Electricity price rises in South East Queensland.
What can you do to prepare for what’s coming?
With electricity prices rising across Australia, now is the time to start preparing for the future. How can you save energy and reduce costs?
We’ve teamed up with WiseUp Energy Solutions to give you an insight into the likely effect on your electricity bills and offer you some useful tips on what you can do now to reduce the impact.
More cost of living pressures
Australians have received another blow; adding electricity increases to the rising cost of living pressures.
The perfect storm of conditions has increased wholesale electricity prices by over 140% from 2021. Electricity Retailers are scrambling to recover costs from consumers, with several smaller Retailers unable to compete, forcing them to exit the market, leaving their customers stranded.
What do electricity increases mean for you?
Residential & small business customers
These customers will likely see an increase in the price of electricity, decreases in pay-on-time discounts, and reduced solar feed-in tariffs, making shopping around for cheaper power less competitive for customers.
At the time of this writing, most Retailers haven’t released their new electricity rates. However, peak tariffs could rise by up to 20% for Flat Rate customers, while Time of Use customers could see even higher increases.
Large market commercial customers
Customers who use over 100,000 kWh per year are classified in this space. Those currently locked into fixed-term energy contracts with their Electricity Retailer are temporarily shielded from these increases. However, those whose current contracts expire within the next 6 months will be forced to renegotiate new contracts at the higher rates. This will likely result in an increase of over 50% on their electricity bills.
The actual electricity rate increase will depend on the current electricity rates the customer is paying. For example, a business such as a small grocer could see an increase of $3,000 per month in power costs.
Ways to reduce your power costs
Electricity price hikes are difficult to come to terms with, but there are some things you can do to reduce your exposure to them.
Regardless of what type of energy consumer you are, understanding what you’re paying and how much energy you use is key to having greater control over your energy costs.
Practical energy saving tips for households
Replacing fluro and halogen lights with LED alternatives
Only boil the jug with the amount of water you need, instead of filling it
Invest in a variable speed pool pump if you have an older single speed pump
Upgrade to more energy-efficient appliances as required
Run the air conditioner on dry mode instead of cool mode
Turn off extra fridges that are rarely used and mostly empty
Compare electricity prices across other Retailers by visiting WATTever
Install a quality rooftop solar panel system or upgrade your existing one if it’s too small
Install a smart-meter monitoring device to track your energy consumption and restrict use to solar production hours
Investigate whether installing a battery storage unit is right for you
Energy saving for businesses
There are no one-size fits all solutions when it comes to reducing energy costs for businesses. Lighting upgrades, solar panel systems, power factor correction units, and air conditioner optimisation are some of the ways energy consumption can be reduced.
Knowing which solutions are right for your business requires understanding how much electricity you’re using.
Data-driven solutions will help you avoid over-investing in the wrong solution and ensure you get the maximum energy and cost savings for your least investment. For example, we see a lot of customers who get ‘sold’ solar PV systems substantially larger than their daytime consumption needs. Whereas investing in a smaller solar PV system combined with other solutions that reduced their nighttime load would have yielded a far more significant saving.
Understanding your energy bill and aligning your business with an Energy Retailer offering tariff rates that work best for your power usage needs can result in thousands of dollars in electricity cost savings for businesses.
We are here to help
We advocate for you, the customer, helping you navigate and prepare for energy price rises by assisting you with strategies to reduce your energy usage and understand your energy bills so you can reduce the amount you spend on power.
For independent advice on reducing your energy consumption and choosing the right energy-saving solution for your situation, visit our Energy Solutions page.
If you’re a business looking for independent advice to better understand your power bills or energy contracts; help with uncovering billing mistakes and getting them resolved; or if you need help finding a more competitive tariff rate, then contact WiseUp Energy Solutions.