Home: Renewable Energy News: Electricity Price Rise To Sting Three Australian States

Renewable Energy News

MONDAY 23 AUGUST, 2010 |

Electricity Price Rise To Sting Three Australian States

by Energy Matters

The cost of electricity continues to climb, making solar power an even more attractive option for many Australian households and businesses.

Customers of TRUenergy in New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland have been receiving notifications of looming electricity hikes, effective as of Sunday 29 August 2010.

TRUenergy says the increase will depend on a customer's energy consumption and any discounts that apply to a tariff. A post on national solar solutions provider Energy Matters' community forums from a TRUenergy customer states a 20% increase was advised.

TRUenergy says the price increase is due to increased network costs the company incurred from 1 July 2010 in addition to other increased retail and wholesale costs. TRUenergy is one of Australia’s largest energy companies, providing gas and electricity to over 1.3 million household and business customer accounts throughout Australia.

Many customers of other electricity retailers and those in other states have already been recently slugged with increases in electricity, with more on the way. Earlier this year, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) confirmed a 46 - 64 percent increase in electricity prices for NSW electricity customers over the next three years; with some of that increase already having been delivered since that time.

The relentless and substantial increases are seeing more Australian households and businesses considering the installation of a solar power system. Aside from the direct savings on electricity, feed in tariff programs available in most states pay owners of solar power systems a premium rate for electricity generated that is exported to the mains power grid; greatly reducing system payback time.