Electricity Costs

[kanook]

Well on Friday I believe it was announced that Qld electricity prices are going up another 9 or 10% !!!!

Was it just me or did others scream at their Tv years ago when Peter Beattie (Qld Premier then) said they were going to deregulate the Elec Industry, he said this would mean much cheaper electricity costs for Queenslanders!

I remember sitting there thinking , "These people are insane!" , I knew that the deregulation of the industry would result in massive price increases, it always does, for goodness sake all they had to do was look at what the Energy Industries did in California, companies like Enron etc.

I couldnt believe that a state Premier and his party could be so incredibly stupid to think that consumers would see any benefit, or did they know and just lied to the people to unload the responsibility of elec supply? Every year the Government stripped all profits from its elec company and failed to reinvest back into the grid.

Seeing Anna Bligh (Current Qld Premier) on TV saying she feels our pain just gets me so angry, and i was a life long labour voter.

I am just stumped that our leaders are either -

(A) So stupid that they didnt know what would happen with deregulation.

or

(B) Knew exactly what would happen, lied to us knowingly, and dont give a "Rats A%%" about us.

I get so angry when I see little old ladies on the telly worried about turning on a light, or cooking on the stove because they cant afford the electricity!

What have our Leaders done to us!

[wolty]

Yeah pissed about this as well.

I saw another side of this the other night on one of the current affairs shows.

Seems if pensioners have solar power and they sell the excess back to the grid, they lose that amount off their pension. It is classed as an income.

One guy said it was just penny pinching on the governments behalf. That sums it up for me.

[kanook]

Originally Posted by wolty

Yeah pissed about this as well.

I saw another side of this the other night on one of the current affairs shows.

Seems if pensioners have solar power and they sell the excess back to the grid, they lose that amount off their pension. It is classed as an income.

One guy said it was just penny pinching on the governments behalf. That sums it up for me.

Yeah i saw that as well, poor old buggers, spend their hard saved money to try and cut their power costs, and the Govt wants to class their power put back in the grid as income.

Funny how a religion, and I mean any religion, one cannot say Scientology is worse that Catholic etc they are all a scam, but they dont pay any taxes! They have big buildings on prime real estate, their Cardinals and Bishops etc have Gold this and that, jewels and all the other trappings, but do they pay tax, no! The poor old couple trying to survive they get shafted by the Govt !

"Come The Revolution!" I say, this rubbish has to end.

[loubert]

Yeah. atm i am trying to save for a 3kw/h pv system for my roof.

Sadly, the price is going to keep increasing. My parents just had a 1.5 kw/h system placed on their roof, over the last 4 days they have consumed 5-6 kw.

I don't know what the answer is.

[Loki]

Seeing as most of our electricity generation and distribution is still government owned and only retail is really deregulated I'm not sure that electricity deregulation deserves all the blame for the price rises.

I also don't really believe alternative energy is viable for most people. Untill the government gets serious and provides some real benefit to people with solar systems (instead of schemes which sound pretty good but either don't go far enough or have lots of fine print to prevent people actually using them) I feel uptake will be limited.

*Disclaimer, I have a 1.5kw system myself.

[Seamus]

Seems if pensioners have solar power and they sell the excess back to the grid, they lose that amount off their pension.

The definition of income for pension and other welfare payments are defined in The Social Security Act. (IE they are law)

Income test for pensions†

If you are For full pension/allowance (per fortnight)* For part pension (per fortnight)# single up to $142 less than $1,544.20 partnered (combined) up to $248 less than $2,362 a couple but separated due to illness (combined assets) up to $248


http://www.centrelink.gov.au/interne...nts/chartc.htm

Once the allowable income limit is reached, a pension is reduced at 50 cents for each dollar of income. The single pension cuts out at an income of $802 a week. Married pension at $1181 a week( joint income)

[GenericBox]

Government asset sales are good things, for the Government.

Immediate 'cash', Reduced risk and liabilities, Reduced operating costs, Receive continuing Property, Income and Sales tax revenue from the use of the asset, No longer have responsibility for "Not-in-my-backyard" complaints, and the asset is more likely to be run at maximum efficiency.

The main disadvantages just revolve around losing control and paying for use.

Source: http://www.mackinac.org/archives/2000/mpr2000-04.pdf

Theres no easy answer.

By selling Electricity, the pricing is then the responsibility of the market and the private investors - which may lead to increases. But, the money gained from such a sale means the government can invest in other projects which may help thousands/millions of others.

Either way, Prices don't tend to drop - I don't know why people are so shocked when they do. It's not like the cost of fossil fuel is going to go down any time soon.

Although they haven't - I would find it reasonable to assume that prices would have dropped (initially at least) after an asset sale. Privatisation usually means optimisation, and competition - and since the asset is/may not be supporting other government schemes, the prices can fall.

Just because they didn't isn't the governments fault.

[GenericBox]

In the end, government asset sales shift assets away from non-productive political uses and toward their most productive economic uses. At the same time, such sales reduce the costs taxpayers must pay for the maintenance and improvement of government-owned facilities. Government asset sales are just one of privatization’s many win-win scenarios.

Moore, A. (2001). Asset Sales: Accounting for Privatization. Michigan Privatization Report, 2000-04 (Winter 2001). Accessed from: http://www.mackinac.org/archives/2000/mpr2000-04.pdf

[kanook]

Originally Posted by The Irreverent Mr Black

Here (reposted) is a power bill

using a 1.5Kw solar electric array and solar hot water system.

Now the $80-odd there will be regarded as income, but seeing we earn negligible other dollars, it will not have any effect under current regulations.

As far as the politics go, I will be using whatever means are available to me by controlling my preferences, to send both major parties a message consisting of one finger.

Hey Mr Black, Would it be rude of me to ask what the setup cost after Govt subsidies?? Also I notice that you elec charges are very low to start with, I wish my bill was that low

Also does this mean you will get roughly $80-00 per bill credit from this solar array?

[kanook]

Originally Posted by Loki

Seeing as most of our electricity generation and distribution is still government owned and only retail is really deregulated I'm not sure that electricity deregulation deserves all the blame for the price rises.

I also don't really believe alternative energy is viable for most people. Untill the government gets serious and provides some real benefit to people with solar systems (instead of schemes which sound pretty good but either don't go far enough or have lots of fine print to prevent people actually using them) I feel uptake will be limited.

*Disclaimer, I have a 1.5kw system myself.

Hi Loki, If I am not being too forward may I ask what the cost was after Rebates to have this installed? I just cant get straight answers up here, some solar companies saying it would be $7000-00 out of my pocket after rebates, another woman saying $500-00 it cost her?