Solar price rise to end power divide So much for being GREEN

[nero_bolt]

Looks like yet another failure for Labor and the Greens is in the wind. Go green and do the right thing and now it looks like you are going to PAY for doing the right thing...

So being GREEN has a huge cost then..... 

Solar price rise to end power divide

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/solar-price-rise-to-end-power-divide/story-fn59niix-1226650277855 

AUSTRALIA'S one million rooftop solar households could be forced to pay new fixed charges to help recover billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies and make electricity prices fairer for all consumers.

A series of electricity industry reports has highlighted the inequity in existing power pricing where customers without solar panels are unfairly subsidising those with them.

Queensland Energy Minister Mark McArdle has warned that existing rooftop solar contracts will cost the state more than $2.8 billion over the next 15 years and is preparing a major submission to cabinet within a month recommending more user-pays charges. Electricity tariffs could be changed to include a higher network access charge and lower unit prices per kilowatt hour, a move that would increase the cost for rooftop solar users.

A national meeting of electricity executives in Sydney this week discussed a potential "death spiral" for the industry as high electricity prices force more people off the grid, increasing costs further for those who remained.

Mr McArdle said the number of households with rooftop solar had continued to grow despite a cutback in government subsidies and the gap between the haves and have-nots in electricity widening.

"If one group of consumers enjoys a benefit in excess of the true savings they make, other electricity customers have to pay the price of those excess benefits or lower prices," he said.

"When those doing the paying are likely those least able to afford it, and those enjoying the benefits are those likely to be most able to afford to meet their true costs, then something is truly wrong."

The problem was compounded because power companies were forced to buy high-priced electricity from rooftop solar when there was no demand for electricity from customers.

And baseload power generators were forced to run inefficiently to be ready for when "intermittent" solar power was not available.

Renewable industry lobby groups have rejected calls for a new fixed charge.

Clean Energy Council deputy chief executive Kane Thornton said: "It would be like telling early adopters of email that they need to chip in to pay for stamps."

The Greens said yesterday they would spend $405 million a year on a new federal government agency to cut spending on electricity infrastructure, improve energy efficiency, and set higher prices for renewable energy produced by households which generate solar power.

Leader Christine Milne said the Greens were the only party with innovative ideas to help Australians live a fairer, cheaper and cleaner future.  

The cost of the new agency would not include the higher charges paid by electricity companies from rooftop solar under the Greens scheme. An investigation by the Queensland Productivity Commission found that, by 2015-16, most Queenslanders would be paying $276 a year or 17 per cent of their annual power bill to subsidise other residents having solar power on their roofs.

Mr McArdle said this did not include the cost of upgrading the electricity network to cope with widespread power flowing back into the grid.

A report by consultancy ACIL Tasman for the Electricity Supply Association of Australia said solar customers were overcompensated when they generated electricity and used it on site because they were not making a contribution to the cost of providing network services.

There were also issues of equity and fairness, as some customers were unable to install rooftop solar systems because they were renters or lived in an apartment.

Fairness was an issue because one customer's choice to install rooftop solar forced other customers to pay more for network service.

"The distortion could give rise to a 'price spiral' where the rising cost of electricity, driven by the ongoing reallocation of network costs, made solar increasingly attractive to customers," ACIL Tasman said.

The ESAA discussion paper, Who Pays for Solar Energy, said more than one in 10 households were generating electricity from solar panels on their roof.

"Subsidies for solar systems have to be paid for somehow," the paper said.

"Basically, households who don't have solar help pay the power bills of households who do.

"The cost of these transfers from non-solar to solar households now runs to many millions of dollars per year."

Like Queensland, all state governments have cut back their generous feed-in tariff schemes, but are likely to seriously consider the ESAA reports to move towards a fixed network access charge. Solar has posed significant problems for electricity companies in Western Australia and NSW.

The discussion paper said a new way was needed to charge consumers for the cost of the networks to make sure everybody paid their fair share.

"We have to find a more equitable way for charging for electricity that does not unfairly benefit some households because they can afford the latest technology," the discussion paper said. "Electricity consumers should pay their fair share of network costs.

"One way to make the way we pay for electricity more equitable is to change network tariffs so they better reflect underlying costs."

This could include a higher proportion of fixed network charges and a lower percentage based on the amount of electricity consumed.

Mr Thornton said calls for higher fixed charges for households with solar panels were "ridiculous".

"Similar claims that solar drives up bills because network upgrades are required to accommodate the extra electricity fed into the grid are also incorrect," he said.

"All new solar systems in Queensland are required to go through an assessment process with the distribution business to ensure they do not adversely impact on the grid."

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And the GREENS out there with the FAIRIES hair brain scheme....  Just set up yet another green body to oversee all the other bodies and depts .... Just looking at yet another GREEN failure... 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/greens-plan-to-lower-power-bills-by-250/story-fn59niix-1226650235248

HOUSEHOLD electricity costs could drop by up to $250 a year under a Greens plan to establish a new independent body to drive down energy use during peak periods.

Greens leader Christine Milne announced her party would take to the September election a plan to create an independent Energy Savings Agency to drive $1 billion in energy savings each year by providing $400 million in financial incentives to businesses that reduce energy demands during peak periods.

But the minor party's plan was immediately rejected by the Energy Supply Association of Australia, which challenged the need for additional regulation in the energy sector.

Senator Milne said her Energy Savings Agency would negotiate targets and provide a financial incentive to "urgently reduce energy demand during peak periods".

It would also back minimum prices electricity retailers would be compelled to pay households that generate solar power, and design a new National Energy Efficiency Scheme.

She said the policy -- based on the University of Technology, Sydney's Australian Decentralised Energy Roadmap and costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office -- would make Australia's energy system fairer, cheaper and cleaner.

"The federal and state governments have failed to prevent unnecessary spending on new electricity poles and wires," Senator Milne said.

"Nearly a quarter of all our electricity bills pay for the cost of installing infrastructure that we have built to supply electricity for just 40 hours a year during peak demand periods," she said.

But ESAA chief executive Matthew Warren said Australian taxpayers did not need "to pay for another government agency and more regulations to bring power prices down". "We just need to fix current distortions in the market by introducing fairer pricing."

Mr Warren said that while paying more for electricity from solar panels would be welcome for solar owners, it would push up power bills for everyone else.

Clean Energy Council chief executive David Green said it was important to "deal with the problem of peak electricity demand".