Wood said the average Australian household used 5.5 megawatt hours of electricity a year but even that varied between states.
In Canberra, the average use was eight megawatt hours a home.
Mr Wood said reforming electricity tariffs would provide lower bills overall.
"Some Canberrans will be paying too much for their electricity and some will be paying too little,'' he said.
"At the moment we charge people their network costs based on their electricity use but that's not a very fair system.''
Mr Wood said that adopting a different way of charging customers could have saved network businesses nearly $8 billion in reduced investment over the past five years and those savings could have been passed on to customers in the form of lower bills.
"Instead of charging a household based on its total energy use, the 43 per cent of the consumer bill that goes to fund the network should be based on the load the household puts on the network in the times when it is drawing down most power,'' he said.
"Calculating bills based on a household's maximum load far better reflects the real cost of running the network. If this cost can be reduced, so can consumer prices.''
