The Queensland Competition Authority has today released its final decision into regulated retail electricity prices for regional Queensland in 2016–17.
QCA Chair Professor Roy Green said the QCA began its review of prices in November 2015 under a delegation from the Minister for Energy and Water Supply, the Honourable Mark Bailey.
“Since our draft report was released in March we have undergone extensive consultation, including several workshops around the State and have received 70 submissions from stakeholders,” Professor Green said.
“We have carefully considered the issues raised in each submission and we thank stakeholders for taking the time to make submissions and for attending QCA workshops.
“From those submissions we understand that the affordability of electricity is an issue for some customers. It is therefore important to note that the prices for residential and small business customers reflect the Queensland Government’s Uniform Tariff Policy, which subsidises electricity prices in the regions so they are on par with prices in the lower cost south east of the state.
“In addition, we have maintained the heavily subsidised transitional tariffs, used by irrigators and farmers amongst others, that we put in place in 2012-13 and which will continue until 2020.”
“As with our previous determinations we have received updated information on the estimated cost of supply since the publication of the draft determination.
“In particular Energex and Ergon have provided updated network charges, and our consultant ACIL Allen has provided updated energy cost estimates.
“As a result, notified prices have increased since our draft determination. Compared to 2015-16 the annual bill for a typical residential customer (tariff 11) will increase by 2.8 per cent from $1,457 to $1,498.
“The impact on individual customers will vary depending on their consumption. Almost one third of customers on tariff 11, particularly customers that use less energy than the typical customer, will face lower annual bills in 2016–17 compared to 2015–16.
“The increase in typical tariff 11 customer bills is primarily due to higher energy costs. This is driven largely by increasing demand from liquefied natural gas plants and higher renewable energy target costs.
Some of the impact of higher energy costs has been offset by a decrease in network costs.
“In 2016–17 typical customers on the main small business tariff (tariff 20) will face an increase of $236 or 11.2 per cent in their annual bill. The higher tariff 20 notified price is due primarily to higher energy, retail and network costs.
“As with residential customers the impact on individual business customers will vary depending on consumption.”
For further information, please read our full report available on www.qca.org.au