Media release – TasNetworks, 17 May 2024

TasNetworks Committed to Supporting Tasmanians Through Efficient and Responsible Energy Management

TasNetworks expects our annual pricing proposal to be published by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) today. The proposal details network charges for residential and small business (distribution) customers for the 2024-25 financial year.

TasNetworks’ network charges are just one of six costs that make up a typical Tasmanian power bill, accounting for approximately a third of the total bill cost.

CEO, Dr Seán McGoldrick, noted the business has proposed a 15% adjustment in distribution network charges for the coming year to continue providing Tasmanians with clean, safe, and reliable electricity for their homes and businesses.

“These are challenging economic times, but TasNetworks’ Board and our people remain committed to protecting the wellbeing of Tasmanians. We’ll be cutting our operating expenses by three percent next year, passing those benefits onto our customers,” he said.

Dr. McGoldrick added the adjustments have been driven by inflation and cost pressures from increasing insurance premiums and cybersecurity expenses, but added this also comes on the back of significant reductions in network charges in recent years. He noted these efforts are part of the broader strategy to help Tasmania double its clean energy capacity in the coming decades, aiming to secure the lowest possible future power prices for our customers.

The Office of the Tasmanian Economic Regulator (OTTER) is responsible for determining Tasmania’s electricity price each year, and takes into account network charges along with other costs such as generation, metering and retail. As TasNetworks’ proposed increase of 15 per cent to network distribution charges is only a proportion of electricity bills, the final overall price of electricity in Tasmania for 2024/2025 will be confirmed by OTTER in June.

For a copy of our pricing proposals, please head to our website.


This is another example of Sean McGoldrick’s PR writers hard at work covering the bad management of TasNetworks’ executive, ie. it’s just more bollocks from the usual corporate gobshite.

TasNetworks is already implicated in price gouging via ‘supernormal profit taking’, that is – 8-10% over and above ‘reasonable’ transmission company profits. Worse, having spent many tens of millions on Project Marinus (some on design and engineering, but far more on the ongoing PR campaign), they’re preparing to add even more to our bills to pay for the ‘North West Transmission Development’ – the vast new grid to ship private wind energy to the mainland market via Marinus Link.

In other words, TasNetworks is shameless in conning and exploiting a captive market – namely us – while piously claiming to be (a) at the merciless whim of inflation, (b) helping provide us with ‘clean’ energy, and (c) doing its damnedest to ‘cut operating costs’ for our benefit.

TasNetworks is gouging us because it can, and no one will hold it to account – neither major party, nor the corporate media which runs interference for them.

They’re not helping Tasmania with renewable energy either – they’re helping our government, TasNet’s shareholder, subsidise foreign-owned wind farm investors to set up and ship THEIR energy (not Tasmania’s) to the NEM.

As for ‘cutting operating costs’, McGoldrick’s merely continuing his predecessor’s cynical strategy of outsourcing core TasNetworks’ functions to the lowest bidder, thus forcing down blue collar wages.

If McGoldrick or his trough-swilling cronies’ lips are moving .. they’re lying.

– Ben Marshall