Why Your Power Bill Still Hurts.

**disco man** · 23rd November 2014, 05:49 PM

As Queensland prepares to sell the long term rights to billions of dollars in revenues from our coal fired generators and electricity distribution networks,you don't hear much about why our power bills have doubled in the past few years. Sure,we have had the carbon tax removed,a 9% saving on what we otherwise would have paid,and soon the Renewable Energy Target will be zapped,providing further savings or costs,depending on who you believe. But you don't hear much about the key reason our power bills have soared,which is massive over investment in our electricity networks. Funny that. More than half of the average household electricity bill is spent on network costs. Some say more than half the $45 billion pumped into upgrading our poles and wires nationally since 2009 has been invested unnecessarily. A perverse incentive allows privatised and government owned entities to boost their profits by growing their assets. Utilities get a 10% return on the money they invest,guaranteed by our so called regulator. It is a gravy train at the expense of consumers which now looks like being passed on through asset sales to the private equity and savings fund in Australia and around the world.

It is a scandalous state of affairs where you'd think the community's representatives would be calling it for what it is,unmitigated greed. In Queensland,little is said about increasing the fixed charge component of our power bills,for some tariffs by hundreds of per cent,to shore up the profits of our coal fired generators against falls in consumption. Those bill changes were introduced quietly in July. A Queensland Competition Authority,compliant to government,makes no requirements on Ergon Energy to show this on peoples power bills. Throw this into the mix of a state election turned into a referendum on asset sales and you begin to relise why government MP's are jumping at shadows. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Governments need to look beyond the short-term interests of generators and distributors to the long term interests of the community.

**Vern** · 23rd November 2014, 06:16 PM

So whats the average power bill? $700 a quarter? You get pretty good value for for money for your $700, my phone bill a year costs more😕

**steane** · 23rd November 2014, 06:28 PM

At least $1000 a qtr for power. Last qtr was $2000. House is smaller than avg and we made the mistake of trying to keep our babies room warm in winter with an oil filled heater. No gas, all electric.

In Melbourne 4 years ago our qrtly power bill was $400 plus a $200 gas bill.

I suspect we are paying for infrastructure (as part of the deal done with govt) and filling the gap in income for the providers created by solar. Whatever it is its pretty disgusting. I can see a lot of pensioners endangering their lives in weather extremes by trying to avoid the cost associated with heating and cooling.

**THE BOOGER** · 23rd November 2014, 07:20 PM

Strange that only 2 years ago after the big fires there were claims that infrastructure was years behind as successive govts had been pulling money out of the system to make profits look good for when they sold

**PhilipA** · 23rd November 2014, 08:17 PM

Hindsight is always 20-20.
Everyone doing the network planning was estimating 5-10% per annum demand increases from aircons, and they had to develop the networks for peak demand.

I can recall only say 5 years ago the government was saying we would have to build 5 new coal fired power stations.

You could argue that they were pretty dumb , but engineers are not economists and didn't see how people reacted to price signals.

Turns out the elasticity of demand is quite high and people reacted by fitting LEDs and buying new more efficient stuff when prices went up.

Solar panels also reduced demand , but arguably not peak demand.

I read an article on the weekend that states that now our networks are all in the wrong places but I don't really buy that argument.

I am pretty happy at Avoca Beach as I have only had one long blackout in 8 years and that was when Newcastle was flooded by the big offshore low.

I reckon that you would be far unhappier if the power went out at 5PM on a 40C day for several hours, than if you have to pay another $50 a year for power.
Regards Philip A

**JDNSW** · 23rd November 2014, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by THE BOOGER

Strange that only 2 years ago after the big fires there were claims that infrastructure was years behind as successive govts had been pulling money out of the system to make profits look good for when they sold

I think you may be confusing two issues - maintenance and expansion. The system encourages expansion of assets rather than maintenance, so they have been happily beefing up the grid while skimping on maintenance, although this may have stopped after a couple of court judgements against power companies after the Victorian fires.

The confusion was probably deliberately helped along by power companies blurring the line between maintenance and expansion.

John

**350RRC** · 23rd November 2014, 09:03 PM

I have a property with two smart meters, side by side. They were installed after I bought it........ one for house, one for shed. I don't live there an use stuff all power.

The major % increase has been in the service delivery. Not surprised when the supplier (or their contractor) did the annual tree lop in Feb, then came back in August and did it again!

Spose eucalypts must grow really fast here haha.

DL

**Hoges** · 24th November 2014, 12:04 AM

FWIW: for comparison... Just SWMBO and I. Off-peak HWS. The average consumption is between 18.5 and 21KWH/day ...tracked daily usage over the past 5 yrs. That includes one fridge for 6m of the year, 2 (just regular mid size boxes) in summer. We get good breezes on the hill where we live, have ceiling fans, so rarely use aircon... if we do it's for 4 hrs at night maybe three nights out of 7 to cool the humidity... occasionally for heating in winter. highest wattage light bulb is 7W (LED). Probably 6 or 7 lights on average burning at any one time.
We pay 28.3C/kwh.(Origin energy) My nephew in Canberra pays 16.2c/KWH... so our quarterly bills are between $500-600/qtr . All electric, can't get the natural gas line extended although it stops 60m along the street from us and 10 other homes which were built after 1997! Several of the others have large gas bottles delivered...

Still trying to work out where the 18kwh/day is used. I have thought about solar panels...

EDIT: Article recently in local paper talked about the skyrocketing costs due to added complexity of network controls as a result of solar panels feeding in to the grid...I don't have any clue as to how much of an added cost this is.../was//will be

**numpty** · 24th November 2014, 06:55 AM

I live with my partner in her house and she has a 2kw solar system feeding into the grid. Off peak hot water, (we need to go solar) 1 fridge, supply pump for water (we are on tank supply) and try not to use aircon (as she freaks out at how much extra it uses) Gas heating in winter from cylinders.

Lauraine checks our useage each day and we average around 14 kw. Air con will up this considerably if in use.

The greatest cost increase that I see is nothing to do with how much power we use but in supply costs, which are a total rip off. Cost per Kwh here is around 31 cents.

If we could afford to we would put another 2 kw solar on and battery storage.

**JDNSW** · 24th November 2014, 07:17 AM

I find my average use is around 5-6kWh per day. Fridge, freezer, microwave CFl lights, water pump, TV, computer etc. Cooking is gas or wood, heating is wood, hot water is solar boosted with wood. No aircon, fans but are rarely used.

I suspect a lot of your usage is heating water. As you say, you need to go solar. I would put that ahead of more PV panels. But with an increasing proportion of cost being the supply cost, saving energy will get you diminishing returns.

John

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