Energy policy failure behind spiralling electricity bills

Here is an interesting story that we found about Energy policy failure behind 10-year story of spiralling electricity bills.

Source http://www.abc.net.au/news

“Politicians are told never to waste a good crisis. Australia’s electricity sector is in crisis, or something close to it. The nation’s first-ever statewide blackout, in South Australia in September 2016, was followed by electricity shortages in several states last summer. More shortages are anticipated over coming summers.

But for most Australians, the most visible impact of this crisis has been their ever-increasing electricity bills. Electricity prices have become a political hot potato, and the blame game has been running unchecked for more than a year.

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Experts say many new builds aren’t equipped to properly deal with heat in the summer months, and reveal some of the hidden sources of unwanted warmth in homes.
Electricity retailers find fault with governments, and renewable energy advocates point the finger at the nasty old fossil-fuel generators. The right-wing commentariat blames renewables, while the Federal Government blames everyone but itself.

The truth is there is no silver bullet. No single factor or decision is responsible for the electricity prices we endure today. Rather, it is the confluence of many different policies and pressures at every step of the electricity supply chain. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), retail customers in the National Electricity Market (which excludes Western Australia and the Northern Territory) now pay 44 per cent more in real terms for electricity than we did 10 years ago.

Four components make up your electricity bill. Each has contributed to this increase.

how your rising power bills stack up

  1. The biggest culprit has been the network component — the cost of transporting the electricity.
  2. Next comes the retail component — the cost of billing and servicing the customer.
  3. Then there is the wholesale component — the cost of generating the electricity.
  4. And finally, the government policy component — the cost of environmental schemes that we pay for through our electricity bills.

Each component has a different tale, told differently in every state. But ultimately, this is a story about a decade of policy failure.”

For more on this story go to ABC News