TRANSCRIPT
Australians are increasingly turning up the heat in their homes as winter sets in.
The Grattan Institute's Energy Director Alison Reeve also recommends picking up the phone to find better deals on what we pay for our energy.
"Most of us are actually on a contract that is not the best offer we could have. So there's also a lot that individuals can do."
The Institute's call follows confirmation that the Australian Energy Regulator has approved an increase to the amount of electricity residents pay in three states - New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.
Alison Reeve says that's because of rising costs to the delivery and production of power.
"That sort of anticipated higher future cost of energy is a little more acute in New South Wales and that's because that's where the next coal fire power station to close will be closing... The other thing with NSW is they are doing quite a large investment in their network. Some of that is increasing resilience to things like storms and floods, which is very pertinent this week when we look at what's happened on the north coast of New South Wales. But it's also an investment to support greater uptake of electric vehicles and rooftop solar by consumers, and to pay for the new transmission lines that they are having to build in order to build replacement capacity, to replace retiring coal. So all of those are pushing up the cost of the poles and wires rather than the electricity itself in New South Wales."
This means that New South Wales residents face the steepest hike, expected to be paying out up to 228 dollars more each year - with regional customers seeing their annual bills to jump to over 2740 dollars a year - the highest in the country.
In south-east Queensland, an average household on a default contract will soon pay around 77 dollars more a year or just over 2100 dollars a year while in South Australia the annual bill will be up 71 dollars, bringing the average annual cost to just over 2300 dollars.
In Victoria the prices are set by the Essential Services Commission - and their average household bills will increase by between 6 to 25 dollars.
These new rates are the maximum retailers can charge for a default contract.
But Cassandra Goldie from the Australian Council of Social Service is concerned - saying the increase will hit those hardest who can least afford it: the roughly three million people who are living in poverty.
"So low income people are often hit with a triple whammy here, where they're paying proportionate to their income five times more than everybody else on energy bills; they're using more energy because their properties are poor quality; and of course they're often the ones with multiple other costs that they can't afford to meet."
The federal government says it understands many are still feeling cost of living pressures - and they have already extended the energy bill relief fund to help.
ACOSS says that is not the right approach.
"One off rebates are not the solution. We've spent over six billion dollars in those one off payments that keep getting extended. We would much rather see first of all boosting home energy upgrades money to get to all low income housing being at a good energy performance standard, solar panels, access to renewable energy, insulation etc. Secondly, to help people who've accumulated big energy debt to have that debt written off."
The federal government says it already views renewable energy as part of the solution.
The Prime Minister says they want to bring on those types of sources to bring down the overall cost for everyone on a long term basis.
"Australia is particularly vulnerable and the science told us that was the case... Now the transition that is occurring, we know the cheapest form of new energy is renewables, backed by gas, backed by batteries and backed by hydro for firming capacity. That is the transition that is underway."
