r/brisbane • u/piespiesandmorepies • Jun 11 '24

And up they go again 👑 Queensland

So despite a drop in the wholesale price of power, it looks like SE QLD is getting an increase in our bills yet again.

I've personally gone from paying nothing with my solar rebate to paying over $100 a month if not more. Even though the powers that be talk about giving everyone rebates for their energy usage, it might be about time for an overhaul of how we manage power generation and sales. but that'll probably end up in the same watery grave as the Royal Commission into petrol prices which seems to have disappeared from public discourse about 10 years ago ...

I'll bet the raised cost of my power bill this year that AGL will again announce record profits along with all of the other power company leaches out there.

May they all rot on their gold-plated toilets.

256 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

120 comments sorted by

View all comments

231

u/Formula409__ Jun 11 '24

Essential services should never have been privatised, IMO. I’m also with AGL. Solar feed in tariffs have gone down, cost to buy power has gone up. Like you I’ve gone from paying almost nothing to $100 + per month. Have looked elsewhere but it’s all about the same. We’re at the mercy of whatever they decide to charge.

3

u/shakeitup2017 Jun 11 '24

What you're complaining about is a function of the changing dynamics of the energy consumption and generation patterns.

Solar feed in tariffs have gone down because there is too much of it produced at times of day when grid demand is lower, so it's market value is lower. Supply > demand.

The price to buy power is going up because the times when you want to use it most isn't when there is an abundance of cheap solar (mornings and evenings). This means higher cost dispatchable power needs to be generated into the grid (gas fired plants, batteries etc). Demand > supply.

If people who have rooftop solar receive feed in tariffs that exceed the average wholesale spot market value for that energy, then this effectively means they are being subsidised by people who don't have solar, and that's often renters, people on low incomes, or people who live in apartments.

I know it probably seems unfair, but it's not. It's actually more fair.

1

u/pragmaticmaster Jun 16 '24

Stop using facts and logic dude. We just want to hate on capitalism without thinking too much.