Cheaper electricity prices aren't always the best outcome for households.
The storm that struck the Hunter, Central Cost and Sydney regions Monday, 20th April 2015, left thousands of homes and businesses without power and SES and firefighters flooded with calls for assistance. Networks NSW estimated that the overall repair bill to electricity networks for Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy would be many millions of dollars.
However, last Thursday, Networks NSW chief Vince Graham warned that in the future, the ability of Ausgrid, Essential and Endeavor Energy to respond to storm damage will be limited by thousands of looming job cuts.
Graham has blamed this on the decision made by the national pricing regulator who significantly cut power bills last Thursday.
“The Australian Energy Regulator must balance affordability, reliability and safety when determining how much electricity network prices can rise, or fall, over the next five years.”
According to Brisbane Times, the fight that has erupted over the latest NSW decision, which delivers bill cuts of $165 a year for Ausgrid customers, $106 a year for Endeavour customers and $313 a year for rural Essential customers, is a fight over where, in that balance, the consumer's best interest lies.
What the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) says:
- AER has claimed Endeavour could slash $250 million from its bushfire management programs to cut bills;
- AER claimed Victoria bushfires are worse than NSW bushfires, so if Victorian companies can keep vegetation under control more cheaply, so can NSW
For the first time in a long time, the NSW government is inching closer to arguing that cheaper prices aren't always the best outcome for households.
Source: “Cheaper power bill no good if the house is burnt down”, Brisbane Times, 2nd May, 2015, http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/cheaper-power-bill-no-good-if-the-house-has-burnt-down-20150502-1my60m.html
