There's been a big jump in energy bills over the past year because of the switch to greener energy sources, according to an annual analysis by the St Vincent de Paul Society.
It calculated that the "annual bill for households on ActewAGL's regulated rate (single/flat rate tariff) has typically increased by $350, or 13 per cent since July 2023".
The society's chief energy analyst thought that this rise was at least partly to pay for the switch from coal and gas to solar and wind.
Some of the rise would have been softened by federal aid to consumers but these rebates wouldn't alter the picture of substantial rises in energy bills, according to the society's national energy director, Gavin Dufty.
On top of the rise in the past year, the ACT energy regulator forecast that bills in the coming year would also jump.
Its Final report on regulated retail electricity prices for 2024-27 said that Canberrans "will see average price increases of 12.75 per cent in 2024-25".
ActewAGL said that its prices were determined by the ACT regulator. "Despite this increase in regulated electricity prices, electricity bills for ACT customers on standing offers remain some of the lowest in the country," it said.
The Vinnies report looking at the past year said:
- The annual (electricity) bill for households on ActewAGL's regulated rate (single/flat rate tariff) has typically increased by $350, or 13 per cent since July 2023.
- Households' annual gas costs have increased by $265, or 11 per cent, since July 2023.
- When combining ActewAGL's regulated electricity rate and gas standing offer, the total cost of energy, for average consumption households, has increased by 12 per cent (or $560).
On top of the Vinnies report on last year's price movements, the ACT energy regulator said that bills would rise by just under 13 per cent in the coming year.
"Canberrans on ActewAGL's standing offers will see average price increases of 12.75 per cent in 2024-25," commissioner Joe Dimasi said. Taking account of inflation, he said this would be a real-terms rise of 7.6 per cent.
The Vinnies report's author Gavin Dufty said there were two possibilities for the jump in ACT energy prices: the previous year could have been particularly low or tariffs were being increased to pay for the switch in the economy towards green sources of power.
He thought the second cause was more likely.
"There are costs in the transition. Someone has to pay for it all," he told The Canberra Times.
"The energy transition means that all the old equipment has to be replaced with new stuff."
In order to finance the investment, he thought, the regulator had sanctioned the rises.
The transition means paying for large projects like building batteries to store energy generated by the sun and wind. Construction is to start soon on the "Big Canberra Battery" project at sites across the ACT, at a cost of $400 million.
Mr Dufty said he hoped that the higher costs in the past year were short-term, with prices then falling in the coming years as the transition was completed.
He was not able to compare ACT rises in prices with movements in other jurisdictions because other states were still finalising their tariffs.
The ACT regulator said that ACT electricity bills would still be low compared with those elsewhere.
"Despite the increase in regulated electricity prices, electricity bills for ACT customers on standing offers are expected to remain some of the lowest in the country," commissioner Joe Dimasi said.
Federal help on electricity bills "will fully offset the increase in electricity prices for most residential customers and partially offset the increase in electricity prices for small business customers," he said.
"ACT government offers further support to help low income and vulnerable customers meet the costs of their electricity bills."
