You only need to look at the Choice reviews to see just how much they can cost to run at full power for just 4 hours per day.
Running one 24 hours might be a big ask, although the temperatures do drop at night. Our experience of teenage boys is that 16-18C was their preferred room temperature. Not all that wallet wise, we were forever resetting the controls to a more appropriate North Qld 26C day time and 24C at night. No surprise when they had their own electricity bills to pay the air con in their home was rarely on.
There have been concerns that Australia’s grid, which was designed to connect to a handful of large scale generators, would not cope with the array of solar panels and wind turbines.
But in the new report, AEMO says it believes careful regulation of power generation can overcome these concerns.
Achieving the three-quarter share will need changes in markets and regulation otherwise AEMO will have to impose curbs on renewable energy to ensure grid stability, Ms Zibelman said.
If such adjustments don’t happen, “AEMO will be required to curtail the contribution of these wind and solar resources to 50 or 60 per cent of their potential even though they are the lowest cost way of providing electricity”, she said.
One has to also remember these are government owned corporations so it is the electricity users/Queensland residents who will be affected if the class action is successful. The current government loaded debit onto the electricity industry to improve their own budget situation and still expected the government owned corporations to provide dividends to the government. Any successful class action will impact on these dividends which is used to pay for state government services etc.
It is no different to a private business ripping off customers.
These corporations stole the money by fraud and deception and should be made accountable to repay it with interest and penalties.
As for the Government’s dividends, they have been operating with stolen money compounded by Pitt forcing the genertaors to pay a special $4 billion dividend.
It is very different. Every Queenlander is an indirect owner of GOCs. Everyone in Queensland gets hit if there is a payout. This is through higher charges to recoup costs or reduced government spending on services.
A private business, every Queenslander isn’t an owner, and only the private owners and/or their backers get hit in such case.
If the proceeds of the class action are distributed to all those consumers who have been cheated by excessive electricity charges to right a wrong, as any other compensation win does.
And the billion dollars is a mere 25% of what Pitt ripped out of the generators.
I think the point that is being made here is that the money will come from the state government. Money that needs to be replaced through the taxes collected from the very Queenslanders claiming the compensation. Or we Queenslanders all accept a reduction in State Government spending to pay us our compensation.
What has not been discussed is that the price generators receive is set by supposed competition across the NEM. If the proposed legal case gets up, does this also suggest all of the generating companies are in it together.
I don’t understand why there is a basis for the proposed action. Generation is also a minor portion of the cost of electricity. If there are cost issues for Queensland they have in previous examples been tied to the cost of distribution and retail supply.
Are consumers being offered false hope, a distraction that has no real basis in fact? I would ask for some facts behind the basis for the action, given Queenslanders are only months away from a state election. If it is a politically motivated stunt and has no substance we should also say so in this forum and promptly move on to something more meaningful for consumers to discuss.
For now I don’t know what is reliable and what is possible misdirection?
This is a copy of my recent email to Aurora Energy Tasmania. They are currently running a whole series of TV adverts and presumably print media as well, which I find offensive.
"I have just received the highest quarterly electricity account in over 50 years of paying electricity bills.
Instead of Aurora spending money on TV advertising trying to portray themselves as warm, fuzzy and affordable how about using the money to actually reduce the cost of this essential service?"
Electricity tariffs in Tassie have decreased by a small amount (about a cent per kWh) for 2020/21. Your provider should have advised of this.
Also I understand 1st Energy is the only electricity retaiiler which gives modest discount (5%) for pay on time bills. It may be worth shopping around to see if there are better deals fir you.
