Essay by Eric Worrall
Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen blames householders for not shopping around for the cheapest deal.
New electricity prices ‘not welcome news’ for Australians in some states
The Australian Energy Regulator has revealed residential energy prices will increase in NSW, South Australia, and Queensland.
Published 26 May 2025 11:15am
By Cameron Carr
Source: SBS News…
The costs of electricity will be higher than last year, as the wholesale costs and the price of transporting electricity have risen, according to AER.
The AER said retail costs, such as the cost of billing customers, running call centres, acquiring new customers, managing defaults, and the rollout of smart meters, have added to the price hikes.
In NSW, residential customers without controlled load will be hit with price hikes of 8.5 per cent to 9.1 per cent, while customers with controlled load will face increases of 8.3 per cent to 9.7 per cent.
Residential customers without controlled load in south-east Queensland will face price increases of 3.7 per cent. Customers with controlled load will be hit with price increases of 0.5 per cent.
In South Australia, households without controlled loads will be affected by price increases of 3.2 per cent while those with controlled loads will witness a 2.3 per cent hike in prices.
…
Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/new-electricity-safety-net-prices-not-welcome-news-for-australians-in-some-states/fal7w5nt1
Press release from the Australian Energy Regulator;
Australian Energy Regulator releases final Default Market Offer determination
26 May 2025
The Australian Energy Regulator has today released the final Default Market Offer Determination.
The independent AER sets the DMO as a benchmark for residential and small business electricity bills in NSW, southeast Queensland and South Australia, while the Victorian Default Offer is set by the Essential Services Commission. The final determination can be found here.
In encouraging news, the AER’S final prices in some DMO regions were not as high as anticipated from the draft prices released in March. However the Government is aware any bill increase will still put pressure on households and businesses.
That’s why in the 2025 Budget energy bill relief was extended for a further six months, while further energy market reform to deliver a fairer, better energy system for Australians is underway.
This is in stark contrast with how the former Coalition Government treated energy challenges – it is a matter of record that Angus Taylor changed the law to hide a 20% energy price hike before the 2022 election.
We went to the election with an honest account of the challenges, and a plan to tackle them which we continue to implement.
Importantly, while the DMO is the benchmark for standard offers from retailers, the AER has recorded market offers between 18% and 27% lower than the DMO.
Households should check that they’re on the cheapest energy plan available, with recent ACCC data showing some 80% of households could be paying less on a different deal. The Government’s energy.gov.au website and the AER’s Energy Made Easy website can help billpayers find the cheapest plans.
We began important reform work in the first term, but as we get back to work we know there is more to do when it comes to rebuilding Australia’s energy system into the fairer, modern grid we deserve.
The Government is delivering overdue reform to how the energy market operates, including making it easier for people to switch to cheaper deals and retailers under our One Click Switch reforms, ensuring people get the discounts they’re entitled to, and boosting consumer protections to ensure no one pays more than they should.
ATTRIBUTABLE TO MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY CHRIS BOWEN:
“With energy plans that are between 18% and 27% cheaper than the DMO it’s worth shopping around.
“It’s clear energy bills for Australians remain too high, and we’re providing help for people doing it tough as we deliver longer term reform.
“We also know 80% of households aren’t on the cheapest energy plan they could be which is why we’re making it easier for households to find and switch to better plans. Check the Energy Made Easy website or energy.gov.au for the cheapest plans in your area.”
Source: https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/media-releases/australian-energy-regulator-releases-final-default-market-offer-determination
Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has repeatedly demonstrated his shaky grasp of engineering principles. He even once hilariously claimed we can store electricity like water;
Why do I claim renewables are to blame for this disaster? Because part of the eyewatering NSW price hike of 8.3 – 9.5% is likely because the NSW government has been forced to pay a billion dollars per year to one of their few remaining NSW coal plants, whose operators want to close the plant.
Who knows how many other subsidies are being quietly handed out to dispatchable generator owners whose decrepit plants are propping up what is left of Australia’s electricity grid. But these plants really are decrepit, and likely won’t last much longer no matter how much taxpayer money is on the table – as the Callide C coal plant explosion in 2021 demonstrated.
Coal Australia puts the cost of coal energy at $0.05 – $0.07 / kWh – significantly lower than current Australian grid prices. Building new coal plants would alleviate the energy cost crisis, by introducing genuine price competition rather than the current absurd situation of governments paying billions of taxpayer dollars to try to keep the last man standing.
But new coal plants are not going to happen in the foreseeable future, unless a bunch of coal plants all fail at the same time. Australian sovereign risk is off the scale. No private entity or individual in their right mind would attempt challenge Australia’s delusional political class, by trying to build the kind of new coal plant our nation desperately needs.
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Sorry Aussies, you may be awsome…but you’re (s)crewed
How does one “shop” for a better rate when you’re kinda bound to your local utility?
There’s subsidies and who knows what. Where I am, northern California, they introduced a new electricity retailer, Pioneer I think, and have been trying to get people to sign up. They claim cheaper rates, which is odd, considering they buy from PG&E who generates the electricity. I took a quick gander at it several years ago, and as usual the claims sounded like pie in the sky and their rates were so differently structured that I couldn’t tell which was cheaper. They had some kind of calculator where you fed in your monthly bill description and it told you much cheaper Pioneer would be, but it wasn’t for me, and I’ve ignored their mailings ever since.
I don’t care what they do, what sweetheart deals they make with the state, or what accounting tricks they use to claim to survive by buying high and selling low. It’s the same power but with an added middleman, and I’m not interested. Who would I call for a power outage? It makes no sense.
Anyway, that’s maybe what you’ve got going. Promise to use less during some hours and the government will subsidize you.
The same gambit was tried here in SoCal. It was total BS. They claimed they could deliver “renewable energy/electricity” if you signed up and you would be helping the environment. Impossible to deliver renewable energy only. They also claimed that depending on your usage they could lower your rates. They made it mandatory unless you opted out and the people that got stuck with the scam held the local governments responsible for making it mandatory and making opting out hard to accomplish. We voted out that government next election. The scam disappeared.
We got the same offer, and they showed us what we’d pay per month with our current electrical utility, and what we’d pay under each of their three plans – each of which was higher. We opted out the next day.
They did the same thing in Sonoma County. Sonoma Clean Power. Promising 100% renewable from Wind, Solar (rooftop mostly) and Geothermal (Geysers) with the Geysers PP doing the heavy lifting. They popped up and everyone county wide was automatically swapped over. You could opt out which eventually I did.
Do they have an equivalent to “Gas Buddy” for electricity in Australia?
Have Leyden Jar, Will Travel.
The poles and wires do not belong to the retailers. They are the bagmen for the “renewable” energy generators not the utility who deliver the electricity.
But the cost gets billed to consumers, and the investment is demanded by renewabes.
Buy a diesel powered generator?
Ah, the old “blame the victim” gambit. Are the Aussies sure they haven’t imported Yankee Democrats? Poor Aussies are sooo hosed.
Well, the Aussies keep voting for these inept governments over and over again. The people get the government they deserve.
The ALP send trainees to learn from the Democrats. They also got fined for illegal foreign contributions a couple of elections ago
https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/alp-fined-for-interference-in-us-election.4040764/
The Marxists have taken over Ausie government. Prove me wrong.
You are not wrong. But it will end in many tears sooner or probably later.
Australia needs a new conservative party or someone in the LNP with intelligence, a good grasp on the science, a good smile (for the ladies) and huge balls.
Left wing Politico loves Albanese on climate crap:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/22/australia-climate-change-policies-elections-column-00344370
Re storage it sounds like Bowen thinks batteries are full of electricity. They are full of expensive and dangerous chemicals. Not quite like water.
Shame on them! Didn’t their mommas tell them “You’d better shop around”?
There is no winning the AGW debate on facts and logic.
I said twenty years ago that we won’t defeat that ideology until the cure becomes so obviously worse than the disease that the electorate rebels. The magic web of marketing bs that convinces people that renewables run on free fuel combined with complex subsidies and hidden fees and illogical explanations still has them on side. Sadly it must get worse, much worse.
What’s odd is that the 3rd world is rushing forward with coal. China, Vietnam, India, many others are building coal like crazy. The day will come when people start wondering how 3rd world countries running on coal have electricity at a fraction of the price of those of us using free fuel from the sun and wind.
But it’s not just about price – you’ve got to save the world and ensure equity and justice.
I know what you mean – but I still wanted to downvote you just for making throw up a little in my mouth!
Coal is free. You just have to dig it up and haul it.
“I said twenty years ago that we won’t defeat that ideology until the cure becomes so obviously worse than the disease that the electorate rebels.”
It’s always been worse than that. They’re creating a disease where none existed.
It’s been a huge few weeks at the Topher Project.
http://www.topherfield.net
Today I’m delighted to be able to present my interview with Senator Matt Canavan.
Sen Canavan recently challenged for the leadership of the Nationals, and whilst David Littleproud came out on top of that ballot, arguably Matt Canavan won on the policy debate with the rejection of Net Zero now front and centre for the Nationals going forward.
Watch here: https://youtu.be/KZ8XGrrfmHU
Plus there’s HEAPS more over at my youtube channel where I’m currently uploading multiple videos on most days of the week covering all kinds of important topics and perspectives, including this perspective on the situation in Victoria: https://youtu.be/iHlpjC24KYY
How long between when one decides to build a new coal electricity generating plant and when it is providing electricity to the grid? 5 years? Seven? Ten?
Better get going on those new plants long before the current ones go offline.
In Oz, you’d be looking at 10-20 years for coal, if it gets approval at all.
They are situated on mines which are also being closed down or at least no longer expanded to chase the reserve.
With green councils, protests and the media all against coal, even 20 years may be too short.
You should look at what happened in Germany after they lost Nordstream. Suddenly permits for pipelines and floating LNG regas units and the necessary construction was rushed through, with completion of facilities in under a year. When needs must, the devil finds a way – even if you have a Green as energy minister like Habeck.
An LNG vaporization facility is a totally different animal than a LNG liquefaction facility. One is like setting up a grill to boil water on your campfire, the other is like trying to build a refrigerated cold storage plant on your campsite.
True. But ask the Chinese how fast they can build a new mine and coal fired power station, which is what Australia needs.
“Renewable Push Sends Aussie Electricity Prices Skyrocketing”
Renewables? No, coal. The big rise, about 9%, is in NSW, a coal state. Next is Qld, super coal, 3.7%. Next comes SA (W&S) at 3.2%, and finally Victoria, also into renewables, at 1%.
This is what the piece is alleging, based on the linked article:
Coal Australia puts the cost of coal energy at $0.05 – $0.07 / kWh – significantly lower than current Australian grid prices. Building new coal plants would alleviate the energy cost crisis, by introducing genuine price competition rather than the current absurd situation of governments paying billions of taxpayer dollars to try to keep the last man standing.
Are you saying this is false, and if so why?
That is what Eric alleges, but it isn’t based on anything but his imagination. And he spoils the story by:
“But new coal plants are not going to happen in the foreseeable future”
So it isn’t testable.
I am just pointing out the numbers. Big increases in coal states, small ones in states that have gone with renewables.
Nick,
Might you please distinguish between real, immutable, fundamental prices and prices that are adjusted for marketing purposes?
I can see no fundamental reason for Victoria being reported as having a lower price rise than some other states.
Geoff S
Geoff,
I am using the same default market offer that Eric based his article on. Take it up with him.
You could always use Vicdanistan, (where you are), as an example of the cost of coal. It is so cheap, they can afford to run it when the wind and sun aren’t available.
How much does a kWHr of solar power cost at night?
Well, no. This is what the linked article (on which he bases his report) says:
Independent analysis conducted by Arche Energy demonstrates that the CSIRO’s GenCost’s capital cost assumptions for black coal ultra-supercritical (USC) plants are between 1.2 and 2.4 times higher than recent real-world benchmarks adjusted for Australian conditions.
The resulting levelised electricity cost estimate for new coal plants is $50-$70/MWh which is significantly cheaper than the GenCost estimate of $102–164/MWh for black coal. It is also considerably lower than the current wholesale electricity price in the National Electricity Market which averaged over $120/MWh in 2024.
Levelised costs as usually done greatly underestimate the real costs of deploying and using wind and solar generation, because they leave out half the costs. So if ‘levelised costs’ for coal are cheaper by this measure, the real costs are probably a lot cheaper by any proper measure.
Are you saying that this work by Arche is wrong, and if so why and in what respect?
Retail price by the way is not a reliable measure of costs, because its so influenced by purchase obligations and subsidies including constraint payments. Take away all of those, and have wind and solar compete in a free market with coal and gas, and they would never find any buyers.
If the market objective is to deliver reliable dispatchable power at the lowest cost, wind and solar would never even get started.
“Are you saying that this work by Arche is wrong”
Well, Arche was paid by Coal Australia, so they are scarcely independent. But CSIRO says they are wrong:
“Independent analysis conducted by Arche Energy demonstrates that the CSIRO’s GenCost’s capital cost assumptions for black coal ultra-supercritical (USC) plants are between 1.2 and 2.4 times higher than recent real-world benchmarks adjusted for Australian conditions.”
Don’t understand. Isn’t it the reverse? That is, Arche is saying that CSIRO is wrong?
Don’t know Australian conditions, but its hard for an outsider to see why CSIRO is any more of an independent source than Arche. They seem to be well bought into the climate crisis net zero narrative.
Don’t know about Arche’s reputation.
Anyway, why do you think Arche is wrong in their specific claims?
But the actual prices are significantly higher in SA than in QLD.
Thanks for reading, Nick.
I shall now return the favour of the downtick.
Its a supply and demand issue in NSW
The big problem is that NSW no longer has enough reliable coal-fired supply to meet peak demand, so has to rely on gas, gas peakers and imports.
If NSW had replace Liddell with a new, high capacity coal fired plant, and updated Eraring to USC coal as well, their costs would not be under demand pressure.
The fact that they didn’t do the sensible thing15-20 years ago, is totally down to the idiotic “emissions” reduction scams.
1000%
Made worse by Victoria increasing demand on NSW and Queensland local supply sources.
So sickeningly disingenuous Nick. Are you capable of connecting any dots at all?
Obviously not.
He connects selective dots.
Could anyone be more stupid?
You should call Mr Holmes a Court. He would love to hear from you!
The ONE and ONLY reason for high power prices here is the rejection of COAL!!!!!!!
IDIOT!
NSW gets 37% of electricity from coal, and had the biggest rise.
Vic gets 37% from wind and sun, and had the smallest rise.
Again, the total lack of understanding of supply and demand. !
Willful.
That seems to suggest that the biggest rises are to be found in places that use LESS coal.
Own goal.
NSW uses a higher proportion of coal than any state except Qld.
They have strangled coal so they are running old power stations on strangled coal mines which would normally have been replaced by newer mines. Funny enough that leads to high operating costs.
Unfortunately for the Eastern States the price rise will be higher the current cheap plans will disappear they are based on the old wholesale costs. I find it amusing the Bowen is talking about new wholesale costs but old retail plans that are cheaper 🙂
Just remember Nick al you did this to yourselves meanwhile we will soldier on and pay the debt you guys rack up on this stupidity. I see Victoria is finally trying to address it’s debt black hole in weird ways with weird taxes 🙂
On the paying the bill front Albo got his man to green light new gas expansion in WA so they only have the obligatory 20 green and aboriginal group court appeals to get thru before it is online.
Victoria is broke because productivity is getting lower and lower. We are training youngsters with degrees of questionable value instead of trades. There is value to society from making goods that can be exported for a profit, but sectors capable of doing this have been in decline for some years now. There is limited social money value from youngsters trained mainly to produce words.
Geoff S
Even less income if you specialise in selfies.
Each state should stand alone. Victoria creates false demand by importing electricity from Queensland and NSW thereby pushing up local prices.
Electricity sold to Victoria should be at a substantial premium to compensate supplier states for skewing demand consequence of its bad energy policies.
Victoria is a net exporter of power. NSW is a big importer.
Until they close there coal power stations them they will have completed there transition to complete economic black hole. They will then have the trifecta no power, no jobs and massive debt spent on the stupidity.
When it comes to essentials like energy, consumers shouldn’t have to chase around looking for the best deal as though they were shopping for a case of beer. However, there’s one place where they may be at fault: quit electing governments that keep deluding themselves and trying to do the same to citizens with their fantasies of mainly green energy supplies. If fossil fuels still provide 82% of the world’s primary energy for heating, transportation, industry, agriculture and electrical generation even after decades and billions spent on subsidies to renewables, it’s more than just obvious what doesn’t work. So consumers shouldn’t be held hostage with high prices just to prop up whatever’s fashionable, yet unreliable and overpriced.
New coal plants will not help unless scheduling periods are extended and bidding is based on dispatchable generation with at least day ahead bidding. The 5 minute bidding interval is just stupid and panders to intermittent generation.
Texas has made the right move. Intermittent generation should not be accepted. Generators provide electricity when it is needed, not when it is available. The Australian grid needs a 180 degree refocusing back to consumers rather than generators.
Rick, I have been saying this for 20 years but only now my few remaining lefty mates and a couple of family members are starting to understand. Everyone, including Nick Stokes, knows that if the generators were required to provided dispatchable electricity not a single solar farm or wind farm would have ever been built. Last week in Oz at 3 am wind provided 8% of the demanded electricity. Surprisingly, solar provided nothing. At the same period last year wind provided about 5% for over a week.
It is as simple as this, get the government out of the energy business and all this quackery goes away. We don’t have a climate problem, we don’t have an energy problem, we do have a government problem. The solution is to force government out of the energy business. All they can do is screw it up worse.
“No private entity or individual in their right mind would attempt challenge Australia’s delusional political class”
That delusional political class will have to apologize then fall on their swords, as they once did in Japan.
An interesting development. Queensland (recently changed to non-ALP state government) yesterday put the sword through a large wind renewable project. Headlines today are another 110 projects under review.
Part of the ruction is the pristine wildlife habitat being flattened for such projects. “Strangely” such developments are not covered by the state’s “Vegetation management acts” under which any agricultural project that did similar would be hit with draconian penalties.
“Shop around” he says.
“Use the Energy Made Easy” (EME) web site he says
A couple of years ago I used the EME site and moved 3 times in one month as each time after I moved their prices went up. One even recommended moving from them due to their high prices.
I eventually found out from an acquaintance that Origin has a pensioner rate that is not shown on the EME site, 17% lower than the DMO.
The fool that calls Labor drongos is no idiot
And in other news – Twiggy is selling some of his pastoral stations. They were to be used for his solar, wind and hydrogen dreams.
Australia’s smart meters are prime material for a Trump/Musk type of DOGE investigation. I can find no public material about who made the meters at what cost, the price they were sold to installers, the price the installers charged the end user. We do not know if excess profits were creamed off, whether processes went to tender or to sweethearts – but importantly, whether the smart meter program has yet produced a benefit to domestic users. You know, the people who were told “Resistance is futile. You vill install a meter and you vill pay your money! Think of them as compulsory! Ve have ways to make you comply!”
My old meter survived and seems to work as well as ever, now 19 years in place.
Can any readers show links to clarify the whole matter? Do any domestic readers know how much smart meters cost them, plus whether there are continuing costs?
Geoff S
I recently had a smart meter installed under duress and a fortnight later they increased by electricity rate and further decreased my already vanishingly small solar feed-in credit. Be wary of Alinta propaganda.
Best I could find from the rate determination
Let’s look at the consequences of 80% of customers saving 18-27% on their bills. Call it an average of 20% saving for 80% of customers, or a revenue hit of 16% for gentailers, or about A$8bn, plunging them into losses and removing cash for investment in renewables and transmission and batteries.
The reality is that if some got better offers others would have to pay more to preserve overall revenue. Investment in new coal would require less cash per TWh of output per year and avoid most of the transmission spend.
Australia is investing heavily in coal. But it is for the export market and not the domestic market. Of the 95 worldwide coal mining for export projects currently underway 46 are in Australia! This includes 16 new projects, 28 expansion projects and 2 reopening of mines. The next highest number of projects are 14 in South Africa and 9 in Canada.
Seems according to Australian politicians burning Australian coal abroad is fine but not ‘appropriate for the Australian people.’
IEA ‘Coal 2024 Analysis and Forecast to 2027’ (Dec. 2024)
He’s right, we can store electricity like we store water. The only problem is that the cost would bankrupt us.