One of the Government’s own energy senior energy advisers is warning power bills could go up by as much as a $1000 annually if Tariff 41 is scrapped.
Labor Leader Bryan Green said the estimation comes as Tasmanians stall building projects due to the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Tariff.
“Matthew Groom has to clear this up immediately,” Mr Green said.
“We can’t have a situation where Tasmanians are delaying projects because they don’t know what sort of heating to install.
“A talkback caller told ABC radio this morning that he’s put a project on hold as a direct result of the Tariff 41 situation.”
Talkback caller John from Huonville told the ABC:
“We’re just on the verge of signing a building contract to build a new house which we’ve now put on hold as a result of what we heard on your radio station yesterday and then obviously Matthew Groom this morning.”
“Tariff 41 is our preference for heating and water in the build but it’s a cost to do that, we now need to work out if we’ll stick with that or look at our other options.”
“We’re just going to put everything on hold now until this is decided.”
“Once again the Government’s put a spanner in the works and we’ve got to wait and see where we can go from.”
And there are serious concerns about how much energy prices could rise if the Tariff is removed.
“A member of the Government’s own Energy Working Group, Marc White, is warning annual power bills could go up by as much as $1000,” Mr Green said.
“By refusing to rule out scrapping the Tariff, Matthew Groom is leaving Tasmanians in limbo.
“This can’t drag on for months and months, the Minister has to show some leadership and make a decision now.
“Labor strongly opposes the removal of Tariff 41 because Tasmanians have invested in being able to take advantage of the discount rate.
“It’s not fair for the Liberals to pull the rug out from underneath them now.”
• John Thirgood: Power Pricing system under attack … We lose …
• Pete Godfrey in Comments: … By getting rid of Tarriff 41 ( hot water and heating) it will force people to use the more expensive Tarriff 31 (light and power) rate which is generally about twice the price. People who are aged or infirm who need heaters on to stay warm in the day will be most affected. The elephant in the room is the need to make more money to continue to prop up Forestry Tasmania, otherwise where will Tas Networks find $40 million a year to give them.
• Estelle Ross in Comments: Householders with recently installed solar panels have already received a drop in the price for the power they produce; now Matthew Groom is considering abolishing Tariff 41 which will cause considerable hardship to those on low incomes. It begs the question why $30 million of Hydro’s profit was transferred to the mismanaged and totally incompetent Forestry Tasmania which has been a drain on the public purse for years. If they want to lower the burden of peak usage why not do as they did in New Zealand; power companies there had the capacity to switch off water heaters until the peak had passed.
• Garry Stannus in Comments: I heard the Minister being interviewed by Leon Compton yesterday. Matthew Groom twice dodged the question that Compton put to him … which was that taking $30m from Hydro and giving it to Forestry must mean that consumers are paying more for their electricity than they should be. Surely the inescapable conclusion to be drawn is that we electricity consumers are being used as cash cows for FT.
• Shaun in Comments: In response to Pete Godfrey, there most certainly is an off-peak tariff in Tasmania indeed there are two, Tariffs 61 and 62, both of which are available to household and business users …
• Bryan Green: Tasmanians to have their say on Tariff 41 (Petition)
• Chris Harries in Comments: All this is mainly to do with the popularity of the heat pump. I can’t fault Shaun’s logic but this is what it looks and feels like from a citizen’s perspective: Heat pump technology offered Tasmanians an efficient form of heating – three times more efficient than other forms of electrical heating. Adding to that efficiency gain, heating appliances that are hard wired into the household electrical system are offered Tariff 41, similar in price to hot water tariff. This rendered heat pump energy approximately 5 times cheaper than that provided by plug in electrical heaters, and, more importantly, heat pump energy became cheaper than energy provided by wood fired combustion stoves and any other form of heating (bar passive solar). Consequently, tens of thousands of households forked out three or four thousand dollars to install their heat pump and everyone was happy in the Land of Nod. Aurora had a captured market, Tasmanian households had the benefit of a reasonable cheap and very convenient form of electrical heating. Many switched to heating their whole homes, not just their main living area. Now… what happens if that tariff 41 is abolished. The shift to heat pumps would not go into reverse, because too much is invested in them. That market for power sales is now what they call ‘captive’ …
