Lights Out In The Latrobe Valley
While the rest of the country ramps up to Christmas, Victorians are looking down the barrel of increased power prices heading into summer.
One of the biggest stories in Victoria at the moment is the looming closure of the Hazelwood Power Station in March 2017. Not only will this have a devastating effect on the community in the Latrobe Valley with potentially 750 local jobs lost, the rest of the state is bracing for power increases of between 4-8%.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, speaking to 3AW’s Neil Mitchell claims the increases equate to 85 cents a week for most Victorian households, according to their latest “modelling”.
The power station produces up to 25 per cent of Victoria's electricity supply when fully operational, fired by the brown coal extracted from the coal mine, and is the biggest employer in town. From a state perspective, the plant's operation had delivered relatively cheap electricity for Victoria.
Premier Daniel Andrews says the government is powerless to prevent the closure as the mine if privately owned and the French owners are also getting out of the coal business in Belgium, Holland and the UK…but not before fleecing Australians of millions of dollars.
Judith Sloan writing for the Australian on Monday reports that Engie has “hoovered up more than $500 million in Australian government funding and free carbon permits since 2012.”
Redundancy payouts are estimated to average $330,000 a worker, costing the company about $200m.
Under the Gillard government’s Securing a Clean Energy Future package, more than $5.5 billion was budgeted to be paid as “compensation and concessional loans to the coal-fired generation sector.” The handouts provided to the Hazelwood power station came in two parts: a $266m direct government payment and $268m worth of free carbon permits, Judith reports.
Back to the average Victorian household energy bill. Experts say wholesale price will go up… capacity and how much power is being supplied to the grid are two different things according to Premier Andrews, but an increase in wholesale prices will be passed onto consumers.
The Andrews Government has since announced a $266 million bail out package for the community.
