Overdue electricity bills in SA are the nation’s highest, 35,000 can’t pay bill at all

MORE than 35,000 South Australian households cannot afford to pay their electricity bills and owe the nation’s highest average debt of $876.

• ACCC report exposes why Australian power bills are soaring
• Labor plan to encourage households to sell power back to the grid
• SA Libs propose $100m home battery plan
• ACCC says power bills won’t drop soon
• SPECIAL REPORT: What you need to know about SA’s power crisis

MORE than 35,000 South Australian households cannot afford to pay their electricity bills and owe the nation’s highest average debt of $876.

The growing problem highlights the urgent need for more generous concessions to be offered to struggling families and for governments to work together on a long-term solution, advocates say.

Affordability has become the focal point of political debate on the nation’s energy woes as state and federal parties rush to announce plans aimed at reducing bills.

The latest Australian Energy Regulator debt data shows that last month, about 5500 South Australian households owed their power retailer more than $1500.

The alarming figures also reveal SA has the highest proportion of energy customers whose power has been disconnected because they didn’t pay their bill.

In the past two years, the average energy debt has increased 20 per cent from $730 to $876. In most other national energy market states, the dollar figure debt increase has been below 10 per cent.

While the number of those who cannot afford their bills fluctuates, the latest figures are a 15 per cent increase on the same time two years ago.

Anthony and Alannah James, with baby Xavier, at their Klemzig home. Their electricity bill more than doubled in the past two quarters.

Uniting Communities advocacy manager Mark Henley said financial counsellors were seeing people who were going without food and medicine to pay for their power bills.

But he said low income households were also the least likely to be able to benefit from the bill-saving ideas recently announced such as battery storage and discounts for reducing energy consumption at peak times.

“What we need immediately is action around increasing concessions and moving to concessions that are proportional to the amount on the bill,” Mr Henley said.

Energy Users’ Association of Australia chief executive Andrew Richards said these figures also reflected the plight of large energy users which would end up hitting mums and dads.

“A lot of our members who are in the food industry will start having to pass the costs on and that will lead to an increasing cost of food and other consumables on supermarket shelves,” he said. “People should be getting angry and frustrated at government at the state and federal level because they don’t seem to be able to make a decision.”

The Turnbull Government recently struck a deal with energy retailers to write to customers who reached the end of a discounted plan and offer alternatives. Companies also agreed to stop taking customers off a discounted plan if they were on a hardship program.

State Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said households and businesses were struggling with high power prices across the nation, with wholesale prices in SA now comparable to NSW and lower than Victoria.

“Prices are too high and it is not acceptable. Since we announced our energy plan in March prices in SA have fallen, and previously mothballed local generation has come back online,” he said.

Opposition energy spokesman Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the figures were a “shocking indictment” on failed energy state policies. “(We) are paying the highest electricity prices for the least reliable electricity in the country,” he said.

Family’s power costs double

KLEMZIG couple Anthony and Alannah James were shocked to see their latest power bill had more than doubled in just a quarter.

They recently installed solar power to save money in the long run but it hadn’t yet made a difference to their bill.

Mrs James, 25, said their electricity bill went from $325 for February-May period to $739 for the May-August period this year. The young mum, who also works from home, said their winter cost was much higher to keep the house warm overnight for baby Xavier, who is 20 weeks old.

“Basically we had to eat cheaply for a few weeks to be able to afford to pay the bill,” she said. “When you have a newborn you can’t exactly afford not to use a heater throughout winter.”

Their daily supply charge increased from 70.61c to 82.95c a day while the rate went up from 31.32c to 36.75c per kilowatt hour. “I feel like it’s been a gradual increase but this time it’s a big hike that really hits home,” Mrs James said.

Businesses carrying burden of coal exit

POWER bills for South Australian businesses have skyrocketed since the Northern Power Station closed, a report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission shows.

The report found the closure of SA’s last coal-fired power station reduced competition and increased reliance on expensive gas-generated electricity. The report will be released today as the Federal Government finalises its electricity reform package.

The report says three medium-sized SA manufacturing businesses had been paying an average of $139 per megawatt hour for electricity when the Northern closed in 2016. They are now paying an average of $201 per megawatt hour and are expected to pay $212 per megawatt hour next year.

The ACCC estimates that the average SA household electricity bill in 2016-17 was $1925, up from $1301 in 2007-08. Queensland has overtaken SA to have the most expensive power prices in the nation, with an average household bill of $1955 in 2016-17.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims said generation costs had driven up prices in SA.

“On any measure, it is clear that electricity prices in Australia have gone from a source of competitive advantage to a drain on business productivity and a serious affordability concern for households,’’ Mr Sims said.

The ACCC report said more competition was needed in the SA power market, where AGL supplies 48 per cent of retail customers and controls 42 per cent of generation capacity.

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison said reliability and affordability were the keys to the Government's electricity policies.

Conservative Liberal MPs want the Government to introduce electricity policy reforms which don’t include a Clean Energy Target.

— Peter Jean