[cperciva]

The "retail" cost of power is always going to be higher than the "manufacturer wholesale" price, due to the cost of operating the grid.

Also, while I don't know details of the Australian electrical market, if it's anything like most of the world the consumer prices are regulated -- you don't get deep discounts during "cheap electricity" hours, but you also don't pay incredibly high rates during the days when e.g. people are running air conditioning during a heat wave and a couple major power plants had to be taken offline for emergency maintenance work simultaneously.