From July 1st Energy Australia solar customers will no longer receive the additional 6 cents on top of their 60 or 20 cent feed in tariff.
This is in response to the NSW government accepting the Independent pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s (IPART) recommendation that all energy retailers are required to contribute towards the NSW Solar Bonus Schemes from 1st July 2012.
Currently the energy retailers such as Energy Australia receive the power generated from solar at no legislated cost. The retailers were then effectively passing on the benefit to the customer generating it. Under the change to the scheme they will now pass that benefit onto the government to help fund the Solar Bonus Scheme.
One of the key findings by IPART listed on the NSW Government Trade & Investment website is “the NSW Government should require all retailers to contribute to the costs of the Solar Bonus Scheme from 1 July 2012 until the scheme ceases in 2016.”
The web site goes on to outline the following points:
Importantly these recommendations do not affect the Solar Bonus Scheme feed-in tariffs of 60 cent and 20 cents for Solar Bonus Scheme customers.
It is at the discretion of retailers as to whether or not they choose to continue to make ‘top up’ payments to Solar Bonus Scheme customers. In some instances these ‘top up’ payments add a further 5-8 cents in addition to the Solar Bonus Scheme tariff.
Superior Solar are unsure at this time if this will is apply to all Solar Bonus Scheme ($0.60 & $0.20) customers and if other companies such as AGL will follow suit. A number of our customers with Energy Australia received a letter via post today outlining the changes and if you have any questions as to what you are receiving please direct them to your energy retailer.
For Energy Australia customers not participating in the Solar Bonus scheme and with an Inverter rated at less than 10 kilowatts in size, they have increased the feed in tariff to 7.7 cents per kilowatt hour. This represents a small increase from the previous amount of 0.06 cents. Check more information here Energy Australia Solar Bonus Scheme FAQs
If you are unhappy with changes to your electricity prices and tariffs you may like to review the NSW Governments energy provider comparison website to review what offers best suit you. IPART energy price comparison calculator (Although this site didn’t appear to be updated with the recent changes as of 9/7/12).