I have 18 solar panels on my roof courtesy of ActewAGL, which are supposed to kick in during the day and negate the cost of my electricity, although I see little evidence of that occurring. For the last two quarters, I have lived alone with two dogs who don’t exactly use a lot of electricity. I was away for five weeks during the last cycle, but was still charged $388.26 for using 1,626 kWh of electricity. Supply charges were $76.26. ACTEW compensated me 0.08 cents per kWh for using the electricity generated from my panels, so I got a discount of $113.20. When I signed up, it was 14 cents a kWh.
I understand from friends that the companies providing the panels sell the electricity back to the ACT government for the standard rate charged to customers of 21.7072 cents a kWh, thus making a profit of nearly 300 per cent.
As the panels cost me close to $6,000 to install about five years ago, I would be better off if I had never bought them.
Compare that to gas, which Shane Rattenbury wants to ban from Canberra: it is only 3.0345 cents a MJ, and about the same as electricity for supply charges (in my case, $66.37). My last usage bill for using 150 kWh was $5.01.
Admittedly, my gas heater is broken, but I use a gas stove. I use electricity for the rest. I wash clothes, shower, etc, use a dryer some days and use the clothesline otherwise, and boil a cuppa several times a day. I use a fridge, and since the cold snap, I use a bar heater in the family room and/or the bedroom. The average temperature in the rest of my house is about 10 oC. Luckily, I’m in good health.
I dread to think how much a family of four would have to pay. Electricity costs will rise again in July.
800,000 poor people in Australia are freezing as they simply can’t afford heating. It’s a choice between heating and eating. Their houses cannot be at the ideal 18oC necessary for comfortable healthy living. Some are in houses as low as 5 oC. Older and sick people in Australia are dying of cold. Even 10 years ago, this country had some of the cheapest electricity in the world. It’s all very well for our well-paid Greens/ALP/Teals and some Liberal members of parliament to prattle on about net zero and the need to spend even more of your money on renewables that clearly don’t work, when the stark facts are that we are needlessly destroying our economy and hurting the poorest and most vulnerable in our community in the process. All for no net gain to the planet as China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and India are going gangbusters in building more reliable coal-fired power stations.
Chairman Xi recently said, “China will not get rid of the old (coal-fired power stations) until the new (renewables) are ready to take their place.” Australia should follow his advice.
