Energy crisis flattens consumer confidence
Consumer confidence in Australia’s energy system has suffered its biggest decline on record amid soaring power bills and a national electricity and gas crisis.
Consumer confidence in Australia’s energy system has suffered its biggest decline on record amid soaring power bills and a national electricity and gas crisis.
Confidence levels in the energy system fell in August along with perceptions of value for money for electricity and gas, a survey of 1000 participants by Energy Consumers Australia has found.
Households said confidence the market was working in their long-term interests fell to 37 per cent in August from 44 per cent in July while positive perception around the value for money of electricity decreased to 53 per cent in August from 62 per cent a month earlier. The same indicator for gas dropped to 57 per cent in August from 66 per cent in July.
The huge dip, the biggest since the survey started in 2016, followed Australia’s major energy retailers slugging customers with some of the biggest bill hikes seen in years after prices jumped in the first half of this year.
Wholesale electricity prices more than tripled in the second quarter of 2022 to average $264 per megawatt hour compared with $87MWh in the first three months of this year, the Australian Energy Market Operator said, with Queensland and NSW posting the highest prices.
Gas prices across east coast markets also soared to over $28 per gigajoule on average from under $10 GJ in the first quarter and peaked at over $41 GJ on June 30, exceeding international LNG netback prices in both May and June as Russia’s restrictions on supply roiled global markets.
“In the past month, many Australians will have either received a bill from their electricity or gas retailer or an advice notice telling them how much their bill is likely to rise,” Energy Consumers Australia chief executive Lynne Gallagher said.
“Consumer concern has moved from something that is abstract to something that is extremely real and is based on actual increases to actual bills.”
The Australian Energy Market Operator made the unprecedented move in June to suspend the entire national electricity market, which had become “impossible to operate’’, with price caps put in place to protect users.