Why is inexpensive electricity so expensive?

[nomadpete]

I note that although the recent official graphs show a slight decrease in domestic electricity consumption, I think they cannot measure most of the locally consumed rootop solar, so they miss that. In my case, my solar has logged as much power as my street meter consumption, but my bill only showed a third of that going back into the grid.

So nationally, average household power consumption has increased steadily over the years. Of course bills go up.

 

Consumer lifestyle is the real reason for the increased power bills. 

 

[onetrack]

Your power supply reliability is largely determined by the distance your power lines cover to get the power to you - and the terrain. If you choose to live in remote mountainous, or even hilly terrain, expect more blackouts than people in closer to the power generation facilities and in open, more level terrain.

 

Living in Central Perth, I have experienced so few blackouts, it's hard to recall when I last had one. Mostly any blackouts happen after a long dry Summer and dust and salt build up on powerline insulators. Then we get a very moist morning or even a tiny amount of rain, not enough to wash the insulators, and we have "flashovers", where the insulators fail to do their job and the power supply shorts out. A lot of times, flashovers also cause pole crossbar fires, and that makes things even worse.

 

We pay 32c a unit and a $1.16 a day supply charge. 45% of our bill goes to the company that operated, and maintains and manages our power network - Western Power. WP manage over $30 billion worth of assets, including 42,000 transmission towers and 758,000+ distribution poles. Our system is called the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) and it is the biggest totally isolated network in the world, and it covers the most populous areas of S.W. W.A.

 

Currently we have only 3 coal fired generators left supplying our power, and they are slated to close in 2027, 2029 and 2030. Those dates may be extended a little. Those 3 coal fired generators are the most costly power generation in W.A. and have been losing money hand over fist for years.

 

Failed refurbishment of one coal-fired power station here, cost taxpayers over $300M, to get nothing in return, except abandonment of the project, as the power station corrosion problems got bigger and bigger as the project proceeded.

So there's nothing cheap about coal-fired power here in the West. We rely on natural gas power generation (15% of W.A.'s natural gas supplies are reserved for W.A. consumers and businesses), solar, wind, and now big batteries.

By 2030, we will be running on solar, wind, big batteries, and minimal natural gas power generation. Solar power generation via household roofs in W.A. is a massive source of W.A.'s energy, and it is being harnessed via those big batteries.

 

Edited 5 hours ago by onetrack

[facthunter]

 General statement.....36 cents gives you a Horsepower for 1.25 hours & about $300 per annum keeps you connected.  Australia is a Big Place with a lot of wide open spaces to service. Stop whingeing and get on with your life. There's a lot worse things going on out there to be concerned about. Nev

[Siso]

Solar and wind is the cheapest form of electricity but it also needs a lot of backup, extra transmission, storage and artificial inertia which makes the whole package expensive. Snowy 2 was quoted at $4B currently at $12B and they are talking $20B. I know a lot of you won't like the host(some of his views are a bit out there) but his guest has a pretty good explanation of what is really happening. it can be seen by those inside the industry as well.

 

 

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

18 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

if I remember corectly, you are in QLD (but maybe mixing it up with Willidoo). 

No, I'm in Mid-West NSW, with a supply of candles in my pantry. They get used at a rapid rate because four are used at a time for lengthy outages. Memories come flooding back how my Grandmother, living by herself, in the fifties, without electricity, just candles after sunset in the evenings. And here I am, living the same way on many occasions, in 2026 modernity. Although, now I have small portable LED lights as well as candles.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

21 hours ago, facthunter said:

If he keeps GON it could be GAY.  but I doubt that's on the cards, but I'm not expert there, either..

Is that an insult? Are you getting me mixed up with someone else?

 

The topic is Solar/Wind power and what it's costing us.

[octave]

1 hour ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

No, I'm in Mid-West NSW, with a supply of candles in my pantry

 

The good thing about today is that modern technology supersedes candles, etc.  Modern LED lighting, cheap solar panels, lower cost batteries mean that even without a full-on rooftop system with battery, you can cobble together quite a good backup power system. Action is better than whinging.

[onetrack]

I've got a small industrial block in a small country town, in the Wheatbelt of W.A., about 130kms NNE of Perth. Despite having a 3 phase powerline only 50M away at a T-junction, the power has never been supplied to my block.

The worst part is - if I want mains power, I have to submit a usage plan, pay $450 application fee to Western Power, plus about another $1300 for them to investigate, doing engineering studies, and provide me with a quote for running mains power to my property.

It's highly likely that quote will come in anywhere between $10,000 to $20,000, just to run the powerline 50M to my property. Such are the joys of our W.A. mains power supply being a Govt-owned monopoly.

 

And if I reject their quote as too costly, I lose my $450 application fee. If I go ahead with the proposal, I'm then looking at a monthly supply charge plus power usage costs. Likely to be at least $30-$50 a month bare minimum.

To top it all, the area suffers from frequent blackouts - as a result of a long power line supply. Apparently some of those blackouts have lasted for up to a week.

 

Accordingly, I bought two excellent condition small diesel gensets - one single phase 6KVA, and one 3 phase 19KVA. They cost me less than $5000 in total. I use about 20L of fuel a month, probably less than the cost of the supply charge for mains power. I can run them when I want, and not run them, if I don't need the power.

I'm shortly going to invest in a solar and battery setup, utilising used solar panels and used lead acid batteries.  I reckon that setup will cost me no more than a couple of thousand dollars. That will then give me a constant power source for fridges and lights, and if I want to do some welding, grinding, tyre changing, or run my big air compressor, I fire up the gensets for the necessary period required.

 

You have a multitude of options in todays world, unlike people in the fifties. But even back then, most rural people had small Dunlite gensets and batteries - and Dunlite even built small Wind turbines, which turbines are still sought after today for their durability.