Australians are paying more and more for electricity, with the country already facing one of the highest prices in the developed world, according to the Australian Electricity Prices: an International Comparison.

 

Commissioned by the Energy Users Association of Australia (EUAA), the report warns that Australians may soon be face the highest price for electricity in the developed world.

 

“Rising electricity prices are having a major impact on the cost of living and of doing business. All Australians know this and are naturally concerned about it. However, it has been a widely held and expressed view that Australian electricity prices has been amongst the lowest in the developed world and that, even with the recent increases, Australia was still in ‘the middle of the pack’,”  Roman Domanski, Executive Director of the EUAA said.

 

The report, authored by consultants Carbon & Energy Markets (CME), found that electricity is becoming less affordable for households and businesses.

 

The paper compares household electricity prices in 91 jurisdictions including all eightAustralian states and territories. The report found that average household electricity  prices in Australia are now higher than those in Japan, the European Union, the United States of America and Canada.  In 2011, household electricity prices in four of Australia’s eight State/Territories were in the top six countries, states and provinces included in the comparison.  South Australia ranked third highest, New South Wales fourth, Victoria fifth and Western Australia sixth. This means that three-quarters of Australia’s population are paying electricity prices that are amon the six highest in the developed world.  Only Tasmania (eleventh), Queensland (sixteenth), the ACT (twenty-first) and the Northern Territory (twenty-ninth) lie outside of the top ten, but they still rank in the top one-third.

 

“These results pre-date the carbon tax that will commence on 1stJuly and add further to electricity price increases.  The results also show that Australia’s prices can be expected to increase further and significantly in the next few years, which is likely to make our electricity prices the highest in the world,” Mr Domanski said.

 

“The electricity reforms of the 1990s supported our competitive advantage in energy but little hadbeen done since. Government statistics show that productivity in the electricity sector has been lagging badly and it is widely acknowledged that network charges to transport electricity over ‘poles and wires’ are excessive.  They make up half the average electricity bill and are the main contributor to the large price increases we’ve seen, along with renewable energy subsidies.”