Electricity prices have been continuing to drop in SA and retailers appear to be playing fair with solar customers says a new Essential Services Commission of South Australia report.
First to electricity prices – ESCOSA reports average residential annual electricity retail Standing Offer and Market Offer prices dropped 5.9 percent and 7.0 percent respectively over the 12 months to 30 June 2021. This works out to an average annual bill reduction of $136 for a customer on a Standing Offer contract and $145 on a Market Offer contract.
For small businesses, average annual electricity retail Standing Offer and Market Offer prices fell by 8.0 percent and 7.5 percent respectively over the same period; a reduction on average equivalent to $380 for a customer on a Standing Offer contract and a $312 in the case of a Market Offer contract.
That’s all pretty good news – but as your mileage will vary it’s always best to shop around for the best deal.
South Australian Minister for Energy and Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan was quick to claim credit for the Marshall Government – and to of course diss the Opposition.
“The success of the Marshall Government’s power policies including the largest rollout of home batteries per capita in the world, virtual power plants, voluntary demand management and our Grid Scale Storage Fund have reversed Labor’s disastrous legacy of sky-high power prices.”
.. but added to all that is the continued strong uptake uptake by households and businesses of solar power systems (lower mains electricity costs are nice, a zero bill even better), along with other larger-scale renewables.
Minister van Holst Pellekaan said even greater electricity price reductions were on the horizon for SA households and businesses through the SA/NSW interconnector, construction of which is to commence next month.
Project EnergyConnect will boost South Australia’s electricity import and renewable energy export potential, encouraging more renewables and putting further downward pressure on prices. According to the Project EnergyConnect web site, typical residential electricity bills should reduce by around $66 annually, and for small business, by $132.
SA Electricity Retailers And Solar Owners
ESCOSA notes in its report most electricity retailers were not discriminating between solar and non-solar customers. All but one were making their best-priced Market Offers available to residential and business customers with solar panels.
In terms of feed-in tariffs in South Australia and among electricity retailers offering them, at the end of June the range was from 2.1c per kilowatt-hour up to 22c. It’s important to note the highest feed in tariff doesn’t always represent the best deal – there can be devil in the detail.
The best electricity plan for owners of solar power systems offers a balance of high feed-in-tariffs, low usage tariffs and low daily charges. Trying to figure this out can be a complicated task, but SolarQuotes has made it much easier with its electricity plan comparison tool; specifically designed for solar owners.
ESCOSA’s full Energy Retail Price Offers Comparison Report 2020-21 can be viewed here and the executive summary here.
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Checked these for Ardrossan SA in Sept’21, your chart strongly favoured covaU over Alinta or Powerdirect, confirming it with “direct link” to their page on the regulator’s site BUT checking via covaU’s own site, linking back to the same regulator site reveals feedin drops from 12c to 5.5 & my annual cost switches from promised -$1638 to a fee of $716.44 (vs $129.79 with Alinta, or $165.12 with discounted Powerdirect)
As far as I can tell, CovaU is still offering a plan with a 12 cent feed-in tariff. If they refuse to give it to you it may be an issue for consumer affairs. If you’d rather use a different retailer 1st Energy is offering a 13 cent feed-in tariff and AGL 12 cents.