AN apparent local domestic gas price war suggests competition between suppliers is keeping downward pressure on costs, and while domestic consumers increasingly turn to solar power, competition is already transforming the electricity sector.
Figures released by the Australian Photovoltaic Institute show Australia passed six gigawatts of solar capacity at the end of March, 2017, the equivalent of 1.3 million households. This is anticipated to top seven gigawatts within a year, a demand driven, according to the Institute, by companies turning to solar.
Despite about 26 per cent of Australian households using solar panels, Queensland lags behind in the uptake of renewable energy. So how did we get into our current state on the price of fossil-fuelled electricity?
Power price history
“Electricity prices have been constantly raised with me ever since I took office,” state member for Beaudesert Jon Krause said.
“We saw massive price spikes over the years from 2007 onwards, and the main driver for that was the huge gold-plating of the electricity network by Energex and Ergon, and the billions of dollars that was spent on poles and wires passed through to electricity consumers.”
According to Mr Krause, the Bligh government put the big energy companies on this path.
“When we were in government we put a stop to that. Energex and Ergon spending plans from 2015 to 2020 are very modest in growth, around one to two per cent,” he said.
“I think when you look at peoples’ bills, the cost of energy has stabilised a little over the last couple of years, but now we are seeing other pressures coming into the market.”
Mr Krause believes those include large increases in the cost of generating energy.
“This is being told to me by a number of large employers across our electorate who use a lot of power,” he said.
“They can’t get electricity supply contracts anywhere within the range of what they previously had, which obviously adds enormous costs to their business and threatens not only their growth potential but even the employment they have there at the moment,” he said.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty around the future supply of electricity because the state government is committed to a fifty per cent renewable energy target, and not only does that raise issues of certainty of supply... it also puts a huge amount of pressure on the cost of power, because to get renewable energy up to fifty per cent will require a huge amount of public money.”
Solar your business?
The Jimboomba Police recently contacted the Times about more than 100 solar panels that have been installed on their station roof. Are you a Logan City business that has already switched to solar? If you’re thinking about making the move, please get in touch by email.
