Am I alone, in feeling the pain of rising electricity costs? It’s a government endorsed ripoff and Mr Crankypants has had enough. I’m currently with Origin Energy and I attach my bills for the past 3 years so that it’s no longer subjective opinion, and we can look at the hard cold facts. The truth is that Electricity Prices are escalating unfairly and the electricity retailers are making unfair profits.
My Origin Electricity Bills over the past 4 years
I’ve had to go on a payment plan to meet the cost, now I just pay a standard fortnight fee in advance of my bill, and I simply do not believe that I’m alone in this. I recently installed Solar so I expect to see some savings (but Solar isn’t free, in my opinion it’s just a ploy by electricity resellers but the power at 6c per kWh, and sell it back ot you or your neighbour at 24c /per kWh. (fours time the cost). When I contacted Origin to update my meter they slapped on some additional cost (you can’t tell me it cost $600 dollars to update a electricity meter).
The Institute of Public Affairs said “Electricity prices in parts of Australia have increased at nearly four times the rate of inflation over the last 5 years”. (2010 – 2015). And the figures for 2010 – 2016 are even worse.
Sydney 61.3%
Melbourne 56.8%
Brisbane 50.7%
Canberra 45.9%
Darwin 35.9%
Perth 35.8%
Adelaide 16.0%
I have looked at a couple of websites which help you select a new Electricity Supplier and I think the best of these is http://energy.iselect.com.au/ (Let me know of a better comparison tool)
Here’s a discussion on Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/brisbane/comments/2mod22/average_quarterly_electricity_bill/
Footnote: I will write further on this subject, but I would appreciate some feedback about your own experiences with Electricity and Solar. – together we can.
I agree with you. We have had solar since we moved, but we have seen the prices still on the rise. The biggest change we saw in decreasing our power bill was when we converted to solar hot water. I believe the initial pain to have it installed has already paid dividends for us. I have always been interested in solar energy technology and have been watching with interest the release of the Tesla Powerwall to go ‘off grid’. The price is a bit out of our reach at the moment,But as soon as it is a bit more affordable, I will be getting one installed. No doubt though Origin will just increase their access charge or some ubiquitous application/account fee to maintain revenue.