Electricity Prices To Rise (Again) In Western Australia

The WA Government will be clawing back some of its Household Electricity Credit through more expensive electricity and reduced feed-in tariffs.

First, the good news – the McGowan Government recently announced a $400 electricity bill credit for all Western Australian households as part of its 2022-23 Budget.

Now, the bad news – regulated electricity prices in the state are also determined as part of the annual State Budget process, and they’ll be heading north yet again.

For Synergy Home Plan (A1) customers, the supply charge will increase from 105.1400 cents per day to 107.7685 cents per day from July 1 2022 and consumption charges lifted from 29.3273 cents per kilowatt-hour to 30.0605 cents. For other tariffs and further details, see this page.

The increases for Horizon Power customers on its standard residential tariff (A2) are the same – a supply charge increase from $1.0514 /day​ to $1.07777 /day; and on consumption, from 29.3273 c/kWh​ to 30.0605 c/kWh​. Changes to other Horizon Power tariffs can be found here.

While not huge increases, every little bit hurts and WA residents have been subjected to ongoing electricity price rises. There have been increases every year since at least 2017, with the exception of 2020 when Premier McGowan announced all household fees and charges would be frozen as part of economic relief to tackle the COVID-19 emergency.

Looking back to 2016/17, Synergy supply charges on A1 were just 48.5989 cents per day and electricity was 26.4740 cents per unit. In 2017/18, the supply charge jumped to 94.9058 cents per day.

WA Feed-In Tariff Reduction

Usually when electricity prices go up, particularly if wholesale power price increases are involved, so do feed-in tariffs for solar owners. But Western Australia’s solar feed-in tariff – already crappy – is about to get a bit crappier for many.

For Horizon Power customers, the Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme (DEBS) rates vary depending on location, but will remain the same for 2022/23. For Synergy customers, while the DEBS buyback rate will remain at 10c/kWh for electricity exported between 3pm and 9pm, exports at all other times will earn 2.5c/kWh – down from 2.75c/kWh.

Again, the Western Australian Government continues to significantly undervalue solar energy exports.

Solar Power Still Stacks Up In WA

For WA households and businesses without PV on their rooftops, the latest round of electricity price increases provide another good reason to go solar in Western Australia. For those with panels installed, it will make maximising solar energy self-consumption even more compelling – after all, why export for 2.5c/kWh and then buy electricity back for more than twelve times that if you can minimise how often this happens.

It may also make buying a solar battery more attractive for some solar owners and those considering installing panels. But do your research. As part of that research, give the SolarQuotes solar and battery calculator a run to see what sort of savings and simple payback you can expect based on your circumstances, and pay special attention to how savings are affected by a battery and solar panels separately.

If you’re looking for a good solar/battery installer, SolarQuotes can help out there too; with a bunch of pre-vetted solar installers in Perth, Rockingham, Bunbury and elsewhere in the state.