From July 1st, NSW, ACT, NT, and Victoria will start to slowly roll out two-way pricing, with others in the National Energy Market (NEM) set to join in next year. This new setup lets network companies charge electricity retailers for the energy that flows back to the grid during busy times. [Read more…]

As a solar installer, I’ve had to deal with electricity retailers a lot. So much so, that I sometimes wonder what I did in a past life to deserve this. In this post I’ll share my frustrations but also offer 3 solutions to get the better of the retailers and their increasingly incomprehensible tariffs.
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Just before Christmas, one of my best mates finished installing solar on his shed. Six weeks later his eagerly anticipated new electricity bill came.

He was mortified when he opened the envelope to reveal his bill had tripled; and was almost as surprised when I openly laughed at the nearly $4000 allegedly owing. [Read more…]

Joining Amber Electric a year ago, I began an exciting journey with 6.6kW of solar and a 10kWh SolarEdge battery on my Adelaide townhouse. The promise of sky-high prices for exported energy was irresistible. [Read more…]

For some time, I’ve been both amused and increasingly disappointed by how people perceive solar feed-in tariffs. [Read more…]

They might look nice, but French doors are a leaky liability. Draft-proofing has been a winner for me (note the lack of a dark blue line around the doorframe in the right-hand ‘after’ pic).

The winter solstice is upon us, bringing dismal weather to Adelaide and much of Australia. And in other shocking news, water is wet. [Read more…]

Electricity prices in Queensland, NSW and South Australia will rise by as much as 23.9% in July, with the Australian Energy Regulator publishing its final Default Market Offer (DMO) determination for 2023-2024. [Read more…]

Electricity Price Hikes Incoming…

If you live in an eastern state —  or that middle state called South Australia strapped to them by a couple of transmission lines — then in July, you’ll be hit with hefty electricity price increases. [Read more…]

Recently I wrote about South Australia going from zero to 70% renewable energy generation in 16 years, resulting in:

• reduced greenhouse gas emissions
• improved air quality
• lower electricity prices than we’d have without those renewables

But – although our electricity prices would be much higher without renewable energy, electricity prices – overall – have still trended up over those 16 years. And that’s because many things affect electricity pricing. [Read more…]

It’s October and Australia’s wholesale electricity price crisis has entered its sixth month.  Massive retail electricity price hikes in the eastern states are becoming more likely (from July 2023).  These could exceed 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. 

This post is a quick update on the current situation, followed by a short whinge. [Read more…]