Qld power rebate offers temporary fix
Marty Silk |
A rebate will partially shield Queensland households from power bill shock, but electricity prices are forecast to continue surging.
Retailer Energex has been approved to hike residential power bills by $165 and $220 to between $1620 and $1961 in 2022/23.
The retailer can hike business bills by $705 to 1620 next financial year, the Australian Energy Regulator says.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will pass on a $175 rebate to households to offset hikes.
It will cap power bill rises to a maximum of $45 and some households could end up with a $10 credit.
“People are having to make difficult choices including going without,’ Ms Palaszczuk told parliament on Thursday.
“The $175 rebate will be provided on electricity bills and is only possible because the electricity assets in Queensland are owned by the people.”
Ms Palaszczuk said energy retailers would automatically apply the credit to bills, so households did not need to apply for it.
The measure will cost $385 million in next month’s budget, but it will only temporarily offset electricity bill shock.
The AER said wholesale electricity costs have risen almost 50 per cent in Queensland in 2022/23.
The state’s average price of electricity has soared 285 per cent this financial year to $171 per megawatt hour, its second-highest level on record.
Queensland wholesale price hit $283/MWh last week, the highest in the country.
Prices were pushed higher by increased demand during warm, humid weather, surging coal and gas prices and coal-fired power plant outages, the AER said.
Network constraints also reduced Queensland’s ability to import cheaper electricity from NSW during outages.
More than 80 per cent of Queensland’s electricity comes from coal-fired power plants.
The AER said generators had been lifting their offer prices in the middle of the day when demand fell due to higher solar output.
“Coal generators have been shifting their capacity to higher prices to avoid uneconomic dispatch,” the regulator said.
“Increasing fuel prices may also have influenced black coal generators to offer their capacity at higher prices.”
The AER warned that Queensland electricity prices were likely to continue rising for two years.
Prices pressures included power outages, higher coal and gas prices, the slowing of investment in new plants, and “increasingly sharp highs and lows in demand”.
Liberal National Party energy spokesman Pat Weir said the rebate was only a temporary fix.
“This so-called rebate is typical of this government, which is only focused on how things look, not how things actually are,” he told AAP.
Mr Weir said the government was yet to release its 2030 energy plan, which it has been promising for more than a year.
“For months, I have been calling on the energy minister to act,” he said.
“Queenslanders deserve to know what the minister’s plan is to guarantee a secure, affordable and reliable energy supply.”
AAP
