The South Australian Council of Social Service today welcomed news from the Australian Energy Market Commission that residential electricity prices are likely to decrease over the next two years.
The price decreases are due to falling wholesale costs driven by:
- An increase in new generation, primarily renewable
- Reduced costs for SA gas plants due to the state’s Energy Security Target
- Return to service of a large generator in Queensland.
SACOSS Chief Executive Officer, Ross Womersley said, “This is astonishing and welcome news for South Australian consumers and couldn’t come at a better time. We’ve experienced a decade of shocking price rises for electricity and the promise of price reductions over the forward period is a terrific Christmas present for South Australian households and businesses.
“It’s even better that the South Australian price reductions are greater than the national average: 6.9% compared to 5.2% in the first year, and 7.8% compared to 7.2% in the second. We congratulate the State Government for the role their Energy Plan has played in bringing down prices. We can clearly see from this report that the focus on gas and renewables is beginning to pay real dividends.
“However, given the chasm created by burgeoning price rises, now is not the time to lift the foot off measures to ease cost of living pressures on struggling households. It’s essential that all parties going to the 2018 state election have well targeted policies to address the multiple cost of living pressures, especially for the most vulnerable households in South Australia.
SACOSS analysis of past CPI data and the AEMC projections illustrates that even factoring in the price decreases over the next two years, South Australian households will have been hit with a 69% electricity price rise over the ten years from 2010/11 to 2019/20.
“With electricity prices a whopping 69% higher at the end of the decade than they were at the beginning, we urgently need to ensure the energy concession is fit for purpose. The best way is to move from a flat rate energy concession to one that is based on a percentage of the bill. This would ensure that the energy concession is better targeted and gives most relief to eligible households with the largest bills.”
This is one of 5 energy policies that SACOSS is proposing in its Cost of Living package ahead of the March 2018 election. These include:
- Changing the energy concession from a flat rate to a percentage of the bill
- Allowing more low income households to receive free energy audits
- Ensuring only vulnerability experts deliver REES energy audits
- Giving a land tax concession to landlords who invest in approved energy efficient activities
- Introducing a Residential Energy Efficiency Disclosure Scheme
In the last week of the election campaign, SACOSS will publish a report card rating the major parties against all the issues and policies the community sector will be raising throughout the campaign.