Sydney’s electricity price crisis: Fat cats get power discounts while we shiver

ELECTRICITY company fat cats and thousands of their staff are among the few people in NSW who do not have to worry about skyrocketing electricity bills — because they get a 25 per cent staff discount.

• Surging electricity prices put 60,000 homes in danger
• Households will pay up to $400 more for power

ELECTRICITY company fat cats and thousands of their staff are among the few people in NSW who do not have to worry about skyrocketing electricity bills — because they get a 25 per cent staff discount.

The total saving to almost 7000 electricity employees, based on the Australian Energy Regulator’s average $1283 bill, is more than $2 million a year.

The revelation about the generous allowances the electricity retailers give their own staff has outraged pensioners, who have seen their own NSW government-funded subsidy shrink as bills soar.

Many Sydneysiders are facing skyrocketing electricity bills. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt.

“Electricity companies should be doing more to help vulnerable customers. If you can offer significant discounts to staff, then surely more can be done to reduce power bills for low income households,” Ellis Blaikie, from the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association, said.

The latest outrage comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed how the big three retailers — AGL, Origin Energy and Energy Australia — are gouging profits behind a smokescreen of fake excuses for rising prices.

Fat cat chief executives at the power giants are trousering pay and performance-backed bonuses worth millions of dollars while NSW businesses struggle with bill hikes of up to 400 per cent and 60,000 homes face being cut off.

AGL boss Andy Vesey is one of the company’s 3358 staff who enjoys 25 per cent off his electricity bill — for him it is just a small part of the $120,000 he receives in non-monetary benefits on top of his whopping $6.9 million salary.

AGL Energy’s managing director and CEO Andy Vesey enjoys a 25 per cent discount on his power bills.

The Daily Telegraph knows of at least one former staff member who left the company four years ago and still enjoys the discount. It is not clear how many other ex-electricity workers are still picking up the perk.

Staff at Energy Australia also received cut price bills.

“We employee around 2500 people. All are eligible for our employee plan,” the spokeswoman said.

The AGL employee website spruiking its benefits, including an electricity discount.

And at Origin Energy 924 staff freely turn up the heat thanks to a 26 per cent saving on electricity and 20 per cent off gas. “We offer competitive prices to customers and employees alike, and our customers in financial hardship are not paying the recent price increases,” a spokesman said.

Origin’s CEO Frank Calabria also stands to get a generous discount. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said he was ordering the three retailers, who together control 90 per cent of the NSW market, to reveal for the first time exactly how much profit they are making.

Research by the Nature Conservation Council estimates that last year Energy Australia’s profit from electricity was $171 million, AGL’s was $100 million and Origin’s was $78 million.

An AGL spokesman said pensioners were also offered a 25 per cent discount. “We created our AGL Seniors energy plan to suit people aged over 60 because we recognise that managing energy costs can be challenging,” he said.