May 30, 2013
Queensland electricity prices are 18.9 per cent higher because of the impact of green schemes and the Carbon Tax, Energy Minister Mark McArdle said today.
Mr McArdle said advice received from the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) identified that the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) Scheme added $102 to an average electricity bill and the Solar Bonus Scheme currently costs $67.
“When you add $190 for the Carbon Tax; this means 18.9 per cent of an average $1900 annual electricity bill is made up of green schemes,” Mr McArdle said.
“By 2015-16 the solar bonus scheme will increase to $276 on an average bill which could see the price of green schemes reach $621 on average per year if the Carbon Tax is not repealed.”
Mr McArdle said it was important for Queenslanders to understand what was driving up the price of electricity and why the State Government was looking at ways to reduce the impact of green schemes on households.
“The overly generous solar bonus scheme gave significant cash windfalls to those customers who installed solar PV on domestic roofs, but the scheme did not pass on the real costs to the electricity network, to support solar PV,” he said.
“It is not right that the 80 pre cent of customers who do not have solar are expected to pay the full price of the 20 per cent who have solar.
“Some customers with solar are getting a very generous $0.44 feed-in-tariff (FiT) and should make a fair contribution towards the upgrade of the electricity network needed to support their solar PV.”
Mr McArdle said the previous State Government legislated the solar FiT until 2028 and this will cost other electricity consumers almost $3 billion to support.
“The Newman Government will not be changing this but will consider a range of options to make the system more equitable for the majority of consumers,” he said.
