The forum, hosted by Energy Consumers Australia, was one in a series being held across the country in an effort to understand the views of residents and small businesses on their energy consumption and the future of the market.

The barriers that exist to consumers gaining a thorough understanding of their usage and their bills was among the issues raised during the listening session.

Bendigo Sustainability Group president Chris Weir said the average consumer could not read an electricity bill and did not have a good understanding of the charges, tariffs and other fees they paid.

City of Greater Bendigo sustainable environment manager Robyn Major agreed, adding that consumers could not dissect their bills and determine such information as why their bills had increased.

Ms Major said energy bills were not written in the language of the general public and there needed to be greater clarity, as well as the standardisation of information.

But Mr Weir said Victoria was one of the better states to live in regarding this issue, due to the use of smart meters.

These allow consumers to monitor their usage in real time.

But the attendees said there needed to be an easier way for consumers to access information on energy usage, suggesting a smartphone app would be beneficial for the general public.

Mr Weir said an app would be best delivered by an independent group, given it was in retailers’ interests for their customers to consume more electricity.

Renewable energy technologies and their take-up in the local area was another popular topic of discussion throughout the forum.

Mark Eldridge, from the council’s economic development team, said he believed consumers took up renewable energy technologies primarily in an effort to negate their power costs.

He said as feed-in tariffs for solar power dropped, so did sales of solar power systems.

But he said for the average small business installing solar panels was a “no brainer”, with the dropping cost of solar power systems, the rebate structure and the offset of power costs making it an economically advantageous move.

ECA associate director of stakeholder engagement Craig Memery said Australia had the world’s largest energy system, running over 4500 kilometres end to end.

There are 9.3 million energy consumers in Australia, nearly 28 per cent of whom are residential users.

Other attendees came from the City of Greater Bendigo and the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre.