Victorian Default Offer

The regulated benchmark electricity price for Victorian households. Current VDO: Oct'26. Plan data as at 16 October 2026.

What is the Victorian Default Offer?

The Victorian Default Offer (VDO) is a regulated electricity price set by the Essential Services Commission (ESC) — the independent state regulator. It is sometimes called a “standing offer” price.

The VDO applies when a customer has not actively chosen a market offer — for example, if you move house and your new supplier puts you on a default tariff, or if your previous market contract expires and you have not switched. Some retailers also offer the VDO as an explicit plan option.

The ESC sets the VDO annually (and can revise it quarterly if costs change significantly). It is designed to be a fair safety-net price — reasonable enough that a customer who never switches is not badly disadvantaged, but not so cheap that it removes the incentive to shop around.

What the VDO is not

The VDO is not necessarily the cheapest plan available. Most market offers from retailers are priced below the VDO for typical usage patterns — that is one of the reasons the government publishes it as a benchmark. But whether a market offer beats the VDO for your household depends on your usage pattern: when you use power, whether you have solar, and whether your usage peaks during the hours that matter for time-of-use plans.

This is exactly what Nemity is designed to show you. By pricing both the VDO and all market offers against your actual half-hourly usage data, you can see where the VDO sits in your personal ranking — not just in a generic annual average.

VDO plans in Nemity

Nemity includes the Oct'26 Victorian Default Offer plans in its comparison for all five Victorian distribution zones: CitiPower, Powercor, AusNet, Jemena, and United Energy. There are separate VDO plans for single-rate and time-of-use tariff structures in each zone.

VDO plans appear in the ranked list alongside all market offers. If the VDO is ranked first for your usage pattern, that is the result Nemity shows — it does not suppress it in favour of a commercial offer.

VDO rates change when the ESC sets new prices. Nemity’s plan data is refreshed weekly from the AER Consumer Data Right feed, so VDO rates update automatically when retailers file the new prices.

How to see the VDO in your comparison

Upload your meter data on the comparison tool and choose your zone. VDO plans will appear in the results alongside market offers, ranked by what they would actually cost you.

If you do not have meter data yet, download it from your distributor’s portal — it is free and takes about 5 minutes to set up.

The VDO in your zone

VDO prices differ by distribution zone. Nemity includes the current VDO for all five: