Australians are being misled by confusing electricity bill charges and rising network costs from energy retailers, according to a new report.

The four-year study by St Vincent de Paul says retail costs charged by the deregulated energy market have become “the elephant in the room that governments and regulators continue to ignore”.

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Network costs charged by energy retailers, such as the maintenance of polls and wires, made up as much as 60 per cent of some electricity bills.

“Retailers pay to attract customers, to keep customers, to service customers and so on…” said the National Energy Market – Wrong Way, Go Back? report.

“But when the retail component of households’ electricity bill starts matching the cost of operating infrastructure heavy utilities, it is time to acknowledge something is wrong.”

The report recommends standardising the presentation of costs like daily supply charges on electricity bills to make it easier for consumers to compare energy retailers.

Increases in network and retail costs should also be explained to customers, said the report.

“Retailers that are free to set their own price should justify their costings to the public,” it said.

The study found that consumers could save up to $1,000 in certain states by switching their standing electricity offer to the best one on the market.