Queensland: beautiful one day, power price penury the next

Banana benders have just been belted with an almighty hike in power prices, which will see many of those lovely timber “Queenslanders” soon being lit up with candles. Good job the Sun’s nearly always shining in “Joh’s Country”.

With all those lights on, he must be paid
like a journo from the Courier Mail.

****

Perhaps Campbell Newman can take a leaf out of the SA Labor Government’s playbook and start teaching those living North of the Tweed how to cook with kero stoves and light up their digs with a Primus?

Croweaters have been pounded by wind power driven price fraud for years now, and it seems Queensland is fast catching up. The Australian reports.

Newman blames 23pc power hike on green schemes
The Australian
Jamie Walker and Barry Fitzgerald
1 June 2013

QUEENSLANDERS have been slugged with one of the heaviest electricity price rises on record, increasing power bills by 22.6 per cent at an extra cost to the average household of $267 a year.

The Newman government blamed most of the increase on network costs, the carbon tax and green energy subsidies.

The jump was higher than anticipated from the Queensland Competition Authority regulator and will lift the household bill from $1184 to $1451. Small businesses will face a rise of up to 17.4 per cent. “It’s a very significant rise and we do appreciate it’s going to strain many family budgets,” QCA chairman Malcolm Roberts said.

The financial hit, from July 1, will be compounded by the state LNP government’s move to ditch a household power rebate and plans for payroll tax breaks for business in next Tuesday’s state budget.

Queensland Energy Minister Mark McArdle said network costs controlled by the Australian Energy Regulator accounted for nearly 47 per cent of the hike, while carbon tax and renewable energy schemes contributed a further 15 per cent.

Power prices in Queensland were 80 per cent higher in aggregate than five years ago, and the Australian Energy Users Association of Australia said there had been a “higher cost flow-through” than in other states. This was partly because Queensland’s power sector was mostly government-owned, and the state was reliant on the income it generated, the industry body’s chief executive Phil Barresi said.

Origin Energy managing director Grant King told a Sydney forum yesterday that the green component of electricity bills was expected to increase. “Subsidies for green schemes, while reduced, will continue to cost consumers for many years, and networks need to keep pace,” he warned.

Another factor was that the Renewable Energy Target was not being adjusted to reflect actual energy demand, resulting in higher costs for customers.

In NSW where average annual household electricity bills have more than doubled to $2230 in the last five years, the green component had grown from 2 to 7 per cent ($76) while network costs had grown from 38 to 49 per cent ($654), according to Origin. After Queensland, NSW has the most heavily regulated electricity sector in the country, though the state is moving to privatise power generators. Under Premier Campbell Newman, Queensland recently rejected the recommendation of a commission of audit headed by former federal treasurer Peter Costello to sell electricity assets to pay down debt.

The price spiral in NSW and Victoria has eased, with NSW’s Independent Pricing and Regulator Tribunal reporting that prices would fall from mid-2015 after an 18 per cent rise last year.
The Australian

Remember that Queensland, whether it likes it or not, is part of the Eastern Grid, which means its fine citizens end up paying for wind power perversion too. It is part of an Intra-State distribution system and, therefore, subject to the obscene cost attached to power bills by the REC Tax.

And don’t be sucked in by the reference to “network costs” as the principal contributor to the 23% increase in power prices in the Sunshine State.

The need to duplicate the transmission network simply to accommodate intermittent and unreliable wind power is a very big factor in escalating “network costs”.

In just one example, reported by The Age, network operators are ready to spend $107 million on an inter-connector for the sole purpose of sending South Australia’s wind power to Victorians at night-time, when there is absolutely no market for it.

Things that make you go, Hmmmm.