Victorian annual power bills will go down as much as $75 over the next five years, after the regulator cut what energy companies can charge.

The Australian Energy Regulator’s preliminary decisions are effective from January 1 and are expected to lead to savings of between $27 and $75 on the average Victorian household’s annual electricity bill over the next five years.

In addition to reductions in network charges, the regulator will reduce annual metering charges between 15 and 40 per cent in 2016.

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Generators and energy retailers are facing an uncertain future, with falling demand for electricity threatening a ‘death spiral’, in which the companies are forced to raise prices as demand falls.

Energy majors have also been slow to react to developments in household-level renewable energy storage systems, which are expected to be rolled out rapidly in 2016 – though some companies such as AGL are already seeking to capture part of that market.