Why have Australian electricity prices risen so much during the last few years? One reason is the federal Liberal/National coalition hatred of renewable energy and love of coal/gas.
Scomo clings to coal https://t.co/53bGuB0czz @npomalley #fires #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/ozwJCJmpiH
— john shakespeare (@johnshakespeare) January 4, 2020
Interestingly the only group of Australians that haven’t experienced huge increases in electricity prices recently is residents of the ACT.
That’s because several years ago their Labor/Greens coalition government sensibly bought lots of renewable electricity with long term contracts.
Lovely obituary of Hugh Saddler. In addition to being a ground breaking analyst of energy & emissions data, he helped design the ACT's 100% renewable target. As a result, ACT residents are the only NEM state residents not seeing huge electricity price rises. https://t.co/mSeH1puSJV pic.twitter.com/IUODSN7057
— David Osmond (@DavidOsmond8) July 5, 2023
The quoted text in italics below is a more in-depth explanation of high electricity prices by the founder of Energy Locals, one of the few Australian electricity retailers who really support renewable energy and don’t own any fossil fuel electricity generation. I’ve also added some Twitter posts that add context.
Introducing Callide C in QLD 👇 It is one of Australia's newest coal burning power stations.
It blew up in May last year, destabilising the network & triggering a major blackout.
And now part of its cooling system has collapsed.
What a technological marvel 🤦‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/05UNZXZUT9
— Environment Victoria (@EnviroVic) November 2, 2022
“Speaking frankly, Australia has meandered along without a coherent national energy policy for too long. It’s not surprising that coal power stations are breaking down: the owners of them had little incentive to keep upgrading them”.
“However, rising coal and gas prices – which feed into higher wholesale electricity prices given they’re still used for the majority of generation – could and should have been avoided”.
“The government eventually announced price caps, but they’ve not been sufficient to avoid nasty price increases this year”.
“Companies that have access to heaps of coal and gas but still opportunistically pass though significant customer price increases while also announcing increased profit outlooks (yes, we’re talking about you Origin and AGL) should be ashamed of themselves”.
AGL has upped its profit outlook as it prepares to slug customers with bill increases of up to 30% (starting July 1). But their CEO cares – everyone's doing it tough, he says. pic.twitter.com/HDaTby3XSL
— Antoun Issa (@antissa) June 16, 2023
“There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to electricity. As energy retailers, we deal with various unavoidable costs to ensure that your lights stay on every day”.
“Every July, the energy regulator bigwigs conduct a thorough review of the key costs that make up the energy supply chain. Based on their review, the standing offer for energy is adjusted”.
“The impact of these changes on your bill depends on factors like your usage, network region, and whether you have solar panels”.
“Let’s talk about the main factors that contribute to changes in energy prices”.
“Distribution and wholesale costs make up the majority of an average electricity bill”.
“Distribution & network: We pay local network service providers to keep the power flowing through the poles and wires in your area. The costs vary depending on where you live and the number of upgrades that are needed. This year, these costs have mostly increased due to higher inflation”.
The transition from coal to renewables in New South Wales – home to Australia’s biggest state grid – faces significant delays because wind and solar developers say it is increasingly difficult to secure planning approval for new projects. https://t.co/VrhLrFhG3i
— Evan (@fictillius) July 6, 2023
“Wholesale energy: This is the electricity we buy from generators to supply your property. It makes up the biggest chunk of your energy costs”.
“Unfortunately, Australia has an overreliance on fossil fuels like coal and gas, and their costs have skyrocketed compared to previous years. On top of that, Australia has also had some reliability issues with old coal-fired power plants. As a result, the price we can buy power for has almost doubled since the start of 2022”.
"Outages at coal fired power stations have pushed up gas prices on the east coast of Australia spiked, sending wholesale electricity prices surging across the National Electricity Market."
Dependence on coal and gas means higher electricity prices #auspolhttps://t.co/vbf41AZDZM
— Mark Ogge (@MarkOgge) April 19, 2022
“Other things that we believe will help include”:
“A domestic gas reservation policy. It’s crazy to see gas exported at high international prices when there’s not enough affordable gas for customers who live in the country that it’s coming from”.
#exclusive: When discussing personal tax cuts in late 2019 @ScottMorrisonMP made a written commitment to me to establish a National Gas Reservation Scheme. The powerful gas cartel operating in Australia pushed back and Morrison gave in, breaking his promise. 2/3 #auspol pic.twitter.com/WxIPfF432z
— Rex Patrick (@MrRexPatrick) May 26, 2022
“A capacity market, meaning power stations are paid to have generation available when required”.
“The introduction of this should be coupled with a reduction in the current maximum price that wholesale power can reach” [EDITOR: this is over $15,000/kWh, no that’s not a typo].
Fun day for South Australia's electricity market tomorrow:
Currently forecasting:
• ~4 hours at market price cap ($15,100/MWh)
• ~9 hours > $10,000/MWh
• LOR2 conditions for ~3 hoursNot particularly hot tomorrow in SA ("only" 35C), and historical peak SA demand >3400MW .. pic.twitter.com/KlVSpyXCOZ
— Dylan McConnell (@dylanjmcconnell) January 10, 2022