A few days ago i received a price increase to my power bill around 8%.This will not affect me to much as i have a large solar set up and am currently in credit on bill of twelve hundred dollars after less than a year since meter installed.
What bothers me is the way this increase is structured,it seems to impact far greater on people who are sensible with power use than people who live in large inefficient mansions.the main increase is on per day supply,so if you use 1 kw hour in peak times compared to 10 + you pay the same per day increase on supply.Why are we not allocated around 15 kwh per day at a cheap rate .Once you go over this amount consumption costs double for every say 5 kwh used.so if you use 15 kw @15c/kwh a day it costs you $2.25 p/d.Then for your next 5kw used you pay 30c/pkwh,then for the next 5 you pay 60c/pkwh.
If pricing was structured like this we could have cheap supply rates ie 30c/pd which would benefit pensioners etc , who use minimal power .These people would be in the 15cp/kwh bracket for consumption if they only used 15 kwh p/d,and for those running 2 air cond units all day everyday and consuming vast amounts of power would be the ones paying for there wastage and lack of effort to conserve power.Surely this is a much fairer way of charging for power use and also water use,bennefitting those who use little and penalising those who waste lots.
I think this method however would penalise the ones making the rules and highly unlikely to happen
unfair power increases
(11 posts) (8 voices)-
chazwah
MemberPosted Monday 26 Dec 2011 @ 12:41:22 am from IP # -
Life isn't fair and electricity pricing reflects a wasteful infrastructure that hasn't been appreciated until recently.
So I recommend writing your ideas to your local MP and the minister for energy in your state. I do this regularly.
The upside is people are at last recognising power is a valuable product and now solar modules are down to $1/watt it is getting more viable to switch.
Posted Monday 26 Dec 2011 @ 1:22:42 am from IP # -
Buzzman
MemberI concur with chazwah .... the 'access fee' component of the bill, charged on a 'daily' basis is inherently unfair as it necessarily punishes those who use less power.
Bring back proportional access fees!!
And yes, send THAT to The Minister as well!
The reality of the 'usage profile' which requires the upgrading of the infrastructure to better cope with the higher peak loads is that those using MORE power are the cause of the incre4ased cost of infrastructure, yet those who are NOT the cause are the ones paying disproportionatley higher rates for the same 'access'.
Blatantly inequitable.
Posted Monday 26 Dec 2011 @ 2:24:13 am from IP # -
Bushwalker
MemberNot really.
Would you argue that people building homes in new subdivisions should pay more access fee than those living in established areas? They're adding extra demand to the system that will ultimately cause upgrading of the infrastructure too...
Everyone pays to maintain the infrastructure - that's the wires and the transformers etc. in the distribution network. Just because you have solar, or reduce your usage to a minimum (good on you) you still need access to the distribution network. Your paying to maintain the reliable capability to use the network.
Of course, if the access fees get out of hand, many people will start going off grid, and those who have minimised their requirements will be most likely to be in a position to do that.
Posted Monday 26 Dec 2011 @ 5:05:26 am from IP # -
peter69_56
MemberWe are paying more in the service fee for the new smart meters. Ok understand that. Where is the rebate now for all the meter readers that are not required, or the data entry people not required. Funnily enough we never seem to see a rebate to drop costs, only increases.
I work in the industry so see the issues from both sides.
Watch your gas bills, in 2 years time they will go through the roof. We don't want brown power so we are shutting them down. Guess whats repacing them, gas turbines. That creates a shortage of gas so as the market is price driven gas is going to go through the roof.
Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for as occassionally you get it and havent realised what you have really asked for.
Damned if you do and damned if you don't!
Posted Tuesday 27 Dec 2011 @ 9:40:25 am from IP # -
cool at home
MemberRockabye, you say solar modules are down to $1/Watt, but you cannot buy a 3kW system for $3000... mine cost $11K after all rebates around 1.5 years ago, and I suspect would be dearer now as I think RECs were priced favourably at the time. I presume you mean the panels not the entire system... yet the system is what is needed to get the power.
And of course for the vast majority of us, evening use capability is what is really required to go 'off grid', and these systems have a huge price tag, given the cost of batteries.
Sadly it will be long, long time before the average Aussie has real choice about where to source their power from.
Posted Tuesday 27 Dec 2011 @ 10:01:07 am from IP # -
Lance
Key MasterPanels are approaching $1 a watt, and whole systems can be had for under $2 a watt including inverter, not inc installation of course, but it is still far cheaper than a year or so ago. The lowest priced mob I know of are Low Energy Developments, they sell mostly through their ebay store (http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/lowenergydevelopments/m.html) and their outlet in Preston, VIC.
If you want to see where panel prices are headed, check out Sunelec.com in the US where they sell pallet loads for as low as 50 cents a watt or even less. Amazing stuff...
Posted Tuesday 27 Dec 2011 @ 10:23:41 pm from IP # -
Lance
Key MasterOk, looks like Sunelec's sale is over, so no more ultracheap panels until next time, but close to $1 a watt. But given prices here are approaching that as well, looks like Australia has finally caught up thanks to direct importers...
Posted Tuesday 27 Dec 2011 @ 10:42:11 pm from IP # -
Lance
Key MasterOk, I take that back, check out the laminates page: http://www.sunelec.com/solar-laminates-c-47.html
Posted Tuesday 27 Dec 2011 @ 10:44:51 pm from IP # -
Buzzman
MemberBushwalker
Perhaps I didn't make my point adequately....people in new subdivisions pay for the cost of the infrastructure installed to service their lots as part of the purchase price of the lot, as local govt requires services to be installed for new lots and the developer passes on this cost.What I was referring to is the UPGRADING of existing infrastructure in order that the grid can better cope with the much higher peak demand loads created by those who use profligate amounts of power.
It is due to *their* profligacy that cable diameters need to be increased, transformers up-sized, switching yards up-graded etc etc....
Yet they pay exactly the same access fee - allegedly charged in order to maintain the infrastructure - that people who do not require the upgrades are forced to pay.
If everyone used less we would not need the upgraded infrastructure, there'd be no need to charge increasingly exhorbitant fees, and the charge would be 'fairer'.
As Sojin has said elsewhere, the 'access fee' effectively provides an avenue for the CEO's of power companies to gouge revenue from their customer base that is not 'load dependent' and can thus be guaranteed as annualised income.
My thesis is that reverting to the former method of proportional access fee charges would see a drop in the cost to low consumption customers and an increase in this cost to high consumption customers, thus better reflecting their usage pattern's impact on the system, and perhaps adding a discouraging methodology to their 'habit'.
It's called 'user pays'....
To put it into perspective, the access fee component of my latest bill was 50% of the total.
A high consumption customer might not even notice the barely 12% of *their* bill that the access fee forms. If you're paying $800 a quarter, what's another $90 anyway??
But if you're only paying $90 a quarter, then another $90 begins to look a lot like gouging.....
Posted Friday 10 Feb 2012 @ 4:45:09 am from IP # -
Greg C
MemberTry some suppliers charges for green power. Aussie Power and Gas charge you a fixed extra charge ($6 week) for 100% Green Power. Again if you try and save the unit cost goes up. As they have to pay a premium per kW/Hr so should you. This is price gouging. On the positive side they are the only company that will pay you a reasonable rate for power you export (new connection) in NSW. Currently they give you $0.20/kW/hr, some give you $0.06 some give $0
Posted Sunday 19 Feb 2012 @ 6:41:35 am from IP #
