Victorian Government offers cash incentive to help households get better energy deal

Every Victorian household will get a $50 bonus for visiting an energy comparison website, in an election-year giveaway to encourage people to find better power deals.

More than 700,000 people had used the website
in the past three years to cut their electricity bills.

But the State Opposition accused the Andrews Government of trying to bribe voters by investing $48 million for the power-saving bonus in next month's budget.

Households will be eligible for the payment if they use the Energy Compare website between July and December, which shows consumers the best tariff for them based on their electricity and gas use.

People are not obliged to take up an offer or switch plans to be eligible for the $50 bonus.

Premier Daniel Andrews said a typical household had saved $330 on their energy bills in the first year alone by using the website.

Read the story by Jean Edwards from ABC News - “Victorian Government offers cash incentive to help households get better energy deal.”

Power companies forced to pay $5 million in compensation to Victorians hit by blackouts

Power companies are being forced to pay compensation to Victorians affected by last month's blackouts, with payments up to $180 depending on how long a household went without electricity.

As part of the $5 million package, announced on Sunday, around 50,000 households who lost power on January 28 will receive a one-off payments.

Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio said $180 would be given to those without power for between 20 and 30 hours, while those affected for between three and 20 hours would receive $80.

Read Daniella Miletic’s story in The Age - “Power companies forced to pay $5 million in compensation to Victorians hit by blackouts.”

Use solar panels and batteries to put the power back in your hands

Australia's power bills have been rising, and represent one of the largest threats to household budgets.

Peter Youll with his Tesla battery, which has
 paid for itself before the warranty ran out.

From 2008 to 2016, power prices in Victoria and NSW more than doubled; in the 2017 September Quarter Consumer Price Index, the single biggest increase was electricity, which jumped 8.9 percent.

In response, many Australians are reducing reliance on or leaving the electricity grid and looking to solar power and other technologies to cut their power bills.

Peter Youll and Michael Peters are two ordinary Australians who wanted to make a change, not only to their power bills but for the climate.

Read Cole Latimer’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Use solar panels and batteries to put the power back in your hands.”

Australian household electricity prices may be 25% higher than official report

The International Energy Agency (IEA) may be underestimating Australian household energy bills by 25% because of a lack of accurate data from the federal government.

Power price pain is worse than we thought. 

The Paris-based IEA produces official quarterly energy statistics for the 30 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), on which policymakers and researchers rely heavily. But to provide this service, the IEA relies on member countries to provide it with good-quality data.

Last month, the agency published its annual summary report, Key World Statistics, which reported that Australian households have the 11th most expensive electricity prices in the OECD.

Read the piece by the Director, Carbon and Energy Markets at the Victoria University, Bruce Mountain, on The Conversation - “Australian household electricity prices may be 25% higher than official report.”

Household expenditure survey. Get real. Electricity isn't that expensive

So you reckon you're paying too much for electricity. What if I told you that at the latest official count you spent no more on it than you would have in 1984?

We've become dramatically sensitised to the price of electricity. 

Back then the expenditure survey showed the average household spent 2.9 per cent of its budget on electricity and gas. Three decades on, in the updated survey released this week, the figure is unchanged: 2.9 per cent.

Electricity and gas amount to just $41 of our total weekly spending of $1425.

So why the anguish? The size of the bill has been climbing (it had fallen as low as 2.6 per cent) and it climbed further in July, after the survey was conducted.

Read Peter Martin’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “Household expenditure survey. Get real. Electricity isn't that expensive."

(Not for a second would I question Peter Martin's figures - he's an economics editor and I'm not - but I do know why people are seeing their electricity bill as more than the actual number (the bill) as there is clear uncertainty about the future security of energy supplies in Australia. This is odd as the country is awash with energy, it is just that it has simply been badly managed by successive federal governments. Australia is now ideologically frozen into inaction on energy and, of course, the conversation is conflated and worsened by the need for Australia to do something immediately, or sooner, about its national carbon dioxide emissions - Robert McLean)

Feel the power: Malcolm Turnbull summons electricity retailers to Canberra for summit

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has thrown the switch to brow-beating, calling in the nation's biggest electricity retailers for face-to-face talks next Wednesday in a bid to curb galloping household and business electricity bills, and improve their market sensitivity.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull puts in ear
plugs during a visit to the Snowy Hydro plant. 

In comments that go some way to vindicating claims from one of his backbenchers that people would die this winter from not being able to afford heating, Mr Turnbull says the cost pressures from sky-rocketing energy prices are leading families to avoid turning on heating and lights, and that businesses are doing the same with plants.

Read  Mark Kenny’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Feel the power: Malcolm Turnbull summons electricity retailers to Canberra for summit.”

Low-energy homes don’t just save money, they improve lives

Household energy use is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions. International policy is firmly moving towards technology-rich, low- and near-zero-energy homes. That is, buildings designed to reduce the need for additional heating, cooling and lighting. They use efficient or renewable energy technology to reduce the remaining energy use.

Eco-houses at Scotland’s Housing Expo, Inverness.
What is it like to live in a house like this? 

But what about the experiences of people who live in homes of this standard? Are these homes comfortable, easy to operate, and affordable? Do people feel confident using so-called smart energy technology designed for low energy use? What support systems do we need to help people live in low-energy, low-carbon houses?

We worked with other Australian and UK researchers to understand what it’s like to live in purpose-built low-energy housing. As part of this project, researchers from Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Salford in the UK visited South Australia to collect data from Lochiel Park Green Village, one of the world’s most valuable living laboratories of near-zero energy homes.

Read the piece on The Conversation - “Low-energy homes don’t just save money, they improve lives.”

How the big three robbed us of our own gas

In Melbourne, gas cooktops are only the start.

The LNG plant at Gladstone in Queensland. 

Melburnians use gas for stoves, hot water, central heating and room heating. Ninety per cent of Melbourne homes have gas, compared to only 50 per cent in Sydney. Victoria accounts for two-thirds of all the household gas used in Australia. And Victorian industry uses little else.

Because it's been astoundingly cheap.

Esso and BHP discovered it by accident, as a byproduct of searching for oil in Bass Strait in the 1960s. Rather than burn it at sea (as they might have been inclined to do) they were prevailed upon to pipe it to the mainland where they as good as gave it away. 

A feud between NSW and Victoria at the time meant that it wasn't piped north of Wodonga.

Read Peter Martin’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “How the big three robbed us of our own gas.”

Reducing our energy needs - don't use it in the first place

T

he best way to reduce our energy needs it to simply not use it in the first place.

A story on The Conversation argues, accurately, that not using electricity in the first place is the cleanest power source of all.

Read the story - “Cutting back on wasted electricity is the cleanest power source of all – as our household shows”.