Mrs Nancy Peters

Solar energy and lots of it is vital to Australia and the world's futture. To my grandchild's future. We have the opportunity to show what can be done. Please have Big Energy support solar not sabotage it. Dr Dorothy L Robinson

Thanks to greedy companies and inadequate oversight by the energy market regulator, electricity users have been forced to pay excessive prices for their power. Greenhouse gas emissions have also increased.

Previous regulations allowed electricity network companies to charge their clients a fixed rate of return on the money they spent, irrespective of whether there was a need for the new infrastructure.

The perverseness of regulations that encouraged excessive investment in infrastructure (1) was public knowledge in 2012 when Australian Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson explained that installing a A$1,500 air-conditioning system was expected to cost A$7,000 in upgrades to the electricity network to ensure sufficient capacity to run the air-conditioner on the hottest summer day (2; 3).

The example noted below, of a $30 million in a substation in Newcastle that wasn't even connected to the grid because it wasn't needed, (4) demonstrates the stupidity of the previous regulatory system.

This Inquiry should investigate why this was allowed to happen and consider how to fix the regulatory system so that it protects both Australian consumers and future generations. Excessive and unnecessary climate-damaging emissions will impose substantial costs on future generations. Just as imposing government debt on future generations is contrary to the principle of inter-generational equity, so is imposing the costs of global warming on future generations.

One possible quick fix, to tide the system over while the regulators are getting their acts together, would be for electricity retailers to negotiate network charges based on the network demands of their consumers. Retailers that minimize network costs (e.g. by installing smart meters, or assisting with other energy efficiency measures, or battery storage for PV) will be able to offer attractive rates to their customers.

It is pleasing to some companies are attempting to increase efficiency and reduce network charges, e.g. offering subsidies to install PeakSmart air-conditioners and reduced tariffs per kWh for PeakSmart households www.ergon.com.au/retail/residential/tariffs-and-prices/time- of-use-tariffs/peaksmart-air-conditioning

However, a fairer system would charge all households according to the loads they impose on the system, rather than offer attractive rates to some households with specific airconditioners.

In the long run, we need to learn from the mistakes of the previous regulatory system and ensure that adequate resources and expertise are available to ensure future regulations are in the best interest of all Australians, including future generations who will face the challenges of climate change. 1. Edis T (2 Jul 2013) Declining demand, rising prices – is there something wrong. Climate Spectator. www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/7/2/energy-markets/declining- demand-rising-prices-is-there-something-wrong

2. Fanning E (2012) The Hidden Cost of Infinite Energy http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/the-hidden-cost-of-infinite-energy-part-1/19/ (accessed May 2013

3. Productivity Commission (2012) Electricity Network Regulatory Frameworks, Draft Report, Canberra. http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/120043/electricity-draft- volume1.pdf (accessed May 2013).

4. ABC (2014) The price of power. Background Briefing. Available at: http://abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2014-04-27/5406022. Mr Saba Katra

Hi

I believe the system for solar that is currently in place is an absolute joke and a total rip off to the Australian people. The idea, the concept is great but the way it is implemented is terrible. I have a 3kw solar system that cost me around 8 grand including having to pay for a new digital metering system as the one I had was well out dated and wouldn't work well if at all with my solar system.

Paying that amount of money only to save approx $100 per quarter is ridiculous!

I can send almost as much power to the grid as I use and yet only I get paid 8 cents per kwh and they, AGL, can charge me 3 times as much. Why? I am providing the same power as them. What makes my power any different to theirs? It's still used, right? No complaints from their end saying that my power supplied is any less in quality and due to where it's coming from, is needing to be charged at a lower rate due to its quality and/or where it's sourced.

I had an investigation conducted via AGL's independent resolution team and I explained to them why am I getting charged in the form of me taking more power during the day but at night it's much less and yet I'm using the same amount of appliances in my house? By the end of it they couldn't tell me why that was the case but did amount grew it was odd. Haha... some help that was. Oh sorry we fail but we still have to charge you for that failure. What an absolute joke!

I only recently found out that my peak and off peak times are at a flat rate but it still doesn't explain why I am drawing more power during the day than at night when I'm supposedly on a flat rate where off peak and peak times do not apply. This whole system is confusing and ppl under frustrating and I do not get an dolly n day sense of assurance that I am truly benefiting from having a solar system in place.

The only alternative I can think of in order to fix this is to pay more money and purchase solar batteries so I can store my own power and when I am unable to run directly from the sun, like at night or there is a black out or its really bad weather, I can simply switch to the batteries and depending how many I have bought, I can last long enough until I catch the sun again and then recharge those batteries.

I can no longer trust these electricity companies to do the right thing by me so I will need to find ways where I can be as independent from them as possible.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to express my concerns about this matter and I really do hope something truly positive comes out of this. Mr Marek Rutkowski

I supply Ergon with energy at peak hours from my 5 KW system. They give me credit of 8 cents per kilowatt. Later, at evening, therefore OUT of peak hours Ergon charge me 26 cents per kilowatt. Excuse tat they have admin costs are untrue since they charge additional cost of maintenance. This is UNFAIR. Electricity today is an essential supply and never should be treated as a source of unjustified ENERMOUS profit. Mr John Christie

The time is coming when we will see the change in who and what will be the major supplier of energy not only in this country but the world, and renewables are in the vanguard of that Change!!! Mr Darren Stuart

Hi

First up I don't believe that my concerns will be taken seriously by the government or its decisions makers. To start with the government should not have sold any part of our energy network in anyway, it was not yours to sell. There was always a very strong argument that the energy companies would do wrong by the consumer and put profits well above anything else.

In regards the disgraceful thought that these capitalist pigs are going to charge those with solar systems that are not connected to the grid is a outright break down of our democratic system and the introduction of dictatorship. If I said that I was going to charge somebody or a group of people a fee for a service that I done want or use, I would be prosecuted, fined and threatened with jail. I cannot believe the government is even considering this proposal. Noting that it is the greed of the energy companies in part that have turned consumers away from the grid. If I decide to go off grid I will not pay this fee to the energy companies hence the courts will have to put me in jail. A will not fiance the greed of these organisations no matter how they justify their action. Therefore if the governments is truly representing the people of Australia the voters they will not allow this to happen.

Regards

Darren Stuart Clare Levy

I don't understand why it's ok for electricity companies to pay 6-7 cent a kWh for power uploaded to the grid and charge 35 cent for pore downloaded. Surely that is excessive profiteering? And why, when such a large percentage of householders now with some proportion of solar roof panels, is the price of electricity so high and continues to rise. Surely demand must be dropping? Andrew Park

The solar rebate scheme is a rip off. I am disgusted that I will loose my rebate if I upgrade my system. They make it unaffordable so where is the sustainability and incentivisation in that for the average family. Again the environment suffers. Mr. Paranjothy Sinniah

There are three of us living in a two bed roomed unit with very basic electrical equipment. Our electrical bills seem rather high i.e. approx. $900 per quarter. On inquiry the company insisted that I get a second meter reading which I thought was absurd due to the fact that the bills were what I was inquiring about, not the meter readings. I was told that if anything was to be done, a second reading would have to be made first; it was Company procedure. As such, a second reading was made, the meter was declared as operating without fault so my bill stands as it is PLUS an EXTRA about $150/- for the second meter reading taken. If this is not supercilious B.S., then what is? Since I live in a flat I cannot have Solar but my Taxes go toward the setting up of Solar on other owners landed property; even more B.S.Who has the guts to do anything.Kind reg.Paranjothy

Peter Sinniah Mr Michael Bull

I would like the committee to look at two issues in particular.

The first relates to the contracts which are offered by the suppliers which are for a fixed term but allow the supplier to change prices as they wish. So you think you are signing up for two years at a particular price only to find that six months later the price changes but you are still locked into a two year contract.

The second is a fault in the way the prices are regulated for the grid where the suppliers are given a rate of return on their capital expenditure. This has lead them to overspend ie. gold plating, and we have a grid which is larger than we need. Part of this is due to poor estimates of future demand. At the moment the consumer pays for these poor estimates. Surely the supplier should take responsibility for these estimates and bear the losses if they get them wrong. Mr Phillip Nahed

I was deeply disappointed when my wife and I switched to a renewable energy tariff with AGL that cost more and promised to put the extra money into promoting renewables. Sadly, shortly after we agreed to their contract AGL began lobbying the government to reduce or abolish the renewable energy target and remove the price on carbon. We lived up to our end of the bargain by paying more for our electricity, but they did not live up to their end. We have since changed our electricity suppliers to Powershop but have had to pay a fee for cancelling our contract. I believe that when they lied they should have returned the extra that we payed, not charge us for leaving. Mrs Maureen Kirsch

Senate submission

In 2009 the Auditor-General’s assessment on smart meters was that the “cost-benefit study behind the AMI decision was flawed and failed to offer a comprehensive view of the economic case for the project”.

The Auditor-General also stated that the previous cost-benefit study had “failed to take into account the implications of the implementation risks, particularly risks from unproven technology”.

More alarmingly, no recognition was given to emerging risks associated with the power distributors’ decision to deploy wireless networks, which involves the forced irradiation of the Victorian population with pulsed radiofrequencies.

Victorian Auditor-General 2009, Towards a ‘smart grid’ – the roll-out of Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Full report, Available: http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/publications/2009-10/111109-AMI-Full- Report.pdf

Since the rollout of smart meters in Victoria, hundreds of people have been reporting adverse health symptoms which they attribute to the pulsed RF emissions.

Symptoms such as insomnia, headaches, tinnitus, heart palpitations, blurred vision, memory and other cognitive disturbances are repeatedly and independently being reported, yet no one is investigating.

The impact on people’s lives has been profound in some cases, resulting in high personal costs for the people and their families, as well as the community.

In a number of cases people have ceased employment as a direct result of smart meters, have undergone unnecessary medical procedures, have ended up being hospitalized, have outlaid many thousands of dollars to partially shield their homes from smart meter emissions, are no longer able to access parts of their homes and gardens, while some have had to relocate to another property or interstate to escape the emissions.

None of these are costs which have appeared in any of the cost-benefit studies endorsing the rollout.

There are a vast number of scientific studies, numbering in the thousands, pointing to very serious consequences as result of exposure to radiofrequencies. This research has been public for a very long time.

Please see links below:

A paper by Dr David O’ Carpenter along with 40 other physicians entitled:

Smart Meters: Correcting the Gross Misinformation http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view;jsessionid=NDTPRSrKjyXK9QsNy4w9vdqyDnJBZz wSLn065qWb2M12LXjq122s!956499833!NONE?id=7022118538

Johansson, O. 2011, Letter from Dr Olle Johansson of Karolinska Institute to the California Public Utilities Commission

Warning of the Dangers of Smart Meters, Available: http://electromagnetichealth.org/electromagnetic-healthblog/ letter-johansson-smart-meters/

Namkung, P. 2012, Attachment B, pp. 9-18, County of Santa Cruz Health Services Agency Memorandum to Santa Cruz

County Board of Supervisors, Available: http://sccounty01.co.santacruz. ca.us/bds/Govstream/BDSvData/non_legacy/agendas/2012/20120124/PDF/041.pdf

Powell, R. 2013, Biological Effects from RF Radiation at Low-Intensity Exposure, based on the BioInitiative 2012

Report, and the Implications for Smart Meters and Smart Appliances, Available: http://marylandsmartmeterawareness.org/wpcontent/ uploads/2013/06/Biological_Effects_from_RF_Radiation_and-

Implications_for_Smart_Meters_June_11_2013_B.pdf

BioInitiative Working Group 2012, BioInitiative 2012 Report, Conclusions Table 1-1, Available: http://www.bioinitiative.org/

Jamieson, I. 2011, Smart Meters – Smarter Practices, Available: http://www.electromagneticman.co.uk/index.php/featured-download

American Academy of Environmental Medicine Calls for

Immediate Caution regarding Smart Meter Installation http://aaemonline.org/pressadvisoryemf.pdf

Most recently a peer reviewed case series has been published by an Australian doctor: Self reporting of symptom Development from Exposure to radio Frequency Fields of wireless Smart meters in Victoria, Australia: A Case series This case series includes 92 residents from Victoria.

Below is a perspective on this report by David O. Carpenter, MD via Another Published Article [*]

“The report by Lamech is valuable for several reasons. It provides support for the possibility that a sudden increase in RF exposure — in this case from smart meters — results in the development of EHS [Electrohypersensitivity]. This observation is consistent with [other] reports … and suggests that the syndrome can be triggered in susceptible individuals by an unusual or intense exposure to EMFs and perhaps to electric current. The Lamech report also raises the important question of what characteristics of smart meters, compared with other sources of RF, may be responsible for provoking EHS.”

[*] Reference: “Excessive Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields May Cause the Development of Electrohypersensitivity,” by David O. Carpenter, (Altern Ther Health Med. 2014;20(6):pp 40-42.) Refer to: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25478802#.

Since the rollout of smart meters the cost to me and my family has been enormous:

I have lost my health. I have suffered from insomnia, severe head pressure, blurred vision, skin rash on my face, tinnitus and extreme agitation when in the proximity of smart meters and other wireless devices like wi-fi, smart phones, cordless phones.

I have lost my ability to work as I have become so sensitive to these wireless devices that I can no longer teach as classrooms and schools have wi-fi installed.

I have already lost 3 years salary, plus my independence and sense of worth as a productive member of society.

I have had to move out of my home, to a house that for now doesn’t have a smart meter.

I have lost my freedom of movement as smart meters are in most homes and wireless devices are in shopping centres, cafes, libraries etc.

My son, Tim, aged 24 has also been affected by the smart meters. This exposure has triggered off sensitivity to all wireless devices. He can no longer use his mobile phone. He has had to leave two jobs because he could not tolerate the EMR in his workplace. He is struggling to cope with everyday life because he is constantly feeling dizzy and unwell when exposed to EMR.

I would like to recommend that there is a full parliamentary inquiry into the health effects of smart meters. ( not a technical study)

I would like for all sufferers who wish to be heard to be given the opportunity to speak and relate their own experiences in an open and transparent forum. I would request that all affected persons be allowed to have the RF card removed immediately from their smart meter.

Maureen Kirsch Mr Mark Gardner

I work in an industry that supplies equipment to energy supply companies, the equipment we supply has gone from being hired at 700 hr to 250 an hour..due to competition..the point costs of supply have dropped.

Retail rates are rising even with carbon tax removed? I want to add solar but the rate for my excess is far too low..should be 1.1, ie excess power should sell for the same or close to the retail rate.why did it drop from. 44c to. 06, this is not a fair reduction.

They system should encourage excess power production. Maybe a small fee for grid access. To be fair the grid is built and repaired with tax dollars..it should be far far cheaper..

The waste is in the inefficient spending by powerlink, ergonomic and energex. Maintenance costs and inefficient scheduling of work is impacting retail pricing.

Last opionion, investment in new technology to ensure we use roofing material that doubles as a solar collection system. Sponsor development of batteries for each home to close the loop even more.

See power plastics why not put this or similar on every patio, government paid for with power sold back to the grid paying for the investment.ie a new patio scheme, funded by the energy produced underwritten by a finance firm.

Think new out of the box and let technology and competition drive down pricing..

Love to advise or sit on a committee.. Mr Shiva Iyer

The price of energy (electricity and Gas) has been going up like crazy in the last few years.. This trend must be arrested.

I do my best to keep my consumption down by: Installing Solar Panels; using appliances during off peak hours wherever possible; using Air Conditioning and heaters very minimally; switching off lights and standby lights on appliances when NOT needed.

One of the most important matter that you could attend to is to ensure that legislation is in place in NSW so that I receive reasonable tariff rebate on my Solar generated electricity especially as it is due to end very soon and I am in a limbo as to what will happen in the future.

At the absolute minimum make sure that the METER runs backward when I generate electricity and forward when I use more than what I generate with my Solar Panels. This will mean that there needs to be no complicated formulae in calculating the final charge. It will be fair to both the individual and the Energy Company involved. Sean Leiper the costs of energy production and retailing needs to be made more transparent and highly scrutinised as it is a necessary service for our current societies and we should be paying the lowest possible price with acceptable profits going to providers. sustainable sources of energy also need to be looked at and compared in real world values, not just dollar costs, to give them a fairer entry and position in our current market. Environmental effects of each energy production method needs to be taken into account at every level. Ms Jan Lansdowne

Dear Commissioners,

I would like to see electricity producers and retailers challenged to take climate change and the recent reductions in electricity usage into account when planning upgrades to their facilities as at present they seem to be able to add whatever capabilities they wish and then pass the costs on the purchasers.

I would like to see more localised electricity production and distribution instead of our current centralised system.

I am upset that many energy companies have campaigned against renewable energy ie their competitors, with no regard to what energy mix will be best in the future for our planet.

I have found all the energy companies I have ever dealt with, except Powershop, to whom I have recently transferred my electricity, to be grossly inefficient in billing and service.

I think that electricity supplied to the grid by solar PV should earn the same amount as what solar providers have to pay for the grid electricity they use otherwise the energy companies are being unfair. Michelle Mattey

Well....when the carbon tax was removed, I thought my electricity bill would go down, how wrong was I, I did the sums, comparing with my last a/c (with carbon tax) & my bill actually went up, some charges went down a smidgen(ha,ha,ha) but the SERVICE FEE went up to $85, should've known better ay! It was actually cheaper if it stayed the way it was with the carbon tax included,what a joke!!! Given in one hand an taken straight from the other??? And I do ALL I can to keep my bill down...it was only approx $230ish a qtr now well over $350 for myself & two children....nothing has changed.....and something has too Mr Peter Housler

Installed solar to help reduce my energy costs and help reduce the load on the electricity system only to be ripped off my feed in 6 cents kw and I get charged 3 times as much for there feed how is that fair Mr Surome Singh

1] Firstly we were sucked in by the generous rebates and the promise of paying for our system in 7 years.

2]This year our rebate was cut to 6 or 8cents per/kw.[Qld] Now it will take 20 yrs to pay off our system or it would be defunct by then.

I cannot recall a single publication that told us of this risk.

3] The Federal Govt is not interested in renewable energy.

4]There is a disconnect between the rebate and electricity charges including service fees. we are paying 35c kw all up and our solar power is worth 6c kw .

5]Coal power stations must be very inefficient or the Govt is allowing the large combines to make super profits.

6] We the people are also assisting in reducing greenhouse gases but the govt thinks this is a worthless contribution.

7] By election time we will be given another spin by the vested interests and the slick election campaign.

8]We the ordinary taxpayers and voters are the biggest source of tax and GST revenue. We cannot claim depreciation or tax offset as our installation is paid for from after tax savings.

9]This senate inquiry should be fair and swift.The electricity suppliers are charging approx. 6 times solar produced electricity. Our investment in solar panels has no value.

10] If the Govt wants to destroy more manufacturing jobs and not be at the leading edge of solar research let the status quo remain.

11] Aust has more sun than most northern hemisphere countries but there is no incentive to encourage solar power.Lets hope the voters don't forget this time. Mr Nicholas Wilkinson

WE have used solar panels on our roof and feeding back into the grid for six years. The circuitry occasionallygives trouble but qualified servicemen are always available to fix the problems.

BUT, if solar power is not supported in future, these skilled servicemen will no longer be available and we will have to go off grid and convert to battery storage and 18V house- power. None of the established majors will benefit from this and we will cease to be subsidisers of your myopically focussed base-load capacity. Pretty short-sighted, is it not? Mr Scott Ensor

Not much space and a lot to say, so I will keep to bullet points:

1. Solar installed in April 2014

2. Not recognized on my bill until July because Energy Australia claimed I had to inform them first.

3. They were informed when the Solar Installers requested a new meter, so I argued point 2 with them to no avail.

4. While trying to follow their rules and sign on to a new plan that would 'recognize' my solar production, was initially told I was wasting my time as there was no tariff buyback - not my primary reason for installing solar anyways.

5. Was under the understanding that I would only be charged for excess usage of electricity. They seem to bill me for all usage at their rates and then credit back the Solar usage at approx 8 cents per Kwh.

6. Made weekly calls to Energy Australia between May and September attempting to have my April to July solar production recognized to no avail.

7. Prior to April, I used to be able to track my energy use through their E-Wise portal - from the day solar was switched on in April to the point in time (November?) that they shut it down - I was no longer able to see my usage in the portal.

8. In reference to point 7 - I called about this frequently too and was

told repeatedly that requests had been raised to the data teams to load my data, and was twice told I just had to wait until the next meter read. The September data read came and went, nothing changed.

9. Once I signed onto my new 'solar' plan with Energy Australia, I was advised they were hiking electricity prices again.

10. My main motivation for going solar was to save money on increasingly ridiculous power prices. I was being billed approximately $1100, $1250, and $1250 the three quarters prior to installing solar. When I didn't see a reduction Of my bill or recognition of solar generated in my June bill, my battle with them began. It shouldn't take until September to see the benefit of my solar power system installed in April of the same year - approx 5 months earlier.

11. Further to point 10, also driving my motivation was the desire to reduce my peak hour energy consumption. I live in a home with my spouse and two children, and my wife's parents. I am out of the home at work in these Hours Monday to Friday. My wife is at work Monday to Wednesday, and my two children are at school- so essentially these large bills are being generated by my wife's parents? 12. Personal opinion, but I suspect the Energy Wise portal was shut down to reduce transparency. Further to this, my bills are now very complex, multiple pages, hard to work out. It can't be this hard!

13. After seeing a reduction in our bill of approximately $400 - some of which were credits to our account for concessions other than solar, and with our solar generation up around 1700 kWh for the October through December quarter, I am still seeing a bill around $850.

14. To date, my 5kwh Fronius Inverter system with 14 Sunpower 320 panels has:

Generated 3.14 Mwh of power, reduced my carbon production by1.8 tonnes, the equivalent of planting 46 new trees, or driving a car non stop for 12,042 Km's

In closing, I took out a Green Loan through a bank for $14000 to try and save some money in the longer term and to do my bit and more to help our environment. I am not after a source of income from my solar system, the feed in tariff means little to me. I want my power generation recognized though. There is no reason I should not get the same value from my energy generation that I pay Energy Australia for. It's common sense. If the going rate for 1kwh is .52 cents in peak hour, that is what my 1kwh is worth. 100% offset. The current scenario reminds me of a child labour sweatshop.

The red tape, excuses, and misinformation is in my option, designed to confuse and frustrate to customer. My energy costs are through the roof - and worse since the repeal of the carbon tax, not better.

I could go into a lot more detail, dig out paperwork to back up my claims - and I think if found to be deceitful, backdated compensation should be awarded to the customers they have treated so poorly.

PS: My last bill came in with a due date of 31/12/2014 - good riddance to 2014. Things can only get better right? Something is not right here, and we all know it! Mr John White

My submission is that the Senate needs to consider the Electricity Network Companies service and maintenance levels in the light of the degree of emission reductions necessary to meet our greenhouse targets that will stem from the Paris meeting next year.

Sooner or later the prioritising of (overseas) shareholder interests over consumers, endless price increases (which have now overtaken any perceived advantage of removing the carbon tax) and a complete lack of commitment to investing in renewables mean that these industries will need to be nationalised.

Just look at Norway to see your way forward on this point. Mr Mick O'Brien

I live in the country and pay about 50% more for my power than my daughter in the city. I suspect this is the case for lots of people.

But my main gripe is about the total waste of money that Smart Meters have turned out to be. We have been charged about $900 for our smart meter, with promises of big savings through the ability to monitor use and turn stuff on and off. Years later we still do not have an in- house display, and there seems to be no plan to provide one. Without an in house display, the smart meter is of no use to us - our meter is behind the shed 50 m from the main house.

It also seems the power company doesn't save anything either - they atill read the meter manually, even though some of the data is available on line (but up to a day late). I guess they made all their money from the markup on installing the meters,and the story about mutual savings was just rubbish from the start.

All in all smart meters have been just a huge con and a total waste of money.

I feel the power companies should be forced to repay all the moey they ghavce taken from us for smart meters. Mr Richard Leschen

Dear Senate enquiry Members,

I Richard Leschen am one of now well over 300,000 people and growing in number who refuses to allow a now proving to be poisonous Electric Microwave and far from Smart Meter on my property at any time for Health Reasons. Apart from that, not only here in Victoria Australia have we had a number of these so-called Smart Meters turn into Incendiary meters burning down a two storey home in Northcote a suburb of Melbourne soon after the Type 2B as classified by the World Health Organisation or W.H.O and now seemingly to be Carcinogen Causing to ALL LIFE THREATENING Meter had been installed some hours before when the Foreign Owned Electric Power Company STOLE the Safe and Passive Analog Electric Meter from this Greek family's home in the suburb of Northcote a Melbourne suburb in Victoria Australia.

The percentage of people in Australia and now world-wide had been some 3% to 6% of people badly affected by the Microwave Radiation from these now proving to be Far from Smart Microwave A.M.I Broadcasting and receiving meters. Right now in Victoria and world-wide the actual level of people adversely affected from this now proving to be poisonous to humans and animals and even to beneficial insects like the honey bees and lady birds and other beneficial life forms to Earth-worms etc., has now risen to some 5% to 10% which is a very frightening increase over only the last five (5) years. The human sicknesses from this Microwave Radiation range from acute nausea or to pain behind the eyes to Insomnia to muscle cramps to feelings of extreme lassitude to arrhythmia etc., and in some cases where heart monitors are worn by patients to the heart actually being thrown out of its natural healthy rhythm or actually stopping. Also being adversely affected are such Life forms as Vegetation such as delicate creepers and many trees leaves in forests which are very close to a large number of Microwave broadcasting and receiving tower.

Many of these trees are having their leaves shrivel up and die and drop to the ground in mid Spring which is far from normal. In some cased the trees bark is getting a type of warty growth and a type of sores and suppuration is happening which is not normal. I feel that this Microwave and now seeming MONSTER has to be brought to a Crashing Halt as soon as possible as it is also ruining the very seeds of life, that is the Spermatozoa in men's testicle and the seeds of Life in women’s and girls ovaries and also in animals as well. My Earnest and Respectful Plea, Is to please stop the roll-out of any more of these so called Smart Meters which are not smart in any way at all, but according to the World Health Organisation or W.H.O are now far more dangerous than the Type 2B seeming to be Carcinogen possibility or their earlier findings.” The World Health Organisation will very likely as they state, have to soon raise this level of concern to that of as they state, “ That of a Type 2A which is the next very serious Level of Probable Carcinogen Level for Humans and all LIFE.

What is needed I submit with respect, is is to get rid of every Poisonous to all Life Microwave so-called but far from Smart Meter and reinstall the Safe and Passive Analog Electric Meters which have be Unlawfully Stolen from the Victorian Electricity Customers through down-right wicked Stealth and bullying by direct collusion of both the five foreign owned Electric Power Companies afore mentioned and the past John Brumby Labour Victorian and the recent Victorian Liberal Governments of Mr Ted Baillieu and then the last liberal party Premier Mr Denis Napthine.

Sincerely,

Richard Leschen. Scientific Researcher of Microwave Radiation). Mr John Eglezos

They are all corrupt i have solar panels to run my home and business it shows creditcthen you get billed for consumption simply energy is mine at the moment im not real happy i was suppose to be in credit never happens love to know what the real deal is Ms Sandra Reed

I live in WA and wanted to do the right thing and connect to solar. Western Power will not allow us to be independent of the grid (this is immoral and an infringement of our rights). Synergy stuffed up our paperwork resulting in delays in installation. They pay us a pittance for the power we produce and a fortune for what we use so that the net result is that we still receive substantial bills despite paying heavily to install the system in an attempt to be environmentally friendly and financially self sufficient, especially in retirement. Again this is immoral and unfair. Mr Don Pringle

Dear Senators,

My electricity supplier, AGL, charges me GST on the price of the power they sell me. I've no problem with that.

And the ATO charges me GST on the excess solar power I feed-in to the grid, but AGL does not pay me GST on that feed-in power. I do have a problem with that!

The power I send to AGL is a supply according to the ATO but not according to AGL.

I should be merely passing on GST from AGL to the ATO, as would be the case with any other income from a supply, but I have to pay the ATO when AGL has not paid me.

I do not understand how the can do this, seems illegal to me.

Thank you for considering my submission.

Don Pringle Ms Penny Browne had solar panels installed and was quoted a price which I paid in full. When my next bill arrived there was an additional charge of around $300 added on. I rang origin and they said they did not know what it was for that it was a powercorp charge. I rang powercorp and they rudely said that all bill enquiries needed to go to the provider. I rang origin back and asked again and again they said it was probably for the solar installation but couldn't tell me what for and that I would have to ring powercorp for details. I rang back powercorp and again a very rude woman told me that I needed to take that up with my biller.. I became angry at this point and said this is a charge from you and if you can't tell me what it is for then I want to speak to someone who can. Then she told me that it was a charge for an inspector to come to my property and check it complied.. I asked what date this inspector came because I had seen no one she couldn't tell me. I asked why I wasn't informed of this hidden cost beforehand. She said its not a hidden cost that if I had have rang them before instillation they would have told me.. I ask why the solar installers were not obliged to tell me.. She said that is up to them.. I said I wanted to make a formal complaint as I believe consumers should be told and powercorp should make that a condition of accreditation that all charges be explained.. She first told me I could complain then said she would have someone ring me back in the next couple days from the complaints department... No one ever rang Mr Mark Doyle

When changing to solar power, using various excuses, the power company delayed connecting my PVA to the grid for about 6 months, thus causing me to end up with a much lower feed in tariff. Also the price for power was raised from about 24 cents to over 39 cents per KWh. Compounding this the supply charge to this property has doubled, even though a group of us paid to have the power lines extended to our properties.

It appears that the Victorian power watchdog is just a body set up to approve whatever the power companies see fit to impose on their victims, laughingly called customers. Mr Ross Cargill

I am developing a Pistachio growing operation in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. The example related below is an example of the inflexibility of the monoply supplier Synergy, which will have a severe impact on the long term viability of my small business.

I have purchased a desalination unit to produce fresh water from the brackish water available locally, to supplement my other fresh water supplies.. My intention was to install PV panels on the main shed on the property, to supplement grid power for the desalination unit, and reduce the running costs. Because the desalination unit is 600 metres from the main shed, which has the necessary roof space, I requested Synergy to allow me to inject PV power at the meter box at the main shed, and offset that power against the metered usage at the desalination unit 600 metres away. They rejected this request, without any reason being given, either technical or commercial. I would accept some sort of transport fee across the grid, even though it is only 600 metres, and all the poles are on my property, and are my responsibility to maintain. But no such issue was discussed.

So the long term viability of my operation, particularly during dry years is at risk, because to quote the Synergy response - there is no provision to use the credits incurred on one account to offset the cost ... on a second account. Any excess power produced ... will be lost.

This is despite the fact that both accounts relate to the same business on the same property, 600 metres apart. Mr David AMOS

Point 1.

We in Queensland hear much from the State Government about helping to reduce the cost of living for Queenslanders. They reap huge profits from the State owned Energex and Ergon yet they have axed the $0.08 per kWh feed-in-tariff for power fed into the grid by households who were initially encouraged by Government to install solar systems.

THIS IS JUST ANOTHER BETRAYAL PERPETRATED ON THE PEOPLE WHOM THEY PURPORT TO REPRESENT.

Point 2.

At the same time, power retailers such as AGL and ORIGIN charge households 28cents per kWh yet pay households only 8cents per kWh for the power they feed back into the grid. And not satisfied with the huge 100% increase in the power price since 2006, AGL brazenly bumped the so called daily “supply charge” from 50.21cents in July 2013 to 83.41cents in July 2014 , a modest 66% increase!!

THESE ARE NOT JUST TWO EXAMPLES OF BLATANT PRICE RORTING BY POWER RETAILERS, BUT ALSO ONE OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST HOUSEHOLDS WHO GENERATE THEIR OWN POWER AND WHO RETURN ANY EXCESS TO THE GRID.

(Householders who feed power back into the grid should be allowed to charge their retailer a daily supply charge to recover the cost of the solar system installed at the expense of the householder.) Ms Lynn Beauregard

I am a voter who wishes to be properly represented. It is clear that climate change due to the use of excessive carbon releasing products is causing dangerous weather events, risking lives and damage to property. Government is seeking ways to reduce costs. Instead of approving more coal fired electricity generating stations, why not foster the migration of the technology onto peoples' roofs where they will be maintained by their owners? This is a no brainer. I object to the expenditure of taxes on old, polluting technology. I want green energy and I want my government to foster and guide its production and distribution.

Lynn Beauregard Mrs Kathleen Bryant

Me and my husband got solar panels on our small 3 bedroom kit home, we were told by the seller that if we got the maximum which is 20 panels that we would no longer get power bills or at least very low, we paid $16,200.00 for 20 solar panels. Our first power bills we received was still $600.00 dollars I rang the solar company and they denied ever telling us that we would get low power bills, we looked into suing them but they are such a big company and we only have my husband working as I look after the kids, we are a you couple also so I guess they new they could scam us and they did we have 26 solar panels our our roof and still get $600 power bills, it's is not right as they completely lied to us we are not struggling to pay of the solar panels and our power bills at the same time. The company refuses to remove the panels and say that they are working fine...but why are we getting $600 power bills every quarter and now $16,000.00 for the panels. Mr Carl Milne

There seems to be collusion amongst all the electricity retailers in what they charge for electricity supplied to me and with what they pay me for electricity I supply to the grid.

The money paid or offered to me by all companies is exceedingly low compared to what they are selling back to me and they actually recently reduced this amount even further.

Regards Carl Milne Mr Leon Groves

Just get the prices under control. I have just returned from a trip to Italy and Great Britain and electricity prices are a third of what we pay why??? We have solar and still pay three times as much. I'm just worried about the elderly and my children being able to afford a normal way of life. Mr Allan Luders

I would like to be helping cleaner air for Australia with having Solar on our roof also helping our finances with the solar credit. I am doing my bit what about YOU. Mr Peter Lawrence

WE MADE THE DECISION TO LEAVE ORIGIN BECAUSE OF THEIR APPALLING RECORD OF WANTING TO SCRAP THE RET AND CHAMPIONING THE ONGOING OF THE DIRTY COAL MINING INDUSTRY.

WE CHANGED TO POWERSHOP AND WEEKS LATER, ORIGIN CAME CRAWLING BACK OFFERING 30% DISCOUNT IF WE CAME BACK. WHEN ASKED IF THEY WOULD CHANGE THEIR NEGATIVE APPROACH TO THE ENVIRONMENT IF WE DID RETURN, WE COULD NOT GET A POSITIVE RESPONSE ... NOT SURPRISING! Mr Royden Ramage

I worked for a small regional council in SA, As the economic development officer I discovered that the biggest cost to business was their energy bill. I initiated a central purchasing scheme so ratepayers could access 1.5kWh solar panel set. Of the 8,200 houses in the regional centre 4,500 bought panels. The full program can be seen at www.solarprogram.com.au On a sunny day the town generates 10.5Mw of power. They save almost $2m pa which STAYS IN THE COMMUNITY. The program was adopted by the LGA over 18 other councils. SA now leads the way with wind and solar and energy prices have FALLEN. If traditional energy companies fail to adopt the technology then millions of Australians that can afford a battery will leave the grid. The days of mega networks are over. Small smart regional grids will replace them. Mrs Ebony Jackson

I don't want to be charged more, or penalised for having solar pannels on my house to try and cut my power bill. Ms Anne Wilson

We have 7kw o PV running into the grid. 5kw for which we get only a few cents back That means we are being ripped off mercilessly by the power provider (Energy Australia).

We do our best to look after our planet, by using the cleanest way of providing energy. It's a pity the power providers don't do the same. Support solar, wind and wave energy production. Think of the future of our planet think of our/your grandchildren.

Sincerely, Anne Wilson. Ms Shirley Brookes

I am having an issue with Origin re my solar rebate. On my last bill it was suddenly cut from 60c to 6c. When I contacted them they said the directive came from Endeavour and they could only have contact with Endeavour via email so I would have to wait to know what is happening! Totally unacceptable. My solar panels and the rebate have been operating since 2011. Dr Mani Berghout

For a number of years my partner and I have paid a tariff for the electricity we use in our home to be purchased from renewable sources. It would have been reasonable, therefore, for us to have been exempt from any increase in pricing due to the carbon tax. Our bills rose when it was implemented, but, due to the lack of itemising on the account, it was not possible to confirm that our supplier was charging us tax on emissions we had already paid to avert.

I would like to see accountability and itemisation in how electricity pricing is calculated, so that we can have confidence they're not double-dipping like they presumably did with our carbon tax money. Jack Newell

Energy Australia charges me approximately 23c/KW hr. Yet, when I feed into the network, I am paid approximately 5c/KW hr. What could explain this discrepancy? No doubt the power producers would claim that they need this to provide for infrastructure costs. Yet they didn't pay for my infrastructure costs in setting up my rooftop solar panelling. I would think that most demand for power would be during daylight hours. I would suggest that the millions of people with rooftop solar systems have probably spared state governments the cost of building new power stations.

Another inequity is that people who decided to install solar systems were given interest free loans from the Commonwealth and a feed in rate of 60c/Kwt hr, which they still enjoy. Kerry Kilner

We spent more than $6000 installing solar and are working towards getting off the grid entirely because of what I regard as price gouging from AGL. We have generated large amounts of solar power for the grid since our solar panels were installed but still get rising power prices. We are paid a miserly 8c a kilowatt hour but have to pay 32c her kwh to buy power at night. It infuriates me that we are not getting a fair deal.

More importantly, I think we should be having a much greater focus on building high quality solar systems across Australia, allowing householders to become a much better recognised part of the power generation system.

The government should aim to increase solar and other renewable energy generation enormously to reduce our reliance on coal. Sadly, I can't see this happening under this government. Colleen Carmody we signed a contract with Origin about 4 yrs ago...we have solar panels generating part of our power. Our accounts vary greatly and even if we pay on the day the account is due we are charged a late fee we are currently looking to change to another company. Mr Roger du Buisson

My first grievance with electricity companies is that I feel they deliberately make their bills hard to read. For the first 8 years that we were with Simply Energy we struggled to understand the bills we were being sent (despite both of us having tertiary qualifications in science/engineering), until eventually my wife phoned to ask them if they could simplify the bills. That's when we discovered that they had been double charging us for the off peak hot water component of the bill for the whole of the 8 years. We were in credit for a year after that but how many others had been overpaying (and perhaps still are)?

My second grievance is that when we changed over to solar PV, the service charge went from about 80 cents a day to $1.30 and the kwh went from 19 cents to 33 cents, completely negating the savings we were making with our solar panels. In fact we were probably worse off with the solar panels.

Thirdly when we changed to solar we had to sign another contract and it took Simply Energy 4 or 5 months to get the paperwork to us. There was no indication on the contract of the kwh rate or service charge - despite these being the two most important numbers. This wasn't revealed to us until we received the first bill.

We have since switched to Momentum Energy and we find the bill lacks detail. We are not being given the before and after readings off the Smart Meter. This means that we can't check our usage for accuracy and if we believe there is an error we can't contest it.

Yours sincerely,

Roger du Buisson. Wilson Casella

We all know that the Abbott government is putting big business ahead of voters. Nothing will come out of this inquiry. Nothing! Electricity prices will keep going up. Abbott will keep doing what energy companies and Murdoch tells him to do. Hockey will keep chomping cigars whilst bleating about an economic crisis that the Liberals have articifically inflated. Clowns! All of them. Labour is just as bad and the Greens are a rabid bunch of utter twits! I despair that there is no political party or independent willing to do the right thing by ordinary Australia. Mr Tony Baron

My last electricity bill was some $900 - around $535 more than the previous bill. Within the billing period I had a 3KW Grid-interactive solar system installed - & was charged for it; detailed in the bill under Tariff, Solar accrued Total Usage of 28.000 kWh - to my knowledge NO mention of any type of rebate/credit, so it appears as if I have been charged for power generated by my solar panels/inverter. The electricity provider/company is Momentum. Ms Patsy Asch

I along with other members of Sustainable Living Armidale, ran workshops for people on low incomes about how to lower their electricity bills.

People had not budgeted for the rapid increase in their bills, due to the excessive expenditure on poles and wires.

Some were outraged when they read about the profits earned by the electricity retailers. A few thought the increases were due solely to the Carbon 'tax' because it was the only explanation given on their bill. Nor did they make the connection between the increase from the 'tax' and the compensation they received.

Clearly printing information about the carbon price on our bills was a political act, which I found reprehensible.

We need consistent policies that help to move Australia toward renewable energy, green jobs and greater honesty. Energy efficiency, through demand management is a necessary first step.

Sincerely, yours, Patsy Asch Mr Glenn Osboldstone

Dear Senate Committee, my family home has solar panels but they are not connected to the grid because the requirements were all too confusing. The rules for connecting need to be simplified and the process made easier. It was only after we had a 'smart' meter installed that we really needed to grid connect so we originally sent the forms off to Origin. But they got lost.

We are now told those forms do not last more than 1 year and we will have to get a plumber to re-certify the system. It's a scam to get folks not to connect to the grid.

Also the 8c payment is pathetic. It should be the same or more than we pay to buy electricity and it should be gross feed-in not net.

Please write a report that recommends the energy companies make it simple to connect and pay a fair rate to we small generators. Sincerely GlennO. Mr Stephen Clapshoe

Dear Sir

We installed a solar system on the 15th November. On the SAPN (ETSA) SEGapproval its states 2 x 5kw.

Unfortunately we couldn't acquire 2 x 5kw SMA (Germany) so we used a 3 phase SMA

(Germany) 10kw three phase Tri-power inverter which is better than 2 x 5kw single phase I think you would agree. This would spread the feed over three phases instead of two phase, which could cause unbalance to SAPN transformer grid system which is not far away from this property.

We also installed 19 x 250w panels. 9.8kw

Because we did not change or do anther SEG approval SAPN (Etsa) will not give Lord Brendon his feed in tariff which was 19 cents if the solar system was installed before the end of JAN 2014!! AND SMALL ENERGY GENERATOR SEG WAS DINE BEFORE END SEP 2013

SAPN changed the meter on the 24th of November! And had a copy of our Certificate of compliance. which can be seen 10kw inverter!

But it was not mentioned till after Jan which is almost 2 months and then some more because Lord our client did not know until he got his electrical bill !!

I understand 1m part to blame but SAPN are not helping iv offered to change the 10kw to 2 x 5kw SMA inverter but they say no to him getting his feed in tariff even at this last stage .

What the difference it the same manufacturer German SMA sunny boy . !

The above would cost me over $4000 but im will to do this for my client.

I'm a small business owner who installs solar systems honestly for customers.

Despite recent events I wholeheartedly believe that I have done just that. We have our licenses up to date, we're hard workers with all insurances and accreditation, we're members with the clean energy council, we've been to all the meetings with NECA and CEC.

I been to the ombudsman our local MP then to the energy minister. Please can you help me before I get sued by my client?

SINCE THIS LETTER I HAVE WRITTEN TO JAY WERTHERAL PREMIER OF SA Mrs Maree Don

SOLAR ENERGY MUST BE SUPPORTED FOR AUSTRALIAS FUTURE . Mr Paul Matthews

Thanks Solar Citizens for alerting me to this We welcome such an inquiry as the Corporate power that overrides a fair F.I.T. rate needs to be addressed by such a full and independent inquiry, that is for sure.Unfortunately I expect it to be far from open or fair when so many of our politicians are bought and owned by the big corporations/companies Mr Bruce Paterson

Well I'm not sure where to begin !

My experience is with Origin Energy, and their billing systems.

I got solar panels in 2011. Mid 2012 I had to contact Origin as I'd received no power bills, and I needed them to complete my tax return. They did come up with a bill finally, and all was OK till May 2013.

That's when they turned the power off. They said they had a request to disconnect in their system. I wasn't even home at the time, but I discovered the power was off indirectly. 3 days later the power was restored, but that's when the bills started to get weird.

I kept getting Final Bills. None of them were right, It was only because I'd kept my occasional records of the smart meter readings that I could figure something was amiss. How many others just pay their bills, trusting the power company to get it right ?

Some bills included disconnection and reconnection fees; I'd been promised the disconnection was their mistake and this *would* not occur.

Sometimes weird extra (and very large) completely random meter readings would appear, even for times where I already had good accounts for in the past.I could prove these were erroneous as I had my own meter readings, but how can they get away with this ?

Others added brand new meter alteration charges backdated to 2011.

Then it started to get really weird. One bill had all the solar contribution charged against me, and all my grid consumption listed as generation. They were giving me more money the more power I used !!

Hours spent on the phone and email trying to fix all this.

The next bill was even weirder, and is the one of most concern. This had a mixture of backwards (see above) billing periods and some were the correct forwards. They had swapped them over period by period to get whatever gave them the highest figure I had to pay ! This was now moving out of the area of plain incompetence into what I'd consider bordering on fraud.

At this point I went to the industry ombudsman.

This resulted in compensation for the wrongful disconnection (as they should have offered already), and, after a couple of false attempts from the Origin resolutions department, finally a bill I could agree with. Then the very next day another bill that reversed all the fixes and restored a whole lot of crap again. It was hard not to be angry on the phone that time !

I'd had enough of Origin so I switched to another retailer. That would seem to end the saga, but just yesterday (Dec 2014) I got a bill from Origin, nearly a year after I left them in late 2013.

A bill for a period uncharged for (OK), including my solar generation which exceeded the consumption (GOOD), but then, new retrospective charges for, guess what: disconnection fee May 2013 reconnection fee May 2013 meter alteration fee 2011

Unbelieveable !!

Back on the phone again. I think they could tell I was a little upset and this time straight to the (probably growing exponentially) Origin resolutions department. I ended up with a small $30 credit to my gas account, rather than me owing them over $100 as the bill said. Despite getting it wrong, after all this history (I must have 30 bills for the same period since 2011), why was the bill a year late in arriving ??

How can a company be run in such a shoddy, incompetent, if not dishonest, way ? Mr Mark Ruddell

Dear Senators,

As an ex electricity worker I have seen the changes and the increase in prices. I believe the problems started once we changed from the government run boards to the so called privatisation and competition. The price was 8 cents per kilowatt then.

With the invention of new companies to sell power, these companies had to employ people and make a company profit, so they immediately started Charing 30 percent more for electricity as fast as they could.

Then the sales men needed to be employed, to pay their wages the electricity price had to go up again. The salesmen introduced another deception, the discount. To receive a discount you had to sign a two year contract, they discounted the power and added a higher service charge. In effect you kept paying the same price, or a couple of dollars more. The truth about every new business added to the core government generation and supply structure, they all had to pay tax and make a profit and employ people that would pay tax with the promise of higher private sector wages.

In a market economy for a business to be successful, they must continue to sell a commodity at a rising price. We call this a bull market or a growth economy. If the commodity price was to go down and to continue to go down we would call this a bear market. Continued price reduction would be called an economic indicator of pending recession, therefore the electricity prices must go up.

In effect we have setup multiple layers of skimmers on top of the generation structure. These layers as per our business education, will and do charge more for the utilities. The only way to reverse this, is to remove the unnecessary layers of privatisation. If we go back to the electricity board model, we can reduce the price.

Regards Mark Ruddell Douglas Stetner

We need to ensure there is no barrier to installing solar power and that the energy companies must buy the excess at reasonable prices. We need to do all we can to move away from fossil fuels and towards renewables. Power companies have one motive only, to produce profit. They must be forced into doing what is good for the environment. Mr Shane Drew

I believe the current arrangement between Synergy and its business customers is UNFAIR and UNREASONABLE because of the following reasons. Business customers are asked to sign a Embedded Generation form (Application for installing or upgrading a renewable energy system and bi-directional metering) which states

8 - My system is not eligible for the Renewable Energy Buyback Scheme and I will not be able to receive a ‘buyback’ rate.

9. Synergy will not provide me any data in relation to the electricity I transfer into Western Power’s network and I will not have titles to any electricity that is transferred into Western Power’s network.

My facilities and equipment must not incorporate: i) a battery storage system; or ii) an electrical vehicle system; or iii) both i) and ii)

Synergy is doing its very best to discourage business customers from installing solar with these discriminatory Terms and Conditions. Many business currently have electric forklifts or other vehicles and so would be discouraged by this. Also there would be a large amount of renewable power exported into the grid from business customers from weekends, public holidays and other times were the business may not be in operation. My biggest question is why should Synergy just take this power at no cost to them and then on-sell it to the customer next door for approximately 26 cents per unit. The fact is that current power supplied to Synergy comes at a cost of at least 12 cents per unit so why should they be allowed to take solar power from their own customers for nothing. Mr Richard Dean

Energy Providers InquiryI'm a great believer in renewable energy and the change that means to the existing networks.People need to realize that since we have been privatizing all our utilities, profit taking has become the priority, not maintaining the utility. Utilities that are not maintained are expensive to replace and cut deeply into the profit margin. We are seeing a number of things happening, large replacement costs,the cost of network change due to the feed-in from private generation(solar) and the expectation that the network operator will continue to cover all the supply costs from the tax we pay. I'm sure there are attempts to recover more from the consumer by the profit takers than is reasonable, but replacing power poles is not gold plating the network. This is never more evident when power poles are allowed to deteriorate till they fall over in a storm and create massive damage and loss of life as a result of the ensuing fire.

Bring back public ownership, employ full time people in a family friendly workplace and stop following the mining example blindly. Mr John Poxon

I have three complaints about the current situation with regard to electricity supply in Queensland.

1 Consumers are being ripped off by being charged for the gold-plating of the networks, which has resulted an a massively excessive daily service charge. The reason for the excessive service charge is that the network suppliers were allowed by their contracts with the State Gov't to install whatever infrastructure they liked without check and be guaranteed 10% return on their investment whether or not it was needed. Much of this infrastructure has been unnecessary, but we are being charged an excess service charge to pay the 10% guaranteed return, regardless. This is just an unwarranted grab for income and should be stopped.

2 The FIT is far too low. Click has the highest FIT at 12 cents per kWh but is selling that same kWh for at least about 27 cents per kWh without doing more than transmitting it to my neighbours in my street. Why am I not paid more? By anything that fair, I should be paid at least 20 cents per kWh.

3 Consumers with solar should be able to disconnect from the grid without penalty and especially without having to keep on paying the excessive daily service charge rip-off. Why must we be forced to pay the energy suppliers for nothing if we disconnect?

I strongly object to these three issues. They amount to nothing less than corporate theft. Thomas Britz

I was a happy customer of Origin's with 100% wind-sourced electricity. When wind and solar investments appeared increasingly favourable, and electricity consumption was forecast by Origin to rise until 2020, Origin was in moderate support of renewables, and they exerted more than moderate lobby force to the then-government to make these renewables even more lucrative, for instance in the form of big and cheap investment loans. However, as soon as those forecasts turned out to be wrong, and the investments not as favourable, Origin reversed tack and are now lobbying to brake the advance of renewables. At first glance, this seems fair - but at second glance, it is lacking in integrity and is unfair to consumers like me who support renewables and who have rejoiced in the lowered electricity prices that both solar and wind have incurred. Not that I have seen these lowered prices because they have been due to a more stable network with fewer peak demand spikes; this development saves consumers money but costs Origin and other providers who have instead passed costs back to us consumers. To add salt to these wounds, Origin has stated a range of false claims to malign renewables for higher electricity prices. Finally, Origin has exerted immense lobby power to block the advance of renewables, and it seems to working, with the present government joining Origin's fraudulent real RET propaganda as part of their support of big mining companies and their general climate change denialism. For this, Australia is attracting international criticism and scorn, and billions of dollars and thousands of jobs have already been lost. I no longer respect Origin - they are purely driven by greed and are willing to damage Australia for their own benefit. After discussing these issues wth Origin but not receiving any honest answers, I am now longer their customer. Mrs. Cathleen Meggitt

Two years ago I installed 8 solar panels on my roof. There were four of us living in the house at that time. I already had solar hot water.

My consumption for June-Sept that year worked out at 5.67 kWh per day.

The family moved out to their own home some months later. I have been alone in the house ever since. Same set-up - solar panels and solar hot water. but my daily usage has been placed at 5.86 kWh per day this year - for one person. This is an impossibility. But the gouging doesn't end there.

This year when Mr. Abbott got rid of the carbon tax the AGL blew the trumpets and whistles and celebrated the 1.5 cents they were able to give me per kWh per day. 7.5 cents roughly per day.

The following week without any mention or reason given the cost of supplying the same amount of electricity down the same lines was boosted from 50 cents per day to 83 cents per day an increase of 66% every day! Sneak and rob.

I believe that this company should be made to explain how they can justify this increase for supply considering there was absolutely no increase in THEIR costs. And we still have not been informed of that increase daily of 33 cents. IN the 90 day period this means that every single household bill has been increased by $30. Figure that one out for bare-faced robbery! It took me three hours to scrutinise and disentangle the complicated information of the bills, but I also have to state that my credit for supplying THEM with my solar power has dwindled from a figure of $288 per 3 months

to just $18 credit on my last bill.

We know who is reaping the rewards of my investment in solar power and it sure as hell, isn't me!

Cathleen Meggitt Mrs Maggie Adeney

My sister is an environmental refugee from Victoria. There was a MANDATORY roll out of Smart Meters across the state. After a Smart meter was fitted to her house her health collapsed and she literally fled, abandoning her home. She left behind her job,her children, grandchildren and church as well as friends and community of 25yrs.She is now living under our house in Brisbane and has become extremely sensitized to radiation from all kinds of wireless technology. I have now met other families who have fled to Qld for exactly the same reason.The impact this has has had on her life and the lives of others is too vast to discuss in this submission, but it can be summed up by saying that these Australians have have fundamental human rights stripped away by the MANDATORY roll out of this technology. Some people locked their meter boxes, and others fought to have the meters removed after they fell ill. One woman (whose bills were totally paid up to date) was left without POWER for 16wks during autumn and winter in Melbourne, as a result of refusing to keep the Smart meter fitted to her home.I have started researching this topic, as it has had such a devastating effect on my sister's life. I have discovered that in 2011 30 scientists working for the IARC and WHO classified the radiation emitted by Smart Meters and other devices as a Class 2B possible Carcinogen - the same category as lead and DDT.Since then, and after considering more evidence some of these scientists are calling for the classification to be upgraded to a Class 2A probable carcinogen, while others - all from the original committee say there is enough evidence now for it to be classified as a Class 1 KNOWN Carcinogen.This is in stark contrast to the fact that the levels emitted fall well within the guidelines considered to be safe exposure levels in Australia.

Google utube - Dr David Carpenter Smart Meters - for a 2 min opinion from a world expert.Or google Barrie Trower - physicist and Microwave Radiation expert since the 1960's. There are many thousands of studies that prove biological damage from this non -ionising radiation. There are no studies which prove that it is safe. ESPECIALLY FOR CHILDREN.

The Energy companies involved in Vict have committed a serious breach of human rights upon Australian citizens, and they should be held liable. This is a public health crises that will be right up there or worse than asbestos and tobacco. Ms Corinne Mesnage

When I was living in Ashwood, I was constantly annoyed at my door by some electricity companies tryig to make me switch electricity supply. Some even were aggressive when I refused to hear their lies. Now I live mostly in a caravan with solar panels and they still ring me constantly no matter where I am in Australia.I have heard of people being ripped off and lied to and ending paying more with the new companies, especially old vulnerable people who are told their old companies are about to raise their costs. I can't believe that a country like Australia would have a government who has not yet attended this old issue for such essential service. Mr Robert Quick

Sirs,

There are two competing imperatives going on at the moment.

No 1. The electricity consumer trying to reduce consumption to save money.

No 2. The electricity generators/retailers trying to preserve revenue against falling consumption.

Each is working against the other.

The consumer has installed, i. Mini fluor light bulbs. ii. Installed LED light globes iii.Bought more efficient white goods. iv. Insulated their homes. v. Bought more efficient houses. vi. Educated themselves. vii.Installed inverter air conditioners.

All these at relatively high cost and long payback times.

These improvements are intended to reduce consumption.But the energy generators /retailers don't want consumption to reduce.They can't get the increase in revenue they want.

So as household consumption falls the /kilowatt costs go up.

Then along come renewables.The main difference with renewables is that they feed back electricity. This enables the retailer to sell that electricity without buying it off the generators. So the retailers see consumption falling and also the generators.

Reducing consumption has been what it has all been about for the last 10 or so years.

Wasn't that what everyone wanted

So who has benefitted.

NOT the consumer who is seeing the'Service to Property' charge being increased now because they can't increase the / kilowatt charge enough to compensate for the reduce consumption. Not the nation who should be benefitting from the extra cash in peoples pockets but instead are seeing reduced spending so as to pay for the rorting of the electricity pricing.

So Senators its up to you.

Sort out the dichotomy.

Renewables are what everyone wants.

But the benefits from renewables should go back to those who are doing the reducing of consumption.

You,me and everyone else.

About 30 years ago a power company in America forecast the need for another power station.(Sound familiar) But instead of spending huge amounts of cash on a power station they spent a huge amount of cash in the community.

They insulated homes,offices and factories for free.

They installed energy saving lighting in factories and in the streets. Plus a lot of other improvements. Ultimately consumption dropped and they didn't need the new power station

All the efforts of our individuals,companies,councils and government to reduce electricity for cost reasons have been wasted.

And if renewables are trashed then any savings for the environment will be lost as well.

Thanks for the opportunity.

R Quick

Ms Rosemary Elbery

To the Senate committee

I am very concerned that in WA we all pay for the upgrades to the power lines but the state government here is trying to make country people and those in semi rural areas responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of their power poles and lines. I wonder why this is so? It seems grossly unfair when we all pay top dollar for our power that those living in rural and semi-rural areas are expected to pay this extra impost.

I am also very upset that governments generally in Australia are so prepared to support the big coal and gas companies at the expense of the renewable energy industry. I just can't understand this short sightedness in the face of increasing global concerns about global warming, and all the wonderful news about improvements to renewable energy technology?

Thank you for your time Mr Edward Carroll

I have just installed solar panels. How come the payment for generated electricity fed back into the grid only brings 8c/kwh, when I am being charged about 28c/kwh for electricity being drawn from the grid? This seems entirely unfair as I still pay the same daily service charge. Mr John Nieuwendyk

The only thing big companies are interested in is more money. Climate change counts for nothing by them Mr George Goodison

In the billing Quarter of Oct-Jan2013 I paid $24.77c Supply Charge In billing period Oct-Jan 2014 I paid $45.69c In the July-Oct 2014 I was charged $77.57c and am expecting it to increase ,the next quarter bill. I have spent $5,000 on a Solar System to help reduce my bills and receive a feed in tariff of 8 cents. Who said electric prices are down Mr Hockey. A kwh has gone down from 0.2673cents to a massive 0.2537cents, a reduction of just over ONE CENT per kwh. So where is the $550 per year we were supposed to recieve Ms Beverley McIntyre

The large fossil fuel companies have too much power with the government who have persuaded the population that prices have increased because of the carbon price. They are now worried that with the increase in solar they are losing business. So the public is being lied to . Mr Derek Robertson

Several years ago, my family invested in the generous NSW promotion of solar PV under which we were paid 60c/kWh for surplus energy fed into the grid.

Aside from a few minor issues such as the contractor's installing the array on an east-facing roof and refusing to move it to a north-facing roof when challenged, the system has worked more or less well.

What we find distressing is that from the end of 2015 we will receive no compensation for energy fed into the grid, and, as the rumour has it, we may even be charged a fee for owning PV and we may have to feed surplus energy back to earth………..for which the earth may be grateful, but we are not. Geoffrey Martin

About mid-2011 we installed solar panels and Simply Energy our electricity provider signed us up for a roughly equal feed-in feed-out arrangement.A few months ago I was informed that, at the time, I was eligible for a feed-in tariff of 60c per kilowatt/hour government subsidy. This was not, to my recollection, offered to me at sign on. Approaches to Simply Energy of late brought a too bad type response, and the Energy and Water Ombudsman were of little help. Have Simply Energy been simply pocketing the roughly 40c per kwatt/hr extra I was entitled to?

Cheers,

Geoff Martin Mrs Diane Silveri

We purchased solar hot water system in 1998 and switch off the power for 6 mths of each year. We want everyone else to be encouraged to be more independent and to do the same. We purchased solar panels in 2002, we thought there would be an ongoing rebate incentive but this dropped from 60cents.AGL is deceitful in its calculation of the rebate and one can do nothing but despise the power companies and the government that supports their greed. Mrs Camilla Lynch

I was a customer of Energy Aus. for electricity and AGL for gas. and after a number of years I was talked into signing a 'contract' with Energy Aus. with the promise of regular discounts and the threat of a fine if I 'broke the contract' within a set period. I also had my gas changed from AGL to Energy Aus. with the understanding that my gas bill would appear together with my electricity on the same bill. I was also guaranteed a discount on my gas bill.I was also guaranteed by the Prime Minister that I would recieve 'up to $500 off my yearly power bill' as a result of 'scrapping the carbon tax'- There has been no noticeable refund in that regard, the electricity company decided to increase the cost of my electricity not reduce it and now they have decided to send separate bills for electricity and gas. I believe I have been treated unfairly and dishonestly and I am now wishing to divest myself of this company with no unfair costs and penalties. I am seeking advice and assistance in this. Mrs Maureen Megay

I had solar panels installed on my home in September 2012 and as my husband is a TPI pensioner we thought the expense would cover our future electricity bills...however the exorbitant electricity increases have now made this impossible and with the expected rises to come we will be back to where we started. I cannot believe that our Electricity supplier can increase costs to the extent that it is now becoming almost unaffordable and I do not know how families and others on pensions will be able to exist.

I think that the Government needs to check into why we are being charged so much for electricity especially when in North Queensland we do not have any options of suppliers..so we are forced to pay the outrageous costs....and how does it work that its cheaper if you are a business than an ordinary householder????? Mr Bob Keane

I submit that it is entirely unacceptable for electricity companies to unnecessarily upgrade their infrastructure at the expense of their consumers when demand for electricity is falling. Mr Mike Van Emmerik

I see Energex upgrading transformers in Runcorn, Brisbane. I think it would have a stable population, so electricity demand would be going down there as fast as everywhere else. So why spend all that money on capital and labour? It sure looks like gold plating to me. Mr Norman Freeman

I had solar panels on my farm house for 5 years With the feed in rate 0f 60 cents On retirement to a house in Foster with a larger capacity panel installation the feed in rate has been reduced to 8 cents per Kwh this clearly indicates the electical supply companies with the Vic Gov support intend to try to limit the increase of solar systems in victoria Alain Ashman

It is despicable that we have to pay for big energy companies mistakes. the price rises from gold plating should fall squarely on the decision makers who decided to invest in this unnecessary infrastructure.if they had invested the same amount of the money in renewable energy installations they would have had the same effect as gold plating, created more jobs, and saved us a whole lot of greenhouse gases. Also the ridiculously small price they give us for the renewable energy we export into the grid is a crime in itself. We should be able to sell our renewable energy for at least the same price they sell their dirty electricity to us for. or sell it for even more. As a result the incentive to install renewable has been so diminished it's really hard to get a job in the renewable energy industry. As a result i am unemployed. I won't work in any other industry because i believe renewable energy is at the heart of the solution to save our climate from over heating. please don't let big energy companies take advantage of their customers and ruin our climate in the process. Please create incentives for renewable energy infrastructure to be installed so i can be employed. I believe we should be able to choose where our energy comes from and i choose renewable energy. I Stand up for an energy democracy. Mrs Patricia White

In a civilised society, readily available power should be supplied as and where needed. Selling off public assets for short-term gain has never been to the public good and never will. We need governments that defend public facilities for the good of all not short-term gains. People also should have the right to generate their own power and not be penalised. there is too much monopoly ownership. so the community is held to ransom by the greed of corporations. Renewable sources are absolutely essential for the future of the planet and every effort should be made to facilitate this for the good of humanity.

Patricia White Ms Yvonne Horsfield

I strongly object to the Gov't undermining our right to benefit from solar energy as a pensioner. Don't block the RET! Mr Graham Grover

We have had good dealings with Red Energy but we had a bad experience with Lumo they we charging excess fees. Ms Elizabeth Geddes

To the Senate Inquiry,

As a captive user of electricity in NSW I have been dismayed at the steep & unexplained rise in costs for this necessity.

I was residing in Uralla in the New England last winter where the total costs for power for 2 women was over $1,000 ( 3 months supply) but I also spent nearly $800 in wood for heating.Questioning my bill was not successful as AGL stated the usage was correct! I was able to pay this bill but was astounded to think that people who do not have full time work would be in a penurious position.

The steadily rising component of my bill has been the supply fee & the reductions from the removal of the carbon tax would be about $100 a year based on the information on my bill.

I am also appalled at the misinformation the companies have been peddling so they can gouge our hard earned cash from us unwitting consumers.The use of coal fired power has been declining yet we pay ever more & more.

I am sick of being nothing but a serf to the corporate kings who steal from the citizens. The Australian government has been complicit in allowing this theft.

Yours, Liza Geddes Ms Peta Hoiles

Firstly, thank you for the opportunity to allow ordinary Australians to have a say about the impact that electricity companies have on us and our values.

Cheers1. Contracts are short lived. They can change at anytime, which they do. I would like a contract that is set for a year. Its not fair they can change their srices when a contract has been made.

2. People with solar are penalized for having solar power. People want to do the right thing by the environment and the Government lets these companies demand higher supply charges to solar homes. If I choose to have solar i will save only $300 pa which is pointless. I think the government should control the solar industry so it will be an honest and upfront industry with clear environment targets and a genuine saving for the community. Ms Sara Cook

So, I don't think it fair that power companies can charge us MORE for their dirty, carbon producing electricity than they pay us for our CLEAN Carbon free electricity? Shouldn't it at least be the same? Selling our electricity infrastructure to private companies was always going to be a poor decision, thank you Mr Kennett, but now it appears our very future is being held to ransom when citizens can't take steps for a clean future without being financially penalised for it. I can't wait for battery technology to improve so we can all go off grid!! Mrs Judy Visser

Members of the Senate Committee I ask you to make the electricity supply charges reflect the true cost of supply. The power generating companies are rorting the system by building infra structure which is not needed and then passing all the costs on to their customers. Once the infra structure is paid for the costs to consumers are NEVER lowered. The energy regulator needs to have far stricter guidelines on how to operate the system fairly. With the ever increasing alternative energy generation of power there is simply no need for a lot of the proposed built infra structure.

I look forward to the results of the Committee's deliberations as I feel sure that there are many anomolies which deserve to be scrutinised.

Thank you Judy Visser Mrs Patricia Ferguson

I have had several bad experiences with Agl firstly back in 2006 we received an electricity bill for $880 at the time my husband and I who are pensioners lived in a small two bedroom workers cottage in Imbil Qld with no air conditioning no fans when I wrote to them to object I was told that it was correct, I would not give up as I knew this was outlandish as we had never ever even had a bill even half of that after many months of expensive phone calls eventually we were told they had double billed us, I still do not believe that we actually owed even that much but was so fed up with all the hassle of it I paid the amended amt,we had originally signed a two year contract with them so when we moved after a year it carried over. We again moved into our sons house at Mango Hill in Qld while he was with Ramsis contigent in the Solomon Islands and again transferred our a/c with Agl to there. We lived there from March 2009 until Feb 5th 2011 when we again moved to Hampton where we only had the choice of Ergon when we got our final a/c from Agl we were charged $80.00 for early cancellation when questioned they stated that a new contract had started in March 2009 and we were short of the two years by 5 weeks, I did not realise I was still under their original contract which had originally been for two years only but had extended to nearly 4 years through us moving houses which was not of our choosing as when you rent you don't have any control over when owners may need their house or sell it. I did not think that it was fair as they had always been paid in full but was threatened with legal action if we did not pay their early termination fee of $80. As we pride ourselves on paying all our bills we paid it rather than go through more hassle with them but I will never again have them as they are nothing but bullies and they are dishonest as well. We have been with Click Energy since we moved here in Feb 2012 and have never had one problem we didn't have to sign a contract and I still pay $50.00 a fortnight which I have always done to cover our electricity and have never had a bill always a credit, it was also the same with Ergon never a problem and I only ever had credits which proves to me that we do not use the amount of electricity that AGL were billing us for for the previous years and they are nothing short of Criminals.We now have solar panels and Click pay us 10c per kilowatt hr for the power we generate back to the grid but I cannot understand Why in this country whole towns are not solar powered like in Germany and Canada, this country needs to embrace clean efficient power and get rid of coal fired power and do not even consider Nuclear Power especially since we have so much sun and wind to generate our power. Mr Chris Pitman

At my age I have been around long enough to know a time when the customers of SEA and then SEQEB paid a deposit for the Energy meters an from there on paid only for the energy used.

A USER PAYS SYSTEM.

Now since the Retail arm of energex has been privatised we are now saddled with a number of Bill printing profit making businesses that effectively do nothing to value add to the process,. and a distribution company that is also in for a profit.

The Meter deposit has since disappeared and replaced with a daily charge that in one jump has increased from 47 cents to 87.5 cents a day an increase of approximately 85%, well above any CPI or inflation figure. Sadly if we do NO Energy we still have to pay $87 every 3 months. $340 a year.

A NON USER PAYS SYSTEM.

In an effort to reduce my costs I have Reduce the wattage of many appliances and Installed a Solar Grid connected P V system.Only to find my thrift would be rewarded with a Reduction in the Feed in Tariff from 18 to 10 Cents for the same Kilowatt Hour that I pay 29 cents for. and to rub salt into the wounds, the Queensland State government blamed me and thousands of other thrifty energy reducers for the increased cost imposed my the Network providers.

If The electrical generation companies distribution and retail companies go down this risky path of over and unfair charging to maintain profits. Technology will overtake them and they will not have product to sell. Mr Barrymore Bellevue-de Sylva

My contract with Origin was about to end. They sent a letter saying if I did nothing my contract would be renewed. As their new offer was an increased Kwh charge and a reduced early payment rebate I shopped around and found a better deal (Click). On calling them I was told that the increased charges were the fault of the government and the rebate reduction was to keep their shareholders happy so there was nothing to improve their offer. I wrote informing Origin that I did not wish to enter another contract when mine ended and they replied by imposing an Early Termination Charge. I paid the final account but deducted the penalty amount. I was then bombarded with requests to not leave them and offering to improve the deal. I told them they had had their chance and blown it. Their Public Relations Manager, Mark Enzinger, wrote pressing me to stay with them so I replied by letter:

Re: Account No. 9892 6116

23 September 2014

Dear Sir,

It appears that someone in your organisation has made an error in the calculation of my final invoice. In addition to that I will take this opportunity to comment on your letter of

September 16th and your practice relating to the renewal of contracts.

I have been with AGL at this address for the past two years and before that at my previous home in Bundamba. I received a letter informing me that my contract would end on August

28th and that it would be renewed at a new rate unless I directed you otherwise. As the new condition would result in both an increase in charges and a reduction in discount, I contacted your call centre. The operator was unable to answer my questions and

I requested to speak to a Supervisor. The male I then spoke to told me, in essence, two things. Firstly that I should blame the Government for the increased supply charges and secondly that my 10% discount was to be reduced to 7% “ because we have to keep our shareholders happy”. Obviously your clients are of much lesser importance than your shareholders. After further conversation I was left in no doubt that your company employee was not prepared to improve on the conditions laid out in your letter.

Subsequently I contacted another supplier, received a more attractive offer and reached an agreement with them for supply. I presume they then contacted AGL as shortly after, I received a phone call from your company offering to negotiate a better deal in order to get me back. I pointed out that you had already had that opportunity and and behaved in a totally unsympathetic fashion. After this phone call, I received a letter along much the same lines and after my new supplier arranged the switch over I received your own letter once again opening the door to negotiation. I was apparently mistaken when I thought that you might enter negotiations on terms whilst I was still a customer of AGL. I now realise that you don't do this until your staff have been totally unsympathetic and cavalier and the horse has bolted. You may wish to consider that without customers, your shareholders would have very empty pockets.

Next I question the legality of entering a client into a contact without the express approval of that client. Your approach with automatic renewal unless cancelled by the client seems to be contrary to contract law and of questionable morality.

(Acceptance occurs when the party answering the offer agrees to the offer by way of a statement or an act. Acceptance must be unequivocal and communicated to the offer or: the law will not deem a person to have accepted an offer merely because they have not expressly rejected it. [Competition and Consumer Act 2010] )

I return now to the miscalculation of my final account. My “contract” with you expired, I chose not to renew it and notified you of that fact. The imposition of an early termination charge is therefore incorrect. You will note that I have settled my account, in advance of the due date, by Direct Transfer and have deducted the amount of $68.18 in respect of this charge.

I look forward to your response

Instead of a written reply, one of his minions called me. When I questioned this I was told Enzinger didn't reply to letters.

This Company is circumventing Australian law by employing underhanded tactics forcing people into contracts that they didn’t knowingly agree to and in addition they appear to be illegally receiving these Eearly Termination fees by assuming that few will complain. There do not appear to have been any gains by consumers since Governments divested themselves of these and other essential services that should always be under direct Government control.

Signed

Mr. B.C.Bellevue-de Sylva Mr Barry Yardley

I am hell bent on paying these greedy multinationals or others any of my money for their ways of fleecing people. I am going off grid ASAP. Liz Jackson

PRICE RORTING BY SYNERGY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

I would like to know why I am charged a meter reading fee every time an invoice is issued, when I have been told direct by a Synergy Customer Support person by telephone, that they read the meter once then estimate the next lot of usage figures, then go back to read and estimate.

Synergy is not only abusing the system, they are acting fraudulently and stealing for a service they do not provide.

Suggestion: Synergy refund every user 6 months of meter reading fees/per annum at the current rate, for as long as the person has been connected to an electrical supply from that service provider. Mr Matthew Jones

I was with Energy Australia as my electricity retailer when I switched to solar. As soon as I switched they took away my controlled load for hot water. I called to try and get them to revert my billing but they said they couldn't and to contact an electrician. The electrician said my meter had the controlled load working and the retailer simply had to change my billing to reflect this. Energy Australia continued to deny a controlled load billing option. I subsequently changed to another retailer. They also changed my solar tariff to a paltry 5 cents a kwH whereas they charge me at least 24 cents kwH for electricity. They also stopped my direct debit discount and hid details of my solar contribution to the grid. Mr Craig Vermeulen

I am sick of corruption between government and big business.

Stop supporting fossils fuels with the $10 Billion in subsidies.

Redirect the subsidies for houses to get solar and energy storage. This would allow us to remove all of the ugly poles and wires from our sight all together. I am getting sick of looking at them.

Look toward to the future and stop living in the past. Ms Gail Jordan

I think all of the electricity companies and the retailers should be looked into. We, the public buy electricity from the companies and have to pay more because of the retailers. We also pay a unprecedented premium higher than any western civilization and we have the coal. I don't get that. We also pay what amounts to a lot for availability. Again a charge that is a lot higher than it should be. And I have heard that they want to charge us an extra $15 per ??? for maintainance cost - I thought that was what the availability charge was for. AND THEN, because we wanted to try and reduce our electricity bill we installed a 3kw solar power system - grid connect - they still charge us for and then they do'nt pay us much (a miserly 10c/perkwh) for the excess electricity we make. I want to know what are they doing with ALL of that money they make? Giving it to shareholders? Make a buck by ripping off the people.

Do look into it and be fair. W#e paid for the structure via the government to begin with and we have been paying ever since way above anywhere else. Mr Warren Culleton

Individual Contracts have been signed with Utility Companies for the rebates and power generation through the supply of Home sourced power generation into the grid . This contract is still in action and if the Government decides to cancel the contracts this would lead to Court court action for breach of contract.This will also lead to the fall of the Liberal Government in totality. Miss Gemma Whalen

If I as a citizen of my democratic country decide to have solar energy installed in my ho,e for my personal home use then I should absolutely have the right to do so. We should never ever be forced to buy from any other supplier if we are prepared to pay to provide electricity for ourselves. The installations and maintenance should of course be regulated. It is actually criminal of any government to deny me the right to harness an environmentally more friendly method of power. As a nation we should be harnessing the natural sources of energy we have available... would't it be awesome not to be so reliant on other countries to provide the oil etc we need and surely forging ahead with the building of reliable solar products would be a great way to build jobs and exports. Mrs Darren Whalen

If I as a citizen of my democratic country decide to have solar energy installed in my ho,e for my personal home use then I should absolutely have the right to do so. We should never ever be forced to buy from any other supplier if we are prepared to pay to provide electricity for ourselves. The installations and maintenance should of course be regulated. It is actually criminal of any government to deny me the right to harness an environmentally more friendly method of power. As a nation we should be harnessing the natural sources of energy we have available... would't it be awesome not to be so reliant on other countries to provide the oil etc we need and surely forging ahead with the building of reliable solar products would be a great way to build jobs and exports. Mrs Darren Whalen

If I as a citizen of my democratic country decide to have solar energy installed in my ho,e for my personal home use then I should absolutely have the right to do so. We should never ever be forced to buy from any other supplier if we are prepared to pay to provide electricity for ourselves. The installations and maintenance should of course be regulated. It is actually criminal of any government to deny me the right to harness an environmentally more friendly method of power. As a nation we should be harnessing the natural sources of energy we have available... would't it be awesome not to be so reliant on other countries to provide the oil etc we need and surely forging ahead with the building of reliable solar products would be a great way to build jobs and exports. Mrs Jacqueline Whalen

If I as a citizen of my democratic country decide to have solar energy installed in my ho,e for my personal home use then I should absolutely have the right to do so. We should never ever be forced to buy from any other supplier if we are prepared to pay to provide electricity for ourselves. The installations and maintenance should of course be regulated. It is actually criminal of any government to deny me the right to harness an environmentally more friendly method of power. As a nation we should be harnessing the natural sources of energy we have available... would't it be awesome not to be so reliant on other countries to provide the oil etc we need and surely forging ahead with the building of reliable solar products would be a great way to build jobs and exports. Tony Smith

We operate in the Powercor area.

In 2013, Powercor unilaterally and with almost no communications or industry consultation launched a mandatory pre-approval process for solar connections.

Of course they decided to invent their own unique rules, rather than look at what other network providers were doing and adopting the most common approach.

They also implemented this before they had any systems in place within Powercor to handle the process.

Due to a lack of consultation, Powercor had no knowledge of our business processes and therefore the volumes that they would need to handle.

On implementation, Powercor immediately became overwhelmed with the number of pre- approvals. As above they did not consult and they were astonished that because most potential customers get a number of quotes, that each customer would have many solar pre- approvals lodged on their behalf.

Powercor promised a 6 day turn around when they launched pre-approvals. Within a few weeks, Powercor was drowning and pre-approval lead times blew out to 6 weeks overnight.

This meant solar companies could suddenly install nothing for a period of over 6 weeks which was disastrous for cash flow. My company had 6 weeks of cost with zero revenue (we only get paid on installation). Further, because Powercor had provided no notice of this, we made capital investment decisions based on an assumed cash flow which suddenly and immediately evaporated. My company had cash reserves of $250k on the day we received notice and by the time Powercor sorted their processes out, our cash reserves were close to zero. In other words, Powercors unilateralism cost my company $250k.

To repeat - we only make money when we install. We had over six weeks on zero installations with 100% of all business costs still present.

When I've raised this with Powercor, I get responses like but we have to protect our network, that's old history, you don't have the right to connect solar etc etc.

We are yet to recover from this because time and time again, Powercor unilaterally change the lead time AND rules for pre-approval.

Recently, Powercor retrenched a number of people in their solar team and lead times immediately went from around 5-7 business days to 15+. As before, this inserted a 2-3 week period where once again we had no money coming in, but all business costs still there.

Powercor's stated rules for pre-approval can be found here: https://www.powercor.com.au/our-services/solarwind-small-inverter-connections/pre- approval-requirement-up-to-5kw-single-phase-up-to-30-kw-three-phase/ Recently (as in the past 2-3 months) we are seeing what the more paranoid would describe as deliberate obstruction from Powercor and behaviors that seem to almost deliberately ensure that solar outcomes are as unattractive as possible.

Examples include but are not limited to:

1/ Preapproval requests for systems under 5kW and on transformers with less than 30% existing solar penetration, but where the customer has a 2 phase supply. Powercor's website says that this is perfectly acceptable as a single phase solution. But in 100% of recent applications, Powercor are requiring that the solar be split equally across both phases. This requires 2 smaller capacity single phase inverters (rather than 1 larger single phase inverter). Having to supply and install a second inverter increases the cost of installation by between $1000 and $2000. Over 80% of potential customers decline to proceed at this point due to the extra cost. Further, in many cases, the capacity splits they want cannot be achieved because inverters of the sizes specified are not available, or if they are, are some cheap Chinese junk with enormous failure rates (and of course the solar retailer is the party wearing all the warranty risk). I have on several occasions tried to speak rationally with the Powercor solar team but they couldn't care less. They refer me to the Clean Energy Council's list of approved inverters which has several makes and models which are not available - in quite a few cases, the product is no longer made, or the manufacturer has even gone bust. In summary Powercor insist on solutions which customers don't want to have to pay extra for, or which cannot be delivered. Trying to negotiate a sensible outcome is pointless.

2/Details on customer bills (supplied by Powercor) is not correct; eg the service address. Powercor are rejecting the pre-approval and demanding that we (the solar company) gets a copy of the end customer rates notice to prove where they are. Why is it the responsibility of solar companies to have to fund admin resources to correct bad data in Powercors systems? Whilst we are doing this, Powercor refuse to process the pre-approval until we've provided a rates notice (at our cost) and until they fix their systems. This can add several weeks to teh process - and then Powercor can still knock it back, or do something ridiculous such as tell us we need to use 2 x 2.5kW inverters.

One cannot easily get to speak to someone inside Powercor who actually understands how solar works or what we can and can't technically deliver (let alone manage commercially). There is a particularly unpleasnat chap by the name of Glen (he refuses to provide his last name) - this Glen could not care less about solar companies having no approved jobs but a whole bunch of cost. He's told me that if an inverter is on the approved list, irresective of quality or availability then that's the end of the conversation. He's told me he couldn't care less if my family home were lost due to my business failing due to Powercor processes and edicts.

Powercor justify all of this on protecting their network from voltage rise. They ignore proven technologies such as reactive power inverters which prevents voltage rise. They had approved capped export inverters earlier this year but then unilaterally cancelled approval for all of them pending more testing and despite the fact they are approved in almost all other distribution networks.

This is about doing everything possible to minimise solar. If they send family owned companies like mine broke, they couldn't care less. Ms Wendy Flannery

It was astonishing to find that my last electricity bill had gone up by more than 200%, even though my actual usage had not changed at all. This was even more astonishing in view of the messages on several previous bills announcing that once the carbon tax had been repealed, the costs would go down! We need a complete overhaul of the electricity sector and fast-tracking of all moves towards a renewable energy future. Mr. Heinz Mense

Hello Decision Makers,

I am a long retired electronics engineer and have no contacts and am not connected with any power company.

My professional knowledge tells me that supply and generation of

electricity is a bit more than having a couple of panels on the roof.

Our society needs a reliable supply of electricity, more so than even petrol or gas!

This seems to not be quite so obvious to many well-meaning people who just take part in the supply of electricity by being heavily subsidised by our government.

Too much of household solar production could damage a much needed infrastructure.

Infrastructure should be a governmental business and if private, it should be done by professionals.

On the topic of being taken for a ride by energy companies; this should rightfully be investigated and published but we do need this infrastructure badly and if the public feels exploited then a discussion should be started as to whether or not this infrastructure should be in state hands like the roads.

Ms Gayle Margaret

1. Energy retailers should have to admit that there has been a large decline in electricity usage mainly due to energy efficiency by individuals, businesses, communities etc. This is in total contradiction to their expected increase in consumption and so their high investment into the distribution network (poles and lines). Despite this however, they want to charge extra for feeding into the grid. How many times and how many different ways can they bill us for their already gold plated distribution system???? Why are Energy retailers able to increase their costs to maintain their market share - even when consumers are reducing their costs for them ie. the amount of electricity they have to buy in order to sell to us???

2. Recently our energy retailer changed the way it gives concessions to pensioners. Previously it was on the whole amount of the bill including the service charge. Now it is only on the usage part of the bill. This means that despite our (2 adults) very efficient energy use (less than half the amount used by a single person home), we are paying more for our electricity. Energy retailers should have to incentivise energy efficiency.

3. Energy retailers should also have to incentivise solar and wind feed into the grid generation. They should have to pro-actively support these individual and community efforts to address climate change, carbon reduction etc. It should be part of their social and environemntal responsibility.

4. Time of Use meters. This has been another huge cost to consumers. However, although we have one installed, we do not know if it's working now (as we still have a meter reader coming out) or how to make best use of it. Some general information and guidelines for pensioners and low income households especially should be provided. Ms Rosalind Ross

I have over a number of years watched the electricity and gas providers hike their prices up and up as the use of electricity declines. I stopped trusting that they were providing a service and now think that they are only looking for more and more profit. I left Energy Australia as I was unable to get them to send me bills on a regular basis. I am a retiree and need to know when I have to spend money.

I have never asked for green power as I don't trust that it will be given on my behalf although I am paying for it.

If I felt that I could trust them to do the right thing and use my money to change to green and sustainable power I would be delighted. Instead I feel cheated and used by them. Dr Steven Douglas

I am concerned about the tactics of major energy utility firms who are seemingly acting against the interests of decentralised and renewable electricity generation. I have heard of a growing number of contractual measures that such firms have used and are attempting to use to serve their interests over citizens and small business who choose to generate power from e.g. rooftop solar. Governments of either political persuasion seem to favour a so-called free market yet have allowed large and influential utility companies to manipulate the electricity market such that it is anything but competitive and level. I urge the Committee to recommend law and policy that prevents large utility firms operating as cartels and distorting the market against the public interest. Government should be regulating to favour decentralised, more localised, and renewable generation over old-world unsustainable technologies and methods. Mel Francis

I have been constantly horrified by the charges for electricity in my home. I am efficient, prefer a jumper to a heater, and have a household of 2. Yet my electricity costs are increasing all the time. I would love to be able to put Solar power on my roof, but the uncertainty in the business made me hesitant to outlay for something where solar companies go out of business,and I can't get proper maintenance. Mr Robert Gitsham

I'm very concerned by the high prices of electricity. I have a domestic solar installation which produces more power than I use, but as most of this power is exported to the grid during sunshine hours, I then have to import power during the hours of darkness.

Even though I export more power than I import, I still have a large power bill to pay because the FIT is only 1/5th of the cost to buy power.

This is ridiculous. The power companies could quite easily afford to pay a FIT of 75% of the retail price as they then on-sell the solar power at full retail. They would still make a profit of 33% . Also they quite often charging a premium because it's Green power, giving them even more profit.

I note that the retailer does not have to do anything with the power I export, as it would be totally taken up by my immediate neighbors, saving the retailer from having to bring more power into the area.

I'm also greatly concerned at their ridiculous profit margins. I have done some research and I find that while the average retail price in Australia is very nearly double that in North America. Yet the average wholesale price in North America is almost exactly the same as it is here in Australia. So it is clearly the retail sector that is making obscene profits at our expense. Mr John Missen a couple of years ago we installed 8 solar panels on our WNW facing roof, Subsequently, we decided to add 8 more panels. Our feed-in tariff was at 26 cents. When we enquired about adding additional panels, we were told that the feed in tariff would be reduced to 8 cents. By any standards, this is robbery. We feed the grid with electricity and they charge us for doing it. We don't object to 26 cents feed-in tariff despite the charge being as much as 37 cents per Kwh but anything less is actually discouraging the populace to add solar panels, Ian Bourne

I have a 5 kilowatt pv array. I produce over twice as much 'green' electricity than I use in a year.

I get paid 8c/kw for what I generate and I buy electricity for over 26c/kw.

On extremely hot days or high demand days the retailers charge at premium rates but I still get paid 8c for the electricity I generate.

I pay for a share of the installation, up-grades and service of the transmission lines while my small generation plant, and thousands like mine, spread the load and reduce the stress on this infrastructure.

How can the minimums of a 200% (off peak) or 300% mark up be justified? Mr Greg Johnson

AGL replaced all the poles in our suburb, I wondered why when they mostly looked OK. Now I know it was just a grab for money that the government allowed them to perpertrate. Everyone that produces power from the solar panels on their roofs should at the very least receive 1 KWH of power free for every KWH they produce. Not ripped off by receiveing 6 cents and paying 35 cents to buy it back. Its a discrace Mr Ian Modistach

Dear Senators,

Recently in South Australia, the feed in tarrif contribution from the Power Compaies for Roof top solar was reduced to 7.6 cents per Kwh with speculation that it will be further reduced. I understand that the wholesale price of electricity in South Australia varies between approximately 7 and 14 cents per kWh depending on the demand. Given that the peak demand is in Summer, and I presume that is the upper end of the cost, and that this also corresponds with the highest output for roof top solar, then it seems that the Power Companies are getting this power at below market rates. We are constantly being reminded that market forces should reflect the costs to consumers and indusry alike, so why this disparity? The power Companies must pay the actual cost of elecrticity at the time they buy it, reflecting the same cost from coal and gas fired power stations.

I'm also aware that fossil fuel power generators are not paying the real cost of their impact on the emvironment and that these costs will have to be picked up from other sources. I am also not in favour of the subsidies paid to the coal industry. Taking these pollution advoidance costs and subsidies into account, the roof top solar feed in tarrif needs to be substantially raised to even the playing ground. At the moment, solar feed in is subsidising the Power Industry at the expense of those with the vision to be part of the long term solution to solving climate change.

Please stop the Power Companies from ripping off these visionaries and make them pay a fair price for roof top power.

Sincerely, Ian Modistach. Mr Krishna Rajaratnam

Solar does not contribute to higher electricity prices. The fact is that wind generators and photo voltaic (PV) by supplementing coal fired power stations have reduced peak bulk electricity prices. Generating companies do not have to start up diesel generators or less efficient generators to meet peak demand in most instances. Hence the half hour bulk electricity prices at peak times is not as many times higher than at off peak times. An analysis of the 24 hour period some years ago and the present time proves the point.

Yet the retail price of electricity instead of decreasing has increased with a decrease in bulk electricity prices. This is somewhat similar to the oil industry. Crude oil prices have plummeted to around $70 or $80 dollars a barrel. Yet the retail price has not decreased by a corresponding amount. However when crude oil prices go up it does not take long for retail prices to follow.

Wind and photo voltaic are ideal in isolated communities. There is no need to run long transmission lines or diesel generators to serve such communities. In addition if battery back up is added, electric power should be available for 24 hours a day.

The electricity network companies are allowed to increase electricity prices if they have invested in expansion of the network. However, as reported on ABC radio, in one or two instances, the expansion was totally unnecessary.

I have made a submission to relevant members of all the major parties appealing for compromise with respect to effective action on climate change. Many of the topics that I have written about should be relevant in this senate inquiry. Mr Chris Ayres

Dear Senators,

I write this submission to request that:

1.The government continue to support a Solar Power Support Rebate, and

2. The government actively encourage the expansion of the use of solar power by Australians.

My reasons:

1.such a policy would assist in saving the quality if not the actual lives of our grandchildren from the certainty of a world damaged by man-made climate changes;

2. would ensure the harness of the one resource Australia has in abundance Solar energy;

3. would help Australia meet its International obligations to reduce its green house gas emissions, something lamentably ignored by the present 'government'.

4. would help spawn new solar supply and research industries thereby increasing employment. Australia once was a world leader in the solar industry but now lags far behind with its experts and experienced personal, such as once worked and UNSW now employed in Germany and China.

Many is not most people who have installed solar panels much at their own cost are not wealthy people but folk who made the sacrifice not just to leave a better planet, but also to ensure security of reasonably-priced energy in their old age.

Chris Ayres, M.A.; M.Ed(Hons); LLB, LLM(Tax) Solicitor of High Court and of Supreme Courts of NSW and Qld. Mr Christopher Williams

I believe that the creation of wind farm electricity has been overdone and has caused excessive cost to the everyday user in the form of subsidy to benefit power companies. Mr Clarence Oliver

Applied for 5kv inverter ergon said no only 3kallowed reason you have to upgrade line into your home at $250 application fee. In my words they said there system won't cope but other people in street have 5kv inverter they are dictating what I can do and what I can't. 5.6 cents to grid what they will pay me But I want to be able to use my own system for power so why the big stick approach Mr Gary Trueman

I WAITH ENERGY AUSTRALIA AS MY ELECTRICITY PROVIDER. IN MARCH 2014 I CONTACTED EA WITH A VIEW TO HAVING SOLAR PANELS INSTALLED AT MY NEW RESIDENCE. AT THE TIME I WAS TOLD BY EA THAT MY FEED IN REBATE WOULD BE 6c FROM THEM AND 8c FROM THE QLD GOVT. I QUERIED THIS FACT WITH THEM AS I WAS AWARE THAT THE QLD GOVT WAS CUTTING OUT IT'S 8c CONTRIBUTION AS FROM 1 JULY 2014. I RELAYED THIS INFORMATION TO THE SALES PERSON AND I ASKED HER TO CHECK THIS WITH HER SUPERVISOR. SHE DID THIS AND THE INFORMATION I WAS GIVEN WASTHAT I WOULD STILL RECEIVE 14c FEED IN REBATE GUARANTEED FOR 12 MONTHS. I SUBSEQUENTLY HAD THE PANELS INSTALLED AND SOME MONTHS LATER BEFORE I EVEN GAINED ANY BENEFIT FROM THE 14c I RECEIVED A LETTER TELLING ME THAT I WOULD ONLY BE RECEIVING 6c. MANY EMAILS AND PHONE DISCUSSIONS OCCURRED WITH EA DURING WHICH I STATED MY DISPLEASURE WITH ITS FALSE AND TOTALLY FRAUDULENT SALES PITCH. WHILST THE COMPANY DID NOT REFUTE MY STATEMENTS IT WOULD NOT RELENT. Mrs Jean Cirone

Enough is enough we need these companies to be held accountable for their actions - if we privatise them we will have lost control over everything and anything they - they want a pay rise - just up the electricity prices for the consumers and yet they still don't seem to answer to anyone - their employees do it tough we the consumers do it tough - why aren't they doing it tough. This Country needs to be brought into line before we become a third world country and we will then be the ones asking for hand outs for other countries because we cannot afford the basic essentials in life Mr Rodney Kemp

I am a homeowner who has endeavored to help our environment by installing a small solar system. I made this decision early when systems were expensive and despite rebates and feed-in tariffs will not pay it off for another 10 years.

I am puzzled how the amount I receive from my supplier for exported energy has reduced while my costs for imported energy continue to rise. This does not compute. I also find that my fixed charges are continually increasing so that efforts I make to conserve and use electricity efficiently do not reap any rewards. It seems that any individual household's commitment to energy reduction or efficiency is simply gobbled up by our suppliers who continue to make profits without sharing any responsibility. Mr Greg Wright

Its clear that energy markets are going to need to adapt, and with new technologies in battery storage going into production the time is right to start supporting residential solar with improved FIT that represents a fair market value for the energy produced and facilitating new entrants into the energy market. It is foreseeable that energy storage solutions installed closer to peoples homes, taking advantage of residential PV for majority of charge is going to be a viable new mechanism for providing power in a greener, cheaper and more efficient manner. No matter what you think of climate change, we should be striving for an environment that is cleaner than it was yesterday, and right now - that is nowhere near the case with increasingly substantial amounts of pollution, in the sky, on the ground, in our soils, in the ocean, rivers and streams. Even in the Arctic, there is evidence of our waste products. Is this something to be proud of? Mr Gordon Bossley

1 The poles, wires and much of the rest of the asset base belongs to Australians, and is not something I gave you permission to sell.

2 We'll move to renewables. Clinging to coal as a source of power is avoidance. Let the old industries die. Move the government spend into ways that advance us please.

3 Discouraging people to stay on the grid (even if they have storage) is INSANE. Once disgruntled people leave the grid, their excess energy is lost to the grid, forever. Mrs Jacqueline Evans

From smooth billing, paying a designated amount for the 1st and 2nd month each quarter(which they earn interest on)to retaining the credit we generate for up to 12 months while we're paying for every charge they can come up with. Why are these companies allowed to earn interest on the credit solar owners generate? These companies are also reaping massive profits from excessive gold-plating of the electricity grid which we have to pay for. Mr Mal McCallum

Below is my latest response to a series of messages from our monopoly energy supplier (western power). I suspect they are trying to shift all their responsibilities to the consumer (including tree pruning and pole maintenance).

Afternoon.

Meter reading confirmation is your obligation, not mine. Photo sent shows total and I already save you enough self reading without doing all your job! I have provided unrestricted access for the reading confirmation for the last 9 months, but sending threatening reminders is more cost effective than checking access restrictions (obviously). I know you are not personally responsible for business policies, but I want you to record that I resent being treated like a difficult, recalcitrant customer when I am exactly the opposite. I can be contacted on XXXXXXXXXX, and personally meet with your representative at any time arranged for Mondays, Thursdays, or Fridays. Kristen Wood

I have been trying to connect an In Home Display to my smart meter so that I can monitor my energy consumption at home. Citipower has been really unhelpful and actively discouraging me from syncing the IHD with my meter. Householders must retain the right to access/own their own electricity consumption data.

Regards

Kristen Mr John Hall

I was always led to believe that all levels of Government were to deliver to the people of Australia a service ie water, electricity, roads etc., but all we get is the fat cats putting noses deeper into trough Mr William Rice

Prepaid electricity using special meters should be an option particularly for the less well off. As a pensioner I have to be very careful with my budget. I can not have unexpected bills. I use a prepaid phone. I prepay monthly. I check my credit balance regularly. I can not budget for my electricity because my usage varies so much. I pay a connection fee even if I do not use any power. I have experienced prepaid electricity overseas. A voucher is purchased at a local shop and the voucher code is entered into the electricity meter using its keyboard. Credit in kilowatt hours is shown so the user can monitor usage and stay within their available credit until they can afford to buy more credit. Why isn't this system available to us here in Australia? If it were then people like me would find it easier to live within their means and not be subjected to electricity accounts that they had not budgeted for. James Jarvis hi

Please make energy from solar a priority because Australia is blessed with sunshine. The pollutants causing climate extremes are effecting everyone and the Economy will also eventually suffer if nothing is done.

In our experience solar has been good and we are grateful for the sun here in Australia. thanking you

James and family Mr Frank Vakitsidis

Family home is unable to cope with the ever rising power costs. one of many basic utilities needed to live in a first world country. encourage solar panels to run a cleaner world for my children. Mr Douglas Cooper

When living in my previous home, 2 Mannion Court Wangaratta, shortly after a new compulsory smartmeter was fitted we decided to install a 4.1 solar system. We had to threaten to contact the ombudsman before we were given any credits. We also had to pay for a new meter as the state approved allegedly did not have feedin capability. We generated a credit of over $1000 in our first year which after chasing by us was refunded by the retailer by cheque. during the next year another new meter was installed ( which I refused to pay for). The refund for the second year was only $280 which was caused by any credits on the replaced meter not being taken into account. When queried the retailer expained that SP Ausnet had removed the meter and could not retrieve the readings. My advice to everyone since has been to only let a meter be replaced after photographing the readings. Mr Neil Walker

30yrs ago, the $7k contribution to poles & wires for a supply to my residence, was HUGE. In time, a further line was connected for others. I was refused any pro rata co payment. Rather than being confined to a POWER EASEMENT situation, the supply company, has & does, meander across my property , at will., arrogantly. I have never been comfortable with the arrogant attitude, or abilities of personell. Now a pensioner, my private, dirt access track is an overwhelming maintenance experience, agrivated by the rough off road vehicles used by the supply company, without compensation. Raising such wear & tear with the OMBUDSMAN provided no apparent change. The supply company, Essential Energy, advised tha a dangerous condition at my meterage existed and meter reads would cease and ESTIMATIONS would occur. Local electrical contractors, were just to busy to attend my meterage compliance.At this time, my consumption was meager, in comparison to past high useage.ORIGAN ENERGY, submitted billing based on ESTIMATIONS, based on past high useage. ORIGAN ENERGY refused decent liason and arrogantly provided that the power be terminated should full money and penalties be received, post haste. Such was at the start of ski season, when some small income be derived at my property. An odd person , claiming to be sent to read the meter was provided with access, this reading was noted to be FALSE and EXTREMELY inflated.I submitted photos of meter, clearly showing accurate readings at a time when ORIGIN insisted on full payment of ESTIMATED readings, or be disconnected. Eventually, an electrical contractor, from another region, called and advised that my electrical situation was compliant, he also phoned Essential Energy, who advised that the unsafe condition notice was a SHAM, as the meter reader did not wish to call at my property, to effect his duties. Eventually the account was adjusted and paid. Currenrly, I advise Essential Energy of the meter reading and ORIGIN Energy submit an account for payment. I now require; A Power Easement be observed for ALL power activity. Bombastic and arrogance cease. Wear and Tear payment for any activity NOT within the Power Easement.As overview, reduceing power consumption to lowest figures and paying a greater amount for service and supply(poles&wires), is difficult for a PENSIONER. thank you Mr Scott Sledge

I have a stand-alone system, but my son is grid-interactive and gets paid peanuts for inputs off his solar system. Surely this is unfair.

Also, we want to have a community netwrok, but probably will be denied use of the poles and wires...which we paid for!

How can the government sell off community assets? These will then Never again be available to the public.

This world needs more community sharing, not more corporate profits ! Tim Galli

I live in a rural area, where the nearest power line is perhaps a kilometre away for some people. They have been told they will have to pay up to 10s of thousands of dollars to get the power on. Why doesn't the power supplier put in infrastructure so that future customers can easily connect and become paying customers? eg. If I pay say $10000 to get the power on, and some time later my neighbour wants power, they may only have to pay $1000-2000, as I have paid for the power infrastructure. This is grossly unfair. This is standard practice in rural areas, and must stop! Christine Higgs

It makes me feel ashamed to be Australian when I see other countries, that get much less sunshine, commit to FULLY providing their power with solar. And yet, here we are, in the sunniest land in the world, and still digging up coal. We are very quickly becoming the laughing stock of the world, simply because of our stupid leaders. Please, senators, put logic before greed, commit to pushing coal-fired power into the history books and help write a proud Australian future. Mr Jake Hennessey

Dear Senate Committee,

I am upset with how electricity companies reap massive profits from excessive gold-plating of the electricity grid which we have to pay for. I have seen a substantial increase in my electricity bills over the past decade - looking over my electricity bills over this period I note that charges have nearly doubled over this period!!

Some commentarors have tried to attribute this increase to the carbon tax; however, the increase is far greater than the 10% carbon tax, and indeed my bills have not decreased since the carbon tax's repeal.

I sincerely hope thst this Senate Committee can shed some light on this important issue and reveal what mismanagement is occurring in this area, and what financial waste this has caused.

Thank you for considering this submission.

Regards,

Jake Hennessey Mr Lloyd Cavanagh

I thought we were being encouraged to use solar power to help save the planet!!

Any incentive to do so is now being eroded by goverenment policies. I strongly object to any watering down or removal of solar incentives. Mr Colin Lambie

Some electricity retailers do not support renewables as much as they claim publicly, ie their submissions to the RET review asked for cut-backs, but their web sites suggest they are more concerned about the environment than they really are, eg Origin Energy - web site includes: '...we strive to make the right choices and ensure our footprint is minimised.' Professor Michael Hess

We decided to invest in solar using a retirement payout so that we would not face the uncertainty of continual increases in power bills. It has worked brilliantly with quarterly usage costs - even in Tasmania's dark winter months - below $30. How good is that. Oh and then there's the environment to think of for those of you who live in coal fired power generation areas. Ms Mary Hicks

Not only am I being charged an exorbitant and receive little in return for the solar energy that feeds back to the grid. I am now only receiving overdue notices due to a problem in their system so I never see my bill because they dont calculate the credit card fee so that $1.67 per bill is now making an overdue account! I was assured this would be rectified and it hasnt been this leaves room for corruption. I now havent seen a true bill for 9 months. If they truly were on the ball they would be embracing free energies and supply would be cheaper. And they would have innovative ideas and become world leaders in the new field of energy. Mr Pat McGreevy during the time I have had Solar I have been disappointed with the way in witch I have been treated by the power companies. Only collecting 8 cents a KW was bad enough but now it is down to 6.5 cents a KW when I produce about 1100 KW a quarter that I have deducted off my account ($60 ).We have been told if we don't like the power supplier we should shop around, HA HA No one else in FNQ.

And now if the Federal Gov changes the rules again we will probability get nothing and charged for connection to the grid. We are trying to help in our own small way with Lowering Pollution to the air but all we hear is the GOV trying to take that away from us to.

So help those of us that need it in trying to save the Environment and not the power companies. Thank you for giving me the chance to be heard... Pat Dr Ian Darnton-Hill

Solar power is a no-brainer. Once we were world leaders! Lets do it again. Mrs Barbara Whalen

I think it is most unfair that Synergy pay us only 7.135000 per unit that we generate to the grid, when they charge US 33.360100 per unit that we use from the grid. There is no competition in W.A so they can charge what they like. What can be done about this unfairness? Sean Dean

Dear Senate Committee,

I rented a house for almost 3 years in Murdoch, Western Australia. As the electricity bill payer I was unable to 'vote with my wallet', in regards to choosing an electricity supplier. The best I could do was to pay a donation per unit of green electricity, which was meaningless as 1) it was not based off instantaneous demand, and 2) there wasn't any real-time information as to when renewable energy is being produced. Given the choice, I'd choose a supplier that could provide 100% renewable, sustainable energy, and ZERO percent filthy fossil-fuel- powered electricity. The current system is designed to favour only the large-scale filthy coal- fired power stations, just 'cos they've 20-year contracts with the mines.

With stronger moves towards a smart grid, greater choice for consumers, like that of the NEM, where one can choose their supplier, will help significantly to end this monopoly- which it must and inevitably will. Because people power.

Thank you for holding this important inquiry. Australia needs to pull its socks up, particularly given recent international moves on carbon emissions. Today, my one birthday wish is that we as a nation are properly led by our leaders in one of humanity's greatest challenges in our history- the fight against climate change- so that we may look up to them again.

Sincerely,

Sean Dean

Undergraduate Science/ Engineering Student Miss Leza Bardini

Senators. No entity should have the power to effect the basic everyday lives of people with such negative impacts. Once we were leaders in alternative energies, eith the wotld looking our way.. now we let the greed own us. Mr Stephen O'Dea

I generate solar electricty during peak times, when others are buying my electricty from the grid at 26cents or more per kilowatt hour. For that power, I get 9 cents per Kilowatt hour.then in the evenings when industry is down and I am home, I get slugged 26 cents plus GST per kilowatt hour. I was mislead to believe that if I made 20 kwh per day, and used 19kwh, I would be paid 9 cents for the remaining kwh, but that's not what happens.

Of the 20 I make, I use maybe 2 or 3 during the day, so they pay me 9 cents by the ballance of between 17 and 18 cents per kwh. Then in the evening I use between 16 and 17 kwh and get charged 26 cents per kwh plus GST.

So what ever happened to be paid or charged according to the nett power imported or exported by a consumer? It all total rubbish. And for this I paid how much?

Now I'm no greenie who wants to stop industry and depopulate the world by promoting Euthenasia, wars or same sex marriage, I'm just a regular person who wants a chance at some grass roots investment in the energy market to offset my own energy expenses. And what do I get for it? Now based on the figures for what I pay versus what I get, I would have to own a system capable of generating three times what I use in order to break even.

Storage batteries however, are a little more than half the total cost of a system, so even if battery prices where to remain static, the return on investment is higher for a system with batteries than a grid connected one.

So my suggestion to the committee is that accross a billing period, charges and rebates should be made according to nett energy imported or exported. This is the only way solar generating customers are likely to remain connected to the grid as battery technology drives the cost of storing power generated by such systems down.

To explain this a little more, consider this. My system makes all the power I need, just at a time when the grid needs it and I don't. So rather than go on being punished for my decision to go solar grid connect, I might invest in a battery bank to store the power I make during the day, so I can reuse it at night. Very simple, and until recently, quite expensive. Thanks to the electric car market explosion happening in some parts of the world, battery prices a coming down fast, so that should the disparity continue, many contributors to a cleaner greener grid, will exit one by one as each considers the benefit and makes a choice preserve their hard earned cash.

Right now as family and friends ask me about going solar I tell them don't even consider being grid connected, it's a total waste of money. I tell them to get quotes on a RAPS (Remote Area Power System) and when the Return on Investment meets their needs, disconnect from the grid and go it alone.

As a taxpayer, I don't complain about paying my taxes when I can see the money going into infrastructure. And sure, your building roads and bridges with our taxes, that's great! But what about our power systems? Privatization has its place by all means. There is room for privateers to generate electricty from coal, wind or solar, and all a needed because some days the wind don't blow, and some days the sun don't shine! Quite apart from sundown to sunup! But the grid in its entirety should be owned by the state, so it can be kept to a standard, not a margin. Paid for by our taxes, not milked for every grubby corporate dollar possible.

To summarise:

The current arrangements are unfair and poorly explained before installation of a grid connected solar system.

Targets to reduce greenhouse emissions will be harder to meet if folk do not adopt solar, or disconnect from the grid in preference to RAPS installations.

As battery costs come down further, pressure to convert to RAPS will be applied to those already on the Grid.

Thank you for your time.

Stephen O'Dea Mr Bruce Pearce

I live in Darlington WA. About 9 months ago Western Power replaced many poles in the area of Ryecroft Road. With all the manpower and machinery involved the cost must have been very high. Now most of these poles have had to be replaced in the last couple of weeks . I understand this was because the first poles installed were defective and possibly likely to early failure.

It really asks the question of what level of QA does Western Power have in place. Doubtless, we will all eventually pay for this farce. Mr Alan Richardson

I note with some concern that the electricity gen-tailers are seeking to apply a differential tariff to consumers who have installed grid-connected solar PV systems. Their argument is that non-PV consumers are are in effect cross-subsidising solar PV owners through generous Feed-in tariffs and through the need to restructure (and finance) the network to allow for solar PV input.

This argument ignores a number of important points.

Firstly, the Feed-in tariffs were generally implemented by state governments at a time when solar PV was too expensive to justify as an unsubsidised investment, They did this as a policy decision to encourage the uptake of solar PV for various sound environmental and economic reasons. They're now largely phased out for new installations and the current FiT's are arguably well below what SHOULD be paid for green energy.

Second, the impact of solar installations on the network is I suspect much less than the impact of air conditioner installations. The air-cons affect demand for power and hence the need to invest in new or higher capacity network infrastructure, while solar PV systems affect the supply side with similar potential needs for changes to infrastructure.

Why is it that the network operators suggest solar PV owners should pay more to allow for these upgrades while owners of air con systems should not?

If there's concern about cross subsidies in the power network, then what about the many cross subsidies that exist between city & country, large users & small users, remote off-grid communities & on-grid communities etc etc. ?

Note that solar PV systems actually have some benefits for the network. They provide lots of cheap power when demand is greatest.. when everyone switches on their air conditioning systems on hot days! As users start to install battery back-up units and plug is Electric Vehicles (which will happen in future years), these battery energy buffers will add very significant smoothing and resilience to the network. Will the network operators and gen- tailers be prepared to pay for this benefit? I doubt it!!

Finally the inclusion of a large number of small, very widely dispersed sources of power potentially adds significantly to the robustness and resilience of the grid.

If designed correctly and managed correctly to take advantage of this new dispersed power paradigm, the grid costs can be reduced and its reliability increased.

The gen-tailers and network operators need to come to terms with this new ball game and work with the concept of consumers also being generators, and come up with packages that recognise both the advantages and challenges of a much more decentralised grid.

Oh and by the way, in case it's been overlooked.... renewables MUST dominate the power scene in future IF we're to avoid the severe impacts of global warming. (Not to mention the deleterious health impacts of burning coal in particular). ie. For our collective good, renewables need to be ENCOURAGED, not discouraged!! Mr Paul Lucas

Ergon deceive us quite openly about their charges and no amount of contact with them about their charges seems to change their ways;we just don't seem to be a consideration;we always get a stock answer that speaks of enormous infrastructure costs,yet they don't seem to be able to accommodate solar power contributions from many householders.

Mr Brian Cherrie

I signed up to have my electricity transferred from AGL to Origin. I was specific that it wasn't to be changed until my contracts finished. This wasn't adhered to and I received a bill for gas and electricity from AGL and an early leave penalty of about $75 each, equaling about $150. In the meantime I lost the paperwork and couldnt find the details of the company that was supposed to arrange the changeover. I rang AGL and told them that before I pay the bill, that they should supply me with a copy of the termination contract so I could find out the information that I needed. They refused to do this and told me that they don't have to do this and that it would be impossible. As far as I am concerned they treated me with the most contempt. They weren't even going to try to help me with this. These power companies are money gouging and they charge way to much for what they do. Everyone has tightened their belts with power use and the power companies just keep ripping us off. Tim Adamson

Rapid development of battery storage technology is leading to the potential of widespread disconnection from the grid for those living in high performance houses. The triple result of this initiative is to reduce demand, reduce distributed generation potential and leave diminished numbers of customers paying for grid costs. A remedy for this scenario and a way to reduce the business case for disconnection is to structure feed-in tariffs for small scale generation that reflect fair time of generation value combined with a value of reducing network costs due to distributed generation.

A clear trend in our client demand for off-grid house designs this year reflects a growing understanding of the household budget viability enhanced by being completely self- sufficient. Mr R John Carter

We moved city over 2 years ago. Although we now use less electricity than before, our Electricity Bills are substantially higher than in our previous city. We use less electricity in an attempt to reduce Greenhouse Gases produced by the generation of electricity by coal powered generators. Within the past year, the electricity have claimed that they need to increase their usage rates, because there is less demand on their network. They claim that, because they increased their networks to cope with higher demand, since there is now lower demand, their unit costs are higher. We cannot believe that there is not a monopoly, because no other electricity supplier is able to offer a lower rate. Do we now drive up demand, so that the unit production price is lower? I do not believe that this will ever happen. I believe that we all need to do our bit to reduce Greenhouse Gases produced by fossil fuel electricity generation. Paul Ferman it is appalling that solar is being stopped by the very people who sell us power , it is a supreme weakness in government , that they are so beholding to these power suppliers , they have applied for all the solar subsides and then put them in the draw , and govt hopes no one notices , this country is made for solar , australia has the finest solar scientists , shame shame shame tony abbott Mr Andrew Hayton

My supplier cut the amount they added to the SA government payment shortly after I installed my solar PV system. This has affected the return I thought I would get and the payback period. Glenn Warwick

It cost me a bit of money to have solar panels installed. Nevertheless, it is money well spent for so many reasons: lower energy bills, a step in the direction of the future, less reliance on Big Business, a feeling that little me achieved something important, but mostly because it's the right thing to do.

Guess what happened when I turned away from Big Electric? They came calling again and again, with the sweetest of deals, to get me back into the fold. They don't care about society, only about profits, and as far as they are concerned, our future children can go to hell.

So too can they. Dr Alex Wood

4 years after installing 12 Solar Panels on my home roof I have not been able to secure any input for the energy produced. I am still mentally competent and able to manage most things easily.

Origin Energy & the now defunct installer bounced me between each other with various unhelpful outcomes. I sought Ombudsman's advice, but failed to progress my case.

My partner installed installed 20 Solar Panels in December 2012 and has had a similar experience between Origin and Gryphon installer, with still no input to her account. In that case Smart meter problems were also invoked.

To contribute to helping Australia & the world carbon abatement and to not have a well documented and compulsorily given document about what is a simple and repeated occurrence, so the paying consumer is helped, seems to me quite unreasonable. Perhaps legislation is needed to compel that? Mr David Cameron

We are at present happy with the service we receive from our electricity provider. We have solar panels and they are doing a good job and we are currently earning 60 c/ unit generated. We are aware that this must come to an end.

I have written to Origin suggesting that in order to retain the value of their organisation they need to discuss with the community how we can gradually move to alternative energy sources to coal or oil. They have assets that are valuable but because of their 'gold plating' the electricity cost has been high and will go higher. This is no way to cater for the future. Origin have said that they wish to discuss their plans but have not come back with any idea of when. As we have solar we also have our asset and do not want to be victimised because of this by Origin increasing the cost of mains electricity beyond what is reasonable. The community and the suppliers need to talk sensibly and fairly so that the assets of the suppliers are not completely left as stranded. That would be the situation if they pushed up the price too much. The solar users would eventually move off the grid and rely on their solar plus batteries. We must find a win/win alternative. Sensible discussion is needed. Good on the Senate for progressing this initiative.

David Cameron Mr Mark Filan

I have been concerned over the past several years at the exorbitant and growing rates charged by private electric supply companies. I am concerned to find that the growth does not reflect production costs, but gold plating of infrastructure, even at the same time safety and maintenance are sacrificed. The electricity industry then further insults me by attempting to destroy developing alternative electricity production methods such as wind, solar ad tidal. These alternatives have the potential to provide energy for industry, communities, employment and international trade. Please support them. Mr Howard Davies

I sincerely hope that the Senate will be wise, willing to guide Australia into the 21st. Century, to lead, not continually lag behind other developed [and developing] countries, and be imaginative enough to listen to the vast number of ordinary citizens who would welcome, with open arms, the opportunity to choose for themselves, to embrace the concept of lower cost electricity through the installation of rooftop solar systems. Surely, it is abundantly clear, that, if supported by the government, prices would come down, and jobs would be saved, and created. Large power companies could restructure accordingly, and become super efficient, or sink, instead of constantly taking the easy way out by relying on the largesse of governments, and riding roughshod over ordinary taxpayers, pensioners, etc. It seems totally ludicrous to me that we have the perfect climate for utilising, and developing, solar energy, and yet successive governments are prevaricating to the extent that, we are in danger of being regarded as the fools of the developed world. I can only shake my head!!! Mr Athol Park

We installed a 5kW solar system in July 2010 and the installer sent the paperwork to Origon. At that time the feed in tariff was 66c/kWhr (for life). When nothing happened for a about twelve months and I contacted Origin they claimed they did not receive the submission from the installer. When I contacted the installer, they said it was a common complaint that Origin denied receiving the application. After more than another year of arguing with Origin, I was literally forced to accept 31 c/kWhr in July 2013, just before it went to 8 c/kWhr. What's more this rate is only good until 2016 so they may lower it at their discretion. I was obviously cheated by Origin just like many other people I have heard the same thing happened to them. Mr Graham Patterson

All energy providers need to have a much lower and more reasonable cone tigon fee as the current charges are unrealistic for the service provided Mr Mike Smalley

I am an Origin customer and have enjoyed the opportunity to have discounted charges for my electricity usage. The feed in tariff on solar is generous. Unfortunately the discount rates are now reducing and becoming unrewarding to the user. I strongly object to the regulators excessive supply charge fee. This should be reduced by at least 50% due to the application of solar assisting in electricity distribution. The regulated rate for electricity consumption on the night tariff (T31) rate should also be a lot less than it is. Ms Lesley Paskins

I have solar hot water and 1kw solar panels. According to the graph on the bill, December 2013 my average daily cost was about $2.70.

For September, October and November 2014, the average daily cost has risen to $20.00. The 'snapshot' on the bill states the Average daily cost is $1.98. It does not make sense. It also states that my usage has risen from 5.18kWh to 9.43kWh.

I do not use any more than before. A son has left home and last year a extension was built to my home using my electricity. It was much less that the current bill is showing. Jocelyn Howden

Solar energy is a no-brainer in Australia. It should be available for everyone. Please stop spending tax-payers money on coal-fired power, protect (and even increase!) the RET, and put our money into assisting State governments to put solar panels onto social housing and government buildings so that even more people can benefit. The rewards will be lower power bills and improved environmental protection. Mr Roger Digby

AGl increased there daily supply charge in January 2014 by 22%.

There is no way they can justify this increase in one year with the fall in consumer demand. Ms Vickie Breckenridge

In August 2011 I paid &7,250 for 8 solar panels. My understanding at the time, was that I would only ever receive a credit account. I also believe that we are looking after the environment by using solar and that all new homes should be required to include them.

I viewed it as a pretty sound investment. We have plenty of sunshine here in Queensland and it makes sense to me to use it. Also, who wants the smelly old power stations I remember from the past!

But from time to time we hear that we will no longer be paid for selling power to the grid blah, blah, blah. I am disappointed that something as important as this can continually be debated by those who care less than most of us, about the environment. Not to mention, those who have no need to care about such small financial investments such as selling to the grid.

I shouldn’t be surprised. Governments change the rules an lots of things that we are relying on just to pay the bills... such as Superannuation for example. But this energy issue affects us all – the environment. So a few of us have invested in it because we can’t trust the government to look after it.

Today I changed from Origin to Click after a friend recommended it. The ones that have been around since ‘forever’ are not looking after the customers, so we need to research whatever else is out there.

I say no to the Fat Cats and ask - please give us a fair deal! Mr George Wright

IN MY OPINION THE BIG COMPANIES ARE

ARE CHARGING THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN

PUBLIC FAR TO MUCH WE PAY FAR MORE THAN ALL THE OTHER STATES WHY, HOW CAN YOU JUSTIFY THIS WHAT PRICE HONESTY HOW MUCH PROFIT DO YOU WANT

THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

ALL I AM ASKING FOR IS A FAIR GO

REGARDS GO WRIGHT Mr Alfred Jones

I wish to make this submission to the Senate's Inquiry into Electricity Network Companies

I live in Regional Queensland, and the only Electricity Supplier available is ERGON

I remember all the publicity there was from our State Government, earlier this year, when they announced “The Solar Bonus Scheme Feed-In Tariff” would increase from 8 cents per Kwh to 9.07 per Kwh on July 1, 2014. Interestingly, I have heard no mention until receiving my Ergon Bill recently, that from October 1, 2014. it has been reduced from 9.07 cents per Kwh to 6.53 cents per Kwh, so much for Can Do Newman, and his many promises to reduce the cost of electricity. There are now two distinct classes of people with Solar Panels, the first who installed under the Federal Labor Government get 44 cents per Kwh and the second who got panels installed since the Coalition Government came to power now get 6.53 cents per Kwh.

My system produces on average 30 KWh per day, and my usage is 9 Kwh per day. I am producing enough electricity for another two average homes, and all I get is a miserable 6.53 per Kwh. Ergon puts emphasis on the fact that they are not to blame, it was a decision set by the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA).

Please advise me if this is considered fair, when I am doing my best to help the Climate Change situation, and all that is happening, is that I have wasted money on Solar Panels, because the Government is robbing me of any benefit, when they are purchasing Electricity off me for 6.53 cents, and re-selling it for about 30 cents, surely, myself and thousands of others deserve better than this very poor offer. Mr. Ian Woff

In recent years my electricity costs have increased by hundreds of per cent, but the amount of electricity I am using has not. There is no justifiable reason my costs should have increased beyond the background rate of inflation. Mr Matt Zahn

I think we need the bullying by the lobby to stop. WE want renewable energies at low costs instead of subsidising fossil fuels and outdated power stations Mr TimA Aarts

All I want for Christmas is clean energy, not coal fired, not radioactive but clean, sustainable and something that will serve humanity and give us some confidence in our leaders again. Colin Crane

The issue is the energy giants will endeavor to increase charges not once but time and time again when ever an opportunity presents itself due to their incompetence in operating in the free market.

The citizens of Australia have elected to use Solar energy for obvious reasons and this solar product is a direct competitor to the Energy giant who has been left standing and now wants the community to help them.

NOT ON.

Compete like every small business has to. Mr James Morris

Multiple times over the years I have experienced instances of either flat out lying and deceit or convenient ignorance by the energy providers in Perth.

Several times I have received massively over estimated bills and when I have queried them I have been told that the meter reading person couldn't get access to my meter box...... which is strange when I have a fully open 20+ meter frontage with a fully paved driveway leading up to an easily accessible and freely opened meter box on the front of the house!

Also, last year, my solar systems inverter failed causing my solar system to not return power to the grid. I found out a month later when the bill arrived and I discovered a far lower solar production figure than I had been expecting. When I rang the company to ask why they had not said anything and when they last recorded power being sent back to the grid, I was told it was not their responsibility to monitor my solar system...... yet they are happy to suck the money out of us when we use any of their energy production!

And to add insult to injury, they offered to send out a repairer to fix my solar system at my expense!

I can only imagine the thousands of dollars these corrupt and greedy swine are taking from unsuspecting and ignorant people who do not actively monitor themselves.

The sooner we all get solar systems, get rid of these parasites and put the PUBLIC UTILITIES back in the hands of the PUBLIC, the better off we all will be! Mr Trevor Berrill

Dear Senators

As a professional engineer working in renewable energy and energy efficiency, my submission is based on my experiences since 2000 when I was one of the first homes to connect a solar PV system to the electricity network in SE Queensland. The order below is from the present back to 2000.

1. 2014 - Carbon Pollution Tax

Origin Energy bills include information about the removal of the carbon pollution tax and the dollar savings to households. This is a form of misleading advertising meant to discredit the value of a method of charging polluting industries for their pollution and raising monies to be put to encouraging the uptake of clean energy technologies. The removal of this tax is not saving the community money in the longer term, but simply delaying paying for the costs of pollution. In general, delays in paying for such costs lead to higher costs in the future.

2. Origin Energy and other fossil fuel retailers are currently engaged in intensive lobbying the Federal and State governments to reduce or abolish the Renewable Energy Target. The hypocrisy of this is appalling. They accept government subsidies to their industry and the fossil fuel industry in general, yet object to measures to support competition from renewable energy technologies. These fossil fuel and electricity industry subsidies amount to billions of dollars each year in Australia and are estimated by the IMF to be in excess of $1.9 trillion internationally. This is at a time when the IMF, World Bank, International Energy Agency and major meteorological and scientific organisations around the world are calling urgent action to address global warming by shifting away from fossil fuels to renewable energy and energy efficiency options.

3. Electricity Bills - I have undertaken hundreds of energy audits for homes and businesses over the years. Few customers understand fully these bills as they are generally poorly written and laid out. As well, few lay people understand energy concepts and the difference between energy and power. Hence it is difficult for people to compare electricity retailers to achieve the least cost bill. If they do work it out, they often find there is very little difference in overall total billing costs between retailers.

4. Origin Energy - Telephone Answering Services and Complex Billing Errors - Making telephone contact with an electricity retail to make an inquiry or address a problem requires much patience. Often the person you contact is a junior employee and you have to be assertive to get higher up the ladder to get an appropriate response. For example, when Energex sold their retail arm to Origin Energy in 2007, my electricity meter numbers were re- allocated to different location erroneously. As well, the repayment for my sale of excess solar energy to the network was repeatedly calculated incorrectly over a period of 3 quarters. Regular phone calls to Origin failed to solve the problem. Eventually after almost 12 months, I sent a letter to the CEO together with a spreadsheet showing their billing calculations and my corrections to their billing, and a $3000 bill for my professional engineer's time. This finally got the problem sorted. This problem was happening to many other solar system owners at the time. A copy of my correspondence to Origin can be provided if necessary.

5. 1999 - Energex Connection and Energy Purchase Agreements

Energex provided Inverter Energy System connection and energy purchase agreements for households connecting solar PV system to the network. The network agreement was overly complex and written for 40MegaWatt Sugar Mill generators, not 1.5kilowatt solar PV system. As well, the agreements did not agree on the method of metering and therefore payment for excess energy exported to the network. Myself and 3 other technically competent solar experts took Energex to task over these agreements which theoretically required us to notify Energex every time a large black cloud blocked sunlight from falling on our solar PV arrays, and at sunset every day. It took 6 months of negotiation with Energex to resolve this problem. At one stage, one Energex staff member accidently sent an email to one of us stating How do we get rid of these people? Mr John Aquilina

Leave the Solar System alone. Don't reduce the max. size. Ms Valerie Joy

• whether energy companies have misrepresented information to the energy regulator for their benefit

I support investigation into allegations of price rorting by companies. I am with Origen.

I would like to hear whether current network arrangements discriminate against homes and businesses who generate their own power.

I hope the enquiry will lead to the establishment of an independent body to investigate and prosecute poor behaviour. Mr Peter Best

Having been frustrated by AGLs almost incredible incompetence I tried to switch to Origin, only to find their incompetence even worse. Dealing with either company was Kafka-esque, and they messed me around while professionally emptying my wallet. A product I bought from AGL was incorrectly installed, then incorrectly installed again. After a 3 month fight to send it back I had my money refunded with a promise that the faulty product would be removed. More than a year later it's still there. Origin couldn't manage the swap from AGL and after weeks of frustration I called it off. Now I'm stuck with AGL as the competition is as bad or worse. The most frustrating thing as that neither of them seem to care about their customers, only their shareholders, and given the universal incompetence they can get away with anything. Mr Dieter Liebrich

First, to clarify this, let me declare : I am making this submission as a person as well as an organisation; i.e. I am a Sole Trader, installing solar panels, and I have a solar system on my roof and I am an electricity customer.

The main thing that I am concerned about, is the lack of a good feed-in tariff ! I do understand and accept that we can't have a continuation of the Premium Fed-in Tariff, but it must be better than 8 cents ! And the reason for that is quite clear and easy to see : If we don't have a decent feed-in tariff, customers will increasingly go down the path of battery storage. As we all know, batteries have improved since, say the mid 50s, but so far not a lot of development has gone into them. But this is about to change : With the emergence of electric cars this technology will go ahead in leaps and bounds like the development of solar panels went from the 50s to now. The result? Every house will have a battery storage system and no, or little power will be fed into the grid. So what? I hear you say. Well, every battery pack is a little chemical factory, so we will have millions of little chemical factories which all have a limited life, and then we have the huge task of disposing them - properly. And what for? For no good reason at all. During daytime, when the sun shines, millions of small solar systems produce electricity, and, while each customer is not using their own electricity (they are all going to work somewhere), but their workplace is using heaps of electricity, electricity that could easily be drawn from these solar systems. You can't be better than producing in the big cities, where the big consumers (factories) are. But you can't expect the customer who has spent a lot of their hard earned money in order to produce electricity, to give this electricity away for next to nothing.

At least, there should be something like a 24 hour grace period, where the electricity that each solar customer produces can be gotten back on a 1:1 basis.

But, I hear the electricity companies say : they are using our network, they can't expect to do that for free. No, not for free, that's what every customer pays a network connection charge for ! Garry Holmes

To whom it may concern, I cannot understand the current practice of power suppliers charging more during the summer period. Their reasoning is that demand is far greater at this time due to air conditioners being used more often thus putting stress on the supply and infrastructure. But surely, with the amount of roof top solar generation at the peak times during summer daylight going directly into every immediate household air conditioner the demand on the grid would actually be less? I,like all other solar panel users actually find that this summer period is our greatest solar power production time and we are actually putting far greater power back into the system than what we are using. Also as more and more industry establishments are installing solar the demand on the grid will continue to decline. The higher summer tariff charge must be abolished. Mr. Paul Malick

The way they keep putting up the price is a MONEY GRAB. also the price of daily service charge has risen approx. 150% over the last couple of years.

The Qld Government says it is not their doing but it is a committee selected by the Qld. Government?

These prices are RIP OFF any way you look at it. qld Government Mr Allen Read

Why is it that when I signed up with my solar producing I was promised 8.16 cents and now that has been reduced to 7.8 cent without notification. They are making money on my investment at my expense and I am paying for the power I produce. Let's be fair here, yes they own the infrastructure an I do not mind paying for that but it is way to far in my energy providers favour. My investment my power and I should benefit from that not the energy company. Mr James Morris

1. Numerous times over the years I've had massively incorrect/estimated bills sent to me. When I have phoned the provider (Western Power and then Synergy) I was told this was because the meter reading person could not get access to my meter box to read the meter. Problem with that is I have a completely open 20+meter frontage and the electricity box is not locked! Lying sods!!! If not for the fact that I am on top of my bills, this corrupt and dodgey company would have been pocketing hundreds of extra dollars from me....so I can only imagine what they are doing to other people who are not so sharp on their bills and just pay them as they come in.

2. My solar systems inverter failed. It wasn't until my next bill (thankfully only a couple of weeks later) that I realised something was up and that the amount of electricity I normally sold back to the grid at that time of year was way lower then usual. The provider (Synergy) said it wasn't their responsibility to monitor but they would happily send a workperson out to fix it AT MY COST!!! Funny, because I bet they would have been happy to rapidly knock on my door if I owed them money but they weren't interested when they suddenly could charge me huge amounts of money extra again!

The sooner this country gets off its reliance of big energy companies, the better we all shall be! Mrs Lorraine Edwards

Electricity suppliers by their very greediness have mobilized many of us to go solar. How can less demand require gold-plating the grid? Things don't add up, fair dealing and transparency need to be reinstated in the power industry.

Cannot something be achieved to control excessive profits/salaries/waste for the common benefit, including business?

I would recommend more public education about wasteful power usage, maybe by way of excess charges for excess household consumption, instead of the more you use the less you pay. Power companies encourage excess usage and many people want every wasteful device they can plug in. Not clever, only causes more gold-plating...

Sincerely, L. Edwards Mr Kerry Volp

My price has more than doubled Mr Colin Pickering

Pleased to see an inquiry to be held.

I would like to see a fair go for all who have invested in home solar power

Stop unnecessary price hikes to supply Mr Michael Wakefield

I would like to know why retailers in victoria discrimnate against those with solar. The retail rates for those without solar are far below what those with solar are forced to pay. I would like to know what happened to the supposedly level playing field in victoria, surely we impose less stress on the grid, yet we pay for the priviledge of doing so. If you can explain the rationale behind their pricing, so that i can make a rationale decision in that regard i for one would be most appreciative. Mr Humphrey Arundel

I have had a 1kW solar system since

2003, and apart from paying a lot for meetering, first net metering $500 & then gross metering for Time of Day charging another $500. I do not have a lot to add except that I have had a long term dispute with Ausgrid(2007 to 2013) over a streetlight they installed opposite my house.

This was one of the most unpleasant experiences I have ever had.

Ausgrid distorted and lied about every fact in the matter, and persisted in doing so when I took it to the Ombudsman. Mr Keith Ramsey

I don't understand why electricity companies can charge to supply electricity. Woolies and Coles don't charge an entry fee. Telstra, mechanics and shed suppliers don't charge you to open their doors. All the electricity companies charge a supply fee, I believe price collaboration is illegal. Mrs Lyn Martin

Last night on television news it was stated that people who have solar panels should pay a higher cost for their power. This is not on. It is blatant discrimination. Almost 3 years ago we installed solar because the cost of power was rising rapidly and forecast to continue rising. We are pensioners and sacrificed a lot to do this. We were at that time encouraged by the government to put on solar and now they backflip - as usual.

Also living in North Qld we do not have the option to choose another provider not that I think the others are any different. I cannot see how solar installations have caused such massive upgrades to the network. In fact because of the energy we supply back to Ergon they should have to produce less power and hence reduce their costs. I don't see the chiefs cutting back on their salary rises etc. We are very happy with our solar but are very disappointed in the way we are blamed for rises to electricity, and the continual haggling about the amounts paid for excess power fed back into the grid. It is high time these companies were investigated. Mrs Jill Dumsday

The power companies are at presnt confecting a claim that electricity costs for households with rooftop solar are being cross subsidized by households without solar. This is a weasel words economic nonsense put about by big companies who have been too slow to see the reality of climate change and the changes they need to make to their business models. Their fossil fuel resources are now stranded assets and they wish to recoup costs from forward thinking, grass roots households. Their claim of cross subsidy is nonsense, for the followiung reasons:

1. As a rooftop solar owner, I pay exactly the same grid maintenance and access charges as non-solar households. I am funding gold plating of the network to the same extent as every other electricity consumer. Without a battery system for electricity storage I need the grid as much as any other consumer, as in my case the grid both supplies electricity and accepts it. So I pay what everyone else pays. No subsidy there.

2. In fact, I have subsidized the big companies, because I have invested in electricity producing infrastructure, in the form of my panels, and I maintain this infrastructure as well. Both of these things are not done by the networks. Nor did I sell off my RECs. The big companies have avoided the installation costs of the equivalent of 1 million rooftop solar systems around Australia because ordinary householders are miles ahead of them in their understanding of the benefits, both economic and environmental, of solar. It just makes sense. If anyone is subsidizing others, it is these 1 million households subsidizing the big companies.

3. I pay around 21 cents per kilowatt hour for purchased electricity, and even so, the power companies are complaining about paying small producers around 8 cents per kilowatt hour for rooftop generated electricity, from infrastructure which is provided by the household and is therefore free for the companies. I don't see the logic in that, nor do I see the rooftop solar producer freeloading off anyone else under this arrangement, which is the big companies' present claim. They want to reduce the payment even further from 8 cents, and are angling for household producers to actually pay for the privilege of feeding power into the grid.

3. The power companies are now suffering from their lack of understanding of the climate change crisis confronting us and them, and from their lack of foresight in moving towards large scale renewable technologies. They are similar to Holden and Ford sticking with the Commodore and Falcon as their cars of choice for the future - all dinosaurs. The big companies should embrace the rooftop solar movement and pay a fair price for the electricity it generates - a price close or the same as the price at which they sell their own generated electricity.

4. If big companies whinge about the technological difficulties in accomodating rooftop solar electricity which is fed in during the day, but not at night, they should take a look at Germany and see how they are managing. Perhaps instead of merrily gold plating their wires and poles, they should have been looking at how to move to emission-free electricity and installing appropriate technologies for that. They had choices and made the wrong ones, at the same time getting maximum money from their customers. They should not be rewarded any further for their head-in-the-sand ignorance of the looming climate crisis. Mrs Leone Wignall

Ergon are ripping families off, cost is out of line with middle income earning families. Mrs Margaret Mann

The cost of power for our home and garden has doubled in the last 5 or 6 years, without any significant change to our appliances or pattern of usage. Following my retrenchment 2 years ago we are now retirees trying to manage on a modest pension income, and the cost of electricity is a major item in our budget. We will be making the move to solar energy as soon as possible if we can afford it. Mr H Matthes

Hi - The Queensland Competition Authority recently announced the average home annual power bill would increase by another $200 in the next financial year. This is ongoing year on year - WHY? Energy companies with deep pockets are obviously lobbying Politicians with un-documented funds to have their gold plating approved again. The are too scared to comprehend that they need to change their outlook on the world, and their business model to reflect the change world wide. Energex has one of the newest networks in Australia with an age only going back to around 2006. Obviously some maintenance is always required BUT stacking the figures so that they can ask for more than they need is fraudulent at best. The astronomical profits that they have been paying to the Qld Government clearly displays that they already have an excess of funds. Stop stealing from the already hard hit public. We have been slugged long enough with unfair or hidden charges, and for having the vision to install solar, providing for ourselves and enough for some neighbours? We are also being forced to pay for a connection to the grid which we no longer use - for long periods daily - other than feeding INTO the grid? Gold-plating of the electricity grid which we have to pay for, has to STOP! Mr John Harders

Our concern is that the electricity authority is planning to eventually reduce or eliminate the feed-in power credit we and other Tasmanians generate via a set of 'grid-feed'solar panels. The Govt encouraged and even subsidised the cost of system installation then it seems allowed the supply authority to pressure them into taking notice of their reduced profits to justify winding back this excellent scheme. This concern is expressed by many others in Tasmania. If Germany can produce so much solar power why is Australia, with such a sunny climate, lagging behind? Does the coal industry have that much influence?

John Harders Mr Keith Ramsey

Why can energy companies charge you to supply electricity? No other business I know charge you to supply you ie Woolies don't charge an entry fee, neither do Telstra, Coles, mechanic shops or shed suppliers. They don't charge you an entry fee because they know no one would use them when the other companies don't charge an entry fee but all the electricity companies do charge a supply fee. Perhaps they all talk to each other and decide what they are going to charge? Illegal right? Mr Lindsay Hope

Dear Sirs,

My submission is best explained by sharing the main contents of letters between myself and AGL. My letter to AGL of 20 October 2014 basically said:

I wish to communicate my disagreement with the percentage increase in the supply charge, and thus the decrease in the October account's credit due.

I note on my July account that, prior to the removal of the carbon tax, the peak rate was going to increase by 5% to $0.2801, the tariff 33 rate by 16% to $0.2099 and the Supply Charge by 66% to $0.8341. Now I note on the October account that, after the removal of the carbon tax, the peak rate, in comparison to the rate prior to 01 July , has fallen 5%, the Tariff 33 rate has risen 2.2% and the supply charge by 66%.

The outcome is that I have saved $2.58 on the usage charges and been charged $29.88 more for supply, than I would have been charged under the rates existing prior to 01 July. I consider the 66% increase in the supply charge to be exorbitant, and that it has been increased to try to nullify our gains from the 52 cents solar rebate, that we need to help pay off our investment in solar.

All things being considered I believe that a 16% increase in the supply rate should be the absolute maximum, in line with the advice we previously received from the state Government through the media.Therefore I calculate that my supply charge should be $0.5821 X 90 days= 52.39, not $75.07 and that the difference is $22.68, which should be added to my credit.

AGL's reply by email was:

We advise we have taken the following actions.

I have investigated the account and can confirm that your rates have increased as part of our annual rates review. This applies to all customers in Queensland and is necessary as the cost of producing and supplying energy has increased. I have recorded your concerns and all feed back is reviewed by our management team to influence our future policy decisions.

My reply was:

Thank you for your written supply. It is appreciated, but does not tell me anything I did not know.

It was very obvious to me that AGL had increased its charges. However, what I am saying is that I am sure your costs to produce and supply energy has not increased by 66% in 12 months. That amount of increase is a rip off in my opinion.

I will keep your reply on file with all my recent accounts, and as new accounts arrive will continue to tabulate what the accumulating credit or debit is, compared with what it reasonably should be. If a debit situation arises I may have to have discussions with Government and Energex.

End of letters.

This case highlights the high percentage rate rise in accounts annually for many utility services, rate increases which are just inexplicably high above the annual inflation rate.

I fully support the Senate Committee of Enquiry into these matters in the hope that the current rate increases can be either fully justified or reduced and that any future rate increases are in line with inflation.

Thank you,

Lindsay Hope

Mr Gilbert Texier

The last two years I was with Origin Australia until I found that my bill was becoming so untenable that I switched to Energy Australia as they promised to give me a discount. Alas this prove fallacious. In fact I have fallen from a frying pan into the fire. The bills were still as high as Origin and Energy proved to be a very deceptive company . Finally I had to switch again to AGL. I have to say,to their credit, that up to now I have been quite happy with this company and my bills compared to the two previous companies mentioned above are reasonable. I want to point out that even though I had solar power on my roof, it counted for nothing with Origin whose employee, once told me during the numerous telephone calls I had with them,that they weren't taken into consideration.I want to point out that it took me hours and endless telephone calls to deal with these companies as their bills weren't always correct. Dr Cas and Chris O'Neill

We have been with AGL for well over 20 years and have just switched to Power Shop which we hope will offer a better service.

AGL has made continual mistakes in almost every bill since we installed solar panels in 2003. Our solar rebate rate has changed often - relying on us to check each bill in fine detail. We have been to the Energy and Water Ombudsman multiple times to have these issues sorted out. AGL forgot to place us on the MStats system which means that instead of receiving the premium 68c/KwH, we now only receive 8c/KwH- they have apologised, however nothing has changed.

Apart from the solar generation mistakes, there have been other significant billing mistakes, in which we pay what is asked and then 6 months later, they write to us saying a mistake was made and we now owe more! It is outrageous that they are allowed to charge extra when they say they've made a mistake in the first place. Each time, we have been assured that this time no mistake has been made! Mr Lee Belbin

I purchased an 8.14kw solar system on 23/3/2011 for $31,000.80. Since then (nearly 4 years), I have been rebated to date a total of $6,053.70 from Aurora. This means that the payback period on my investment in saving greenhouse gasses and electricity infrastructure will be roughly 20 years IF THE REBATE RATE (the feed-in tariff) REMAINS the same.

20 years isn't a terrific payback period is it. If the electricity suppliers start winding back the feed-in tariff AND increasing the cost/kw I am paying for electricity from the grid, the payback goes to infinity.

On any similar investment, one would hope for a payback period of 10 years.

If people are to INVEST in solar, the key issue should be that there is a guaranteed and reasonable payback period. The system would be updated or replaced at that time.

We solar owners are no different from any business that invests on the basis of reasonable expectations. Instability makes life pretty difficult.

The electricity generators are in the same boat - and they should be able to see the writing on the wall regards alternative energy. If they don't wake up and act accordingly, they will as is seen in various places already, they will find themselves in trouble.

If I cease to get a fair and reasonable feed-in tariff, by comparison with the price I am charged, I WILL go off the grid. Full stop. Then I control my destiny, as I do now with water - and love it.

Lee Mrs Kerrie Sheehan

If there is about 20% more electricity being generated than being used then the laws of supply and demand say that electricity prices should be falling not rising.

So why are electricity prices rising?

Have we got an artificial market for electricity where prices are pegged and electricity is being wasted?

I feel that as an Australian my wealth is being transferred unnecessarily to these energy suppliers in what I believe is not a free market for electricity.

I wonder how many other Australians feel the same.

I require answers to my questions as I just do not understand why electricity prices keep rising when there is an over supply. Mr Dennis Burt

We own a unit in a block of 4 units at 30 Lalaguli Drive Toormina 2452.

There is a security sensor light outside the front door and this is connected to an Origin Energy meter, every 3 months the Strata receives an account for the power used by this sensor light of about $28 plus a charge to read the meter of $125 this Supply Charge is also levied to each of the 4 units meters recording power usage, the 5 meters are side by side in the one meter box so Origin is charging 5 X $125 ($625) Supply Charge every 3 months, this is outrageous, can the regulator please do something about this rip off.

Sincerely: Dennis Burt. 11-12-2014 Mr. William Nedeff

We are sick and tired of the constant lies being told to us by the current coalition government regarding electricity prices and the $550 savings we will receive with the abolition of the carbon tax.

Our CARBON TAX REBATE for the period 1st of July to 4th of August 2014 was an astounding amount of$15:65.

To multiply that amount by 12 being twelve months supply would only amount to $178:80 per year.

This is just another lie that this Federal Government guilty of and the saga will continue until the are tipped out of office. Mrs Maxine Robson

I have two major issues which both concern the same provider.

1.Our electricity provider is SP AusNet. When we put solar on our roof they delayed attaching the inverter, despite many requests and then sent us a letter demanding we have a smart meter installed immediately, but they kept losing the paperwork and telling us it was our fault. We have copies of the letters, forms and information we sent them, so it wasn't us...and we can prove that. We lost count of the threatening letters. Then they told us they would lock our system, because we were stealing electricity and although we proved to them that we had sent paperwork, they still blamed us. They stalled so that we would get sick of them and get another provider. They didn't want us getting a decent feed-in tariff. We now get only about 8 when we should have been entitled to 35 when we installed our system. The feed-in tariff issue is a disgraceful one. The tariffs should not vary and need to be regulated and fair. I have to pay peak electricity prices to buy back my own electricity and they give me a piddling amount for what I provide to them. I'd call that a rip-off! I put solar on my roof to reduce my power bills, but they have captured my system and act like it's theirs! Why should my solar system be adding to Singaporean profits?

2. Our second issue is about smart meters and the electronic collection of data using 45 metre towers. SP AusNet installed a 45 metre tower behind our house with the permission of Warragul Golf Club. We found out by accident...they didn't tell us and initially, both the golf club and SP AusNet pretended there was nothing happening near us. (by us, I'm referring to my husband and me and our 20 neighbours) SP AusNet is impossible to contact...if you try their phone number, you will see what I mean. There is no number to press for complaints about a pole and every contact pushes you somewhere else, but never to anyone who can actually give you information. We tried to have the pole re-located. Not only did the Golf Course provide SP AusNet with out-dated maps of the area, (I'm sure that's illegal) but they wanted the money SP AusNet was offering and didn't want the tower near the houses of their members. They were complicit in deceiving all of us. Local planning laws can be over-ridden by these electricity companies and governments seem to let them do what they want. Our local member Gary Blackwood, was aware of this issue and made SP AusNet and the Golf Club speak to residents, (he could get phone access) but in the end he claimed he could do nothing. Governments should not be beholden to overseas companies...that is corruption. SP AusNet moved the pole 70 metres, so they could pretend they did something, but that is a lie. The tower is 45 metres tall and can be seen for miles. 70 metres is nothing in this instance. The pole was erected and we now have a blight on our landscape, (where we had a view of trees) a pole which screams in high winds and is probably exposing us to radiation. How can overseas companies (in this case a Singaporean one)be allowed to trample over Australian residents and local planning laws) like this? Not only are the towers price gouging (we will have to pay in our bills) and putting meter readers out of work, we also know that there is other technology that they can use instead of towers and other places they can put them. We not only did not want the tower next to us, but near other residents as well. To blatantly go against what people want, because they have the power to do so, is arrogant in the extreme. They operate outside the boundaries of moral law and should not be allowed to do this. Australian citizens need protection in law, because it's only that law that they listen to...they seem to have no moral code. Our government should not be selling us off to the highest bidder and ignoring what happens and refusing to give their citizens a voice or avenue for complaint. Because of these two issues I am complaining about our electricity provider, which operates to the beat of its own drum, does not listen to regulators or complaints, side- steps laws where it can, offers money to gullible property owners to coerce them to do their bidding and gouges obscene profits from Australian consumers, is not a fit company to do business in Australia. Mr Henry Lepatan

I did not like AGL unilaterally locking me up into a contract to stay with them for 4 years. This is against the intended purpose of fair play and of healthy competition amongst retailers. This is unethical and wrong. Mrs Barbara Legg

There is a storm brewing over solar and the way SA Power Networks move the charge goalposts once you invest in solar above a minimal level. A tennis club installed solar to reduce their lighting costs only to find the grid power charges went into orbit thus negating the effectiveness of their investment. The rules must be changed to give people a fair go. To be at the mercy of an entity that’s private but has regulatory permission to screw is an outrage.

The above has been copied and pasted from Leon Byner's Don't sell Australia short What the electricity companies and power line suppliers are doing is disgusting, they get enough money as it is from the ordinary people without screwing over the people with solar power. It needs to be stopped, and if necessary, the law changed to make sure it doesn't go ahead. These entities are nothing but greedy companies who just can't resist bleeding the public dry. Mr Ron Foreman

McDowall Brisbane has underground power and requires little or no maintenance.Our power is Energex we now pay our bills to AGL (billing co.)since then our bills have skyrocketed to the point that some residents can no longer pay their bill in total each quarter.We feel an enquiry is necessary to find out just what our money is being spent on. so who is really wroughting the system where is our money going what is it being used for. Mrs Eve Black

I was slugged in excess of $600 for my meter when I I stalled solar panels.... I still feel that I was robbed. Mr & Mrs David and Angela Harwood

Dear Senator,

My Wife and I are in our late seventies and I am my Wife,s full time carer, we live frugally, and have installed solar generation and water heat pump to offset the ever increasing cost of grid electricity, in a few years our solar investment will be a white elephant, unless the energy companies pay an equitable price for the solar energy we generate into the grid, and the grid cost of energy is kept at realistic levels.

There seems to be an deliberate campaign by the grid energy providers to downgrade the benefits of solar energy in favour of coal and oil.

Please help to take Australia into a era of cheap renewable energy, and protect renewables from the profiteers.

Regards,

Angela & David Harwood Mrs Michelle Connors

Our family has cut back on it's energy use, we freeze in winter and boil in summer yet we still have ever increasing electricity bills that we struggle to pay. The increases we are told are to maintain aging infrastructure and then on the news we hear about the outlandish salaries that the CEO's and board members receive and their bonuses. This is unfair as we should not have to pay more out of our household's tight budget while they get big pay increases and bonuses on top of already ridiculous salaries. Mr Maurice Oldis

What really pisses me off is that these Poles and Wires monopolies can just spend money(gold plating) their assets then have that expenditure just rubber stamped by a compliant regulator with no investigation of whether their expenditure(e.g on projections of huge increases of demand that didnt materialize) were justified.We,their hapless or is it hopeless,customers just get lumbered with ever rising daily connection fees the primary cause of recent huge rises in power bills.These gold plated unfair exorbitant investmentsthen go on to prop up superannuation companies.Instead of raising service charges based on their investment miscalculations or laziness or wanton exploitation of their role, these Poles and Wires companies should be forced to write of mistakes in investment like anyone else and then their hapless customers are are at least charged a fairer connection fee on returns on that reduced capital base.THEN these companies have the GALL to go to the media suggesting that solar owners who have paid thousands of their own money to generate clean energy and reduce their ever rising bills and have some control over their electricity use and consumption for the first time are FREE RIDERS!!! We pay a connection fee like everyone else for their exorbitant service!!!One could more fairly say someone who installs a large air conditioner necessitating upgrades to network capacity is a free rider on those who dont have air conditioners.Other suggestions such as solar feed in tariffs are middle class welfarewhen in fact the highest solar penetration is in low income suburbs-for example Hoppers Crossing is Victorias highest.Recent feed in tariff rates of 6 or 8c or even ZERO in Queensland for PREMIUM LOCAL GREEN PEAK power are then distributed by their conspirator mates the electricity retailers to the person next door for 35c+.Thats what i call free loading.This must stop!

We know that between 10 and 20% of homes across the nation have solar installations and up to 90% of households would like them.This is the future-the distributors and retailers could join in the revolution descending on them by for example offering distributed local battery storage to assist load balancing and avoid large capacity increases(distributors) and rented rooftop installation options with discounted power or energy bonds (retailers)for those who cannot afford installation or dont own property.

Others are already lining up to do this if current distributor/retailers continue to resist obfuscate and seek to block market progress through disingenuous or dishonest media and political corridor campaigns designed to preserve their comfortable status quo.

We Australians have solar (15%) or we want solar (80%) AND WE VOTE!!!!

Stop trying to blame us,restrict our rights to solar or impose punitive fees and costs and restrictions on us.We are DOING THE RIGHT THING for the community(reducing peak power prices) the country(providing more employment than the mining industry)and the planet(reducing greenhouse gases) Carole Siu

I am extremely concerned about the rising supply charges being added to both my electricity and gas accounts. In the case of the gas bill the supply charge is double the amount of the charge for gas usage. Mr Michael Gould

I received $35.36 Carbon Repeal Adjustment on my last Electricity Bill,so much for Mr.Abbot's $550 yearly savings.4 times $35.36=$141.44.I know there are other as well,but i can't see myself receiving $400.from them.On my last Bill i was charged 26.73 c/kwh for 6 days & 28.15 for 85 days,won't take them long to get the $35.36 back.The last 2 years Electricity Prices have gone through the Roof & now the Power Company's are lining up once again trying to pull the wool over every ones eyes.Don't let them get away with it.1 Tell them to stop unnecessary up grades to the Network known as Gold Plating.2 Pull them into line over there misrepresentation of information to Energy Regulators.3 Insist they cut out Price Rorting.4 Stop all the discrimation against homes & businesses who are trying to generate their own Power.If some thing isn't done shortly this country is heading towards a Recession. Thank you for allowing me to submit a Submission. Kind Regards. M. Gould Mr Kim Flynn

5KV SOLAR VOTER.....MORE POWER COMPANIES IN NORTH QUEENSLAND..[MACKAY,.TOWNSVILLE,.CARINS,.]...THANK YOU.... Mr Alan Wilson

In the last 5 years I have had 3 electric supply retailers and 2 of which I have had extended fights with over wrongly billed accounts with Tru Energy and absence of bills with Energy Australia. In both cases, no amount of direct discussion with them overcame the problems and again in both cases I had to resort to the Ombudsman to get a fair resolution. As a pensioner I looked to means of reducing my electricity bills and I installed 3 kilowatt solar panels once the smart metres came to our street.

I am disapointed to find that with the ridiculously low payment of 8 cents per kilowatt for electricity I generate plus the supply fee of $1.00 per day makes the repayment of my investment a very lengthy proposition. As the retailers have to pay a much higher figure to buy power from the wholesaler/producer, why is the power that I generate worth so much less? As a poor mug citizen I think it is about time lobby groups were banned from pressuring Governments and Governments started supporting us citizens ahead of the grasping multinational companies who are not good corporate citizens. Mr Ian Thomson

I believe That I and thousands of fellow Brisbane people and beyond are being charged for unfair or hidden charges for solar.

We are being forced to pay for connections to the grid we no longer use.

I cannot abide how electricity companies can reap massive profits from excessive spending on the electricity grid for which we have to pay.

It is time to rethink the whole electric supply system--what we have now is outdated and awfully expensive compaired to what consumers in USA have to pay. Please this is a wake up callt and the longer we leave it the way it is, the more costly it will be. Renewable energy is the future and means power will cost less according to experts in the industry and proven in many countries in the world. Mr Dogan Ozkan whether energy companies have misrepresented information to the energy regulator for their benefit allegations of price rorting by companies whether current network arrangements discriminate against homes and businesses who generate their own power, and the possibility of establishing an independent body to investigate and prosecute poor behaviour. Gerry Muirhead

My complaint is mainly with the state government who have seen fit to abolish my Solar FIT of $0.08 while at the same time, maintained the ridiculously high FIT of $0.44 for the privileged people who got into the solar scheme early. I made an investment decision based on the $0.08 FIT only to have it cancelled after 6 months. Mr Brendan de Oliveira

Hi

My submission is in regards to western power, who are only enforcing specific technical rules when it comes to solar.

Currently the technical rules state that no site can have any dc injected current. However every single household/business with inverter air conditioners, variable speed drives and the likes, has dc being injected into the grid.

This test is not one that anyone does and never comes into play for any other installation.

However, when it comes to a commercial solar installation (even when using transformer based inverters that DON'T put any dc current back into the grid, Western Power need our NPER engineer to sign off that at the point of connection the site has no DC injected current.

As previously stated any site with those items has DC injected current. Even though its not caused by our install and has nothing to do with us, we are not allowed to turn our system on.

If this is such an important rule and is enforced on us, then it must be enforced on everyone and therefore all sites that do not comply with the 0 DC injection rule must be turned off until rectified (which is everyone.

Western Power puts there head in the sand until it comes to our commercial solar installation. This is a blatant step taken by them to limit solar. It is disgusting that they can single out an industry like that and only enforce the rule when they feel like it. It MUST apply to everyone on the network. If the DC injected current is there before we arrive to site and our system is proven to not produce any DC or in most cases i have found improve this result, Than they should not be allowed to reject our system. Mrs Barbara Paull

AGL ADVERTISED 10,000 fly buy points to join them for 24 months. I rang the no. and joined up. Never received the points when I rang back they said I should have joined through email. The man I spoke to never told me that and said I would get the points after I paid my first bill. I feel like I was tricked. If I want to go with someone else I have to pay a penalty. Very frustrated by their tactics

Regards Barbara Paull Mr Hugh Collin

I don't understand why power costs have risen so much when tax payers already own the network - I think it is bacause they (power companies) are required to provide a dividend to government which is actually the taxpayers who paid for the infrastructure and bacause in WA there was a failure of due dilligence on the recommissioning of old power plants via private enterprise. governement Utilities should not have to provide a dividend to the taxpayers who have already paid for the company they shoudl have cheaper power. Mr Phillip Moore

A fair and reasonable F.I.T. rate needs to be addressed by a full and independent inquiry.

Australia, for he most part, has ideal climatic conditions to leverage solar solutions.

Storage solutions have developed to the point where we are approaching (within the next 5- 10 years) the break even point for effective zero grid consumption, through solar use and combined with emerging storage solutions; for residential use.

8% of the total energy consumed in Germany is now provided by renewable solar energy, compared with Australia, at not even close to 1%.

Australia has provided and continues to provide leadership in solar research yet fails to capitalise and foster thus work.

Government subsidies for solar installations are essential to bring Australia to the fore-front of solar leadership, where it should be.

Mr Trevor Bartlett

The current situation with power prices (especially in South Australia) is the gold plating of infrastructure. As we are forced to pay for unnecessary expansion of the grid, this is unacceptable, as even if the new grid network is only used for two days a year, we pay. It is my understanding that over 43 percent of our total power bill is caused by this gold plating.

The other problem is the practice of having a supply charge. I notice that with my last power bill that the supply charge has risen by 10%. This has eaten into the rebate which we received after the abolition of the carbon tax, plus of course and increase in power prices to boot. Thirdly as I wish to try and decrease my reliance on power provided by this group of companies, I find that my FIT has reduced over the ears from 9.8 cents per kWh to around 7.4 cents per kWh. The power companies then charge me a minimum of around 35 cents per kWh for everything I use. THis imbalance also needs to be changed. We were told that privatisation of the power system would lower prices through competition. This has not happened, so please recommend changes so that we no longer have the some of the highest prices for power anywhere in the world. Mr Peter Murphy

A huge investment has taken place in the network which is not justified by claims that either peak or non-peak electricity demand is increasing. I see this in changes to the sub-station closest to me on Lansdowne St Surry Hills, and the huge investment at the corner of Pitt and Hay Streets, Sydney. But media reports indicate that this has been going on across the country. Yet the regulator has approved these investments as necessary or justified, and thus allowed a big increase in profits by both private and state-owned electricity distribution companies.

Our household electricity bill has doubled in just three years, even though our consumption is low and stable.

The industry has failed dismally to really respond to the need to reduce greenhouse emissions, and instead has focused narrowly on its profits, as well as putting up severe barriers to photo-voltaic solar, large-scale solar and wind investments that can reduce greenhouse emissions and costs to consumers in the mid to long term.

Yet all this mis-investment is allegedly based on strict efficiency market principles.

I urge the inquiry to recommend substantial cuts in electricity prices for the unjustified network investments, and to recommend that future investment and pricing decisions be based on credible demand data, and the need to facilitate renewable energy investments.

The inquiry should urge that assets return to public ownership if the current private investors are not prepared to work on truthful data and in the broad public interest. Ms Robin Sevenoaks

My major concern lies around generating my own power. I want to be sure that I can keep feeding my solar power into the grid without being charged for doing so as is being mooted.

The gold plating of the poles and wires has already cost a substantial amount. Mr John Bailey

Well I have made my submission and hope appropriate action is being taken, to once and for all stop these rip off companies from making excessive profits, having paid their so called “fat cats” excessive wages / salaries and use these cuts for their gold-plating instead of ripping the every day Australian off with excessive electricity increases. Enough is enough. we are voters and we will not forget. Mr Noel Gilvarry

I am with AGL.

1. When contract renewal came along I got an email saying Here is your offer. If you dont respond within ???? we will consider you have accepted and will lock you in for another 2 years.

2. I dont agree with fee to change providers within the contract term.

3 Other customers get 8% discount but as a solar supplier we only get 6%.

4 The problem is that the distribution companies like Energex and Ergon set a price that the retailers need to use as their cost base and then add a profit margin.

5. Electricity has become much dearer since provatisation - ie another link has been bought into the chain and is milking a profit from the end users.

Regards Noel Gilvarry John Jaffe a power company purchased timber forest for power poles for above 10,000,000.which they thenspent estimated 20,000,000.on developing tracksweed control ,thich they then divested for less than 10,000,000.they waste the puplic money rip us off on costs and no one calls them to account. they prevent sustainable energy by not providing long term supply agreements at commercial rates need to be 25 years. Mr Ralf Pfleiderer

We have been an early adopter of PV solar feed in. As such we have had the benefit of the higher feed in tariff. The current ultra low feed in tariff is unfair to new entrants and a huge benefit to the electrical grid as a whole. A more balanced approach would be to match the feed in tariff to the feed tariff. As it is we should be covering the cost of network charges through the already high service fee.

We are currently building a new house and are considering a PV system. However, the sizing and the way we operate is strongly affected by the feed-in traffic, whether we operate more of our equipment during the day time to use the PV electricity before being exported (which is a greater financial benefit to use but not to the community) or, like at present, we look shift appliance use to the off-peak periods and export the maximum amount during the day. A balanced tariff regime will also balance our usage patterns. Stephen Flint

My in-laws( both long retired) have a cottage at Coomba park NSW.

Use minimal mains power & yet are charged an unrealistic amount above their actual usage due the gold plating of their service provider's infrastructure.

Have since converted to solar panels & even with the miniscule feed back tariff are now somewhat better off. Mr Ken Stephens

My electricity has gone up by about 30% in 18 months. How can that be?

I have invested in solar power which is good for me and for Qld. I accepted the govt's offer which they put in place to avoid having to build a large power station and the next thing I know the power companies are using me as an excuse for these usurious increases in cost. How can that be?

Please remind these service providers of the meaning of the word service

Regards

Ken Stephens Bob Macdonald

The grid daily supply tariff to regional areas seems excessively high - approximately double the rate of urban or city areas

If one tries to limit power useage there is still a substantial account for these daily grid connection fees Mrs Andy T

I have 3 solar systems on our farm but due to Qld govt changing feedin tariffs, we get very little benefit for our surplus power generated. Why can't we at least be paid at the same rate we'd be charged, I'm not asking for it to be accelerated, but 6c is hardly fair. They make it so expensive to be on the grid that when batteries become a bit cheaper, they'll lose customers. To top it off, the state Govt benefits from these exorbitant charges Mr Gilbert Grace

A natural capitalism approach to energy production and distribution. Energy companies want to supply electricity at a profit. Consumers want electricity at a discount. Roofs are waiting to be covered with solar panels and stand alone wind generators. If the government can legislate to commandeer roofs and vertical spaces for communications towers why not the same for solar/wind power generation.

The energy companies would own and maintain the hardware, rent space from the building owners and reduce load on gold plated centralised infrastructure.

This model would combine with other sustainable building techniques as modelled by Michael Mobbs and others. This would also have the added benefit of being distributable in new housing developments, enabling quicker building times through decreased reliance on connection to centralised utilities.

And discounts? Home owners and renters would attract a bonus or discount if a billing period used less power than the previous quarter or for the same quarter in the previous year, encouraging the replacing of power hungry appliances and energy conservation techniques. Ms Nicole McGregor

Energy Companies are nothing more than licences to print money. They are mostly foreign owned Energy Ausralia is owned by is it not a Singaporian company as with the Victorian network.

All these networks should be owned by State or Federal Governments as they were.

How is it that Coal prices have dropped but the cost of electricity is higher. How is it that the services are contracted out and not worked in by a retained workforce. When this was the case electricity companies had much better services and the cost was not as much. Why do we pay more for green options why are these not the same or less, since they're green. Why can't people get a decent amount of money back on rebates for installing solar and then being paid for it, IF since the cost of electricity has increased does that mean that more profits go to offshore companies that pay less tax and provide a lesser service SURELY NOT. Why do not energy companies encourage people to install solar and wind so that they can buy or produce the electricity off their roofs rather than digging up more coal and gas that are causing more illness destroying landscapes and waterways. e.g. we have 2 roofs here one a house and one a hayshed why doesn't Origin energy use this for solar and I can be paid for it. We have 188 acres I tell you what (watt) we'll rent some space to an energy company to put in solar panels with base load, like Spain has and Stroud can run solar free... and then we could get some other services from the Council like oooh you know like spraying their weeds, cause if they could cut down on their electricity bills couldn't they afford other services to their rate payers. Why are we paying for dirty coal and gas when we have alternatives, that these companies just will not embrace. Take a look at major cities how many roofs could have solar panels, if the Empire state building can be retrofitted then so can many of the buildings in Sydney that could be generating their own power from solar and wind.... And these companies could be benefitting. Frank West

Senate Committee, Sir/Madam, It is past time that we the long suffering power consumers has a say and being consideration. Thank Frank West Mr. Colin Bromley

We are in the firing line of clients not the Power Retailers, as people know that they will be on hold for ages & only to get bamboozled with information clients don't understand. So they call us to express their dissatisfaction of charges & the amount of time it takes to do a simple meter reprogram or worse still if they may need to get a meter upgrade.

We are only a small business and feel that the power companies are reaping all the benefits & charging like a wounded bull from all the hard work that we have done, riding on our coat tails.

The REConnect site is great but The Retailers are letting the system down. They didn't even know there were EWR's on their system until we called to enquire.

It seems we do all the work & they get all the money.

With little or NO communication from the retailers it makes a little business very time constrained.

Not to mention a call centre for RED Energy totally humiliated my wife (Business Partner) after they thought they had hung up the line by saying that they would put our EWR to the back of the pile & who do we think we are ??

Not impressed or happy.

Powercor, Jemena, & city power all seem to OK to deal with but other distributors are a joke.

Everyone seems to have a different way of doing things, it should be all the same way across the board and that would make it a lot less confusing for us as a small electrical busines.

Colin J Bromley

CJ Bromley Electrical Ms Lindy Babb

Energy costs are completely our of all proportion to other costs of living.

Living in one of the coldest climates in Australia, it is beyond unfair to expect us to bear such high costs. Dr. Paul E. Ivory

This week at least 15 vehicles, from pick-ups to heavy construction trucks fitted with long- armed cranes, spent 2+ days packed around us re-doing the power poles near us.

In the super-cell storm, power was out for a day & a half, as usual. John Honnet

I suppose it would be too much to wish for that the big end of town power company directors, who are clearly more motivated by greed and self interest, should take a little time and bone up on the carbon cycle, CO2 levels, oceanic pH etc, and look their children/grand children honestly in the and say that clean energy is too expensive. Can a wrecked environment be repaired?. Expensive? These guys don't know what expensive is. Mr Chris Fraser

The retailers are probably not the best qualified to influence the design of, and investment in, the grid. Obviously, their interests are to stop distributed generation and sell us all the energy they can themselves. Investment is ok provided that non-vested interests and experts are able to incorporate storage and emerging technologies in design of the distributed system, and ensure that solar users are not discriminated against. Gerry Ward

The daily service charge (mostly about 1 dollar a day) is a giant rip off as it should be cheaper now that meter readers do no longer read my meter as it is done remotely with Smart Meters. Ms Pat Wallace

When we connected to solar in Victoria in 2008 the system wound our meter backwards for every bit of electricity we generated ourselves.

In NSW in 2013 they pay us 6c/kwh for our solar power.

We got solar connected on principal, even borrowing the full cost of installation.

NSW Origin Energy is obviously ripping us off BUT we think solar power is so important to out family's future we wear the cost begrudgingly. Mr Harold Johnson

I have had p.v arrays on my last and present home since 2009 and as such my electricity account with both A.G.L and now Origin is generally a CREDIT amount.

Despite repeated requests over the phone to Origin to place the credit amount into my bank account by Direct Debit this procedure has only started to occur according to my bank statements from 5 Dec 13.

Virtually every time I made this request to Origin it was quite difficult to actually have a conversation with a real person at Origin.

When this does occur I am always told the credit amount will be sent 28 days after the request was received.

It has taken a few years for the Direct Debit facility to be put in place by Origin.

However Origin expects any debit amount to be paid to them very promptly.

I wish the Senate committee well in their deliberations.

I hope it results in increasing numbers of voters deciding to cut their global warming contribution by investing in electricity from photo-voltaics and energy saving from their investment in solar water heaters,home insulation,optimum home orientation and other home energy efficiency measures, not only for their own benefit but to benefit their children.

Your children may only be 20 % of the population, they do not yet vote. But your children are 100% of the future.

Please inform Mr Abbott that Australia is an energy superpower in solar power as well as in coal and uranium.

I value my children and grandchildren as much as I value myself and I think solar power is a much safer energy bet in the longterm.

Happy Christmas and all the best in the future you choose fro your children, your staff, your colleagues and their children.

Yours faithfully,

Harry Johnson. Mr Bob Brown

Dear Senate it angers me every time I hear the big power companies crying Poor , We have the opportunity to look forward in power generation not backwards , why should I be penalised for helping the Power industry with my rooftop SOLAR ?, but never the less Power Prices Continue to rise at an alarming rate due to the fact the poles & Wires are having unnecessary amounts of money spent on them to justify the increases ,It has been proven that more solar on roofs will in fact lower energy prices in the long run as in South Australia ,The Renewable energy Target needs to increased not lowered , Will Electricity become a Luxury Item in years to come , people are struggling to pay for it now , its in your hands.

Regards , Bob Mr Rodney Timbs

When we first installed solar it was on the understanding that nothing would change until 2028 Since then we have heard nothing but how the present and hopefully temporary government along with the greedy power companies are forever trying to disadvantage the people who had the foresight to install solar . By the way we along with many people we know were LNP voters in the last election. Rest assured that unless there is a drastic change in the attitude towards solar these votes will not be forthcoming next election. Mrs Wilma Green

Our household have been long term customers of Origin Energy. We have had several issues with Origins accounting, two of which ended up with the Ombudsman. Currently we are in dispute over the rates quoted When we renewed our fixed term contract for another two years in June 2014. Twice I have been assured that the problem will be fixed and a credit issued on our account. To date it would appear that this has not happened and I may have to revisit the ombudsman for the third time. I could continue with a complaint about the amount of my personal time which has been wasted, and I do wonder if they rely on the fact that the customer will tire of the situation and give up. I believe that I am one of thousands of disgruntled customers, and that the industry in general is out of control. It needs harsher regulations implemented pronto to safeguard the public from these sharks. Ms D Morrell

What are the poor, unemployed, married with children or even the employed low paying jobs people surposed to pay these high costs of electricity????????????????????

Well I am one of them not by choice and I could not afford to pay my high electic bills so I went to my bank who I have a morgage with and borrowed more money to put up solar panels. It was cheaper to pay off the bank than to pay Aurora!!!!!! I feel that I am being pushed out of society by being poor. And also by out police. I was book and could not afford to pay the fines so my licence and registration was cancelled so now I dont go anywhere. I am stuck in my home in Tasmania and am unable to leave which is what I would like to do but cant. Australia the lucky, democratic equal and fair country, I THINK NOT. Ms Judy Hardy-Holden

As a self funded retiree with an 86 year old husband I thought carefully about installing solar panels to help our restricted income cope with expenses.

While the panels have helped I found that after a short time our benefits were markedly reduced when AGL bills increased by a wide margin. This has not helped our circumstances at all. This organisation is taking advantage of people like us who have no where to turn for financial support. Thank you AGL. Mr Brian Crooks after an 18 month battle with energy australia to get my contract obligations from them and my legislated solar buy backs paid at the right price, I have just been informed that under the new arrangements recently announcedI HAVE TO APPLY EACH BILL TO GET MY SOLAR REBATE PAIN INTO MY ACCOUNT OR THEY WILL KEEP IT AS A CREDIT BALANCE, MY BILLS ARE ALWAYS READ ON THE 10/11TH OF THE THIRD MONTH, THEN i NOW HAVE TO PHONE AND ASK FOR MY CREDIT BALANCE TO BE PAID INTO MY ACCOUNT WHICH TAKES ABOUT A WEEK, HOWEVER THEY NOW INFORM THAT MY SMART METER WILL NOT BE READ TILL THE 18/19 DEC, AND NOT PROCESSED TILL THE NEW YEAR, THE BALANCE WILL BE IN EXCESS OF $2000 AND WE WERE DEPENDING ON IT FOR XMAS, WHY SHOULD A MULTI NATIONAL COMPANY BE ABLE TO MANIPULATE ACCOUNTS IN THIS DIGITAL AGE TO PURELY ADVANTAGE THEMSELVES WITH OUR MONEY Mr Paul Whittem

Hi

I take exception to paying a service fee. I believe the rational for the fee is to make solar power producers to pay for infrastructure. I believe customers should be rebated as they don't make us of the gold plating which is already included in the kilowatt hour rate. Compare wholesale to retail price.

Regardless, alternative energy production should be encouraged.

Yours Sincerely

Paul Whittem Mr Michael Delaney

In April 2013 I joined MOMENTUM Energy because I believed that they supported energy efficient resources and they sponsored cycling.

At the time they guaranteed prices for 3 years.

Subsequently they encouraged me to install solar panels and sent a representative to my home to quote and informed me that I would receive a minimum of 8c per Kwh feed in tariff.

I installed panels in March 2014.

When I received my next bill in July 2014 there was no credit for my feed in contribution.

Since July when I received that bill I have phoned them numerous times, written a large number of letters and complained to the NSW Energy Ombudsman.

The only response has been bills with increasing prices and a letter explaining that they would not be passing on any benefit from the repeal of the Carbon Tax. Mrs Maureen Allen

I paid $6000 to have a meter and solar panels installed. Less that 3 years later instead of a rebate of initially, over an average of between 1 hundred plus dollars, per quarter now am paying for my electricity. I asked for a discount on power used, but cannot get more than 7%, whilst others get between13% and 16%. Without solar panels? Please tell me why we should buy solar, when we are penalised for doing so, but would not be without it. We should be applauded, not penalised. Dr Haydn Washington

I think everyone should be concerned when the public is lied to. We were told that the main driver of electricity cost increase was the carbon price and MRETS. This was a lie pure and simple, as these only made up around 13% of the cost increase. The rest was due to the stupidity of the government allowing the cupidity of the network owners to triumph, where they were paid far more for new infrastructure. Hence they built a whole lot of power infrastructure that wasnt needed, and boosted their profits hugely in the process. This is immoral and shows government incompetence (or collusion) and was totally without transparency. Even now the neoliberals seeks to portray the carbon price as the cause of increased electricity prices. My experience as an environmental scientist is thus one of intense frustration with a government that refuses to acknowledge that renewable energy is Australia's viable and ethical path into the 21st century, one that allows us to move away from damaging fossil fuels. I hope the Senate Inquiry will cut through the subterfuge and lies to lay forth the truth to the public as to how they were deceived. Mrs Annie Bennett

We used our savings thinking we would do the correct thing and put solar on - less coal fired production needed - now there is talk we will be charged a higher rate for our power than people without solar. Why should we be punished for what Labour advised us to do put solar on and save power production particularly as we live in the north. Mr Nasir Ahmed

There should be a third party government agency looking after complaints against telecommunications and electrical companies. This agency should have more powers to like issue fines for unethical and border line breaking law or deceiving customers. Ombudsman can't do anything worth mentioning other than provide guidance to both parties. Mr Steve Flora

There are two ways an ordinary citizen can counter high energy prices of both electricity and natural gas in the country:

1) Don't use energy

2) Get a decent sized PVC system installed on your house. We did the second (as the first is at the least very improbably to contemplate or achieve in this age). Since we installed a 6.2kWh system a year ago, the only thing that we have found to be a glaring blot on the landscape is that energy companies receiving the energy produced by home systems can pay less per kilowatt to the homeowner than they charge the homeowner for a kilowatt.

Anything less than 1:1 in this situation is blatant inequity. Solar systems have eliminated the need for energy providers to build more power generating facilities. Solar (and wind) have eliminated the threats of brownouts in the summer. This is to be applauded. This is something to be thankful for.

So, the two things which stand out as fundamental points of contention in my mind regarding energy in Australia are:

1. Those situations where the 1:1 principle is not followed in kWh balancing and

2: The fact that Australia is the only/only country in the world that does not have a national gas reserve to ensure that both individuals and businesses in Australia are not protected somewhat from external price gouging. The reason escapes me as to any State or Federal government would deny such protection to its own people and its own businesses. And seeminly merely at the behest of non-Australian energy corporations. Corporations most likely pulling the cloak of tax-haven basing strategies over themselves into the bargain.

These two areas are extremely sore points with me. Here's hoping that the Senate Enquiry evolves into something that can rectify both situations. Fr Stephen Byrnes

I installed solar power and was penalised by my electricity provider.

In addition, they are paying me a pittance for extra electricity that my solar system produces and on-selling that electricity for their normal prices. Mr Paul Bacon

RE: Corporate Greed or Gold Plating it is the same.

Power Billing period. 25/06/2010 to 24/09/2010. Tariffs as follows: Tariff 11= 19.41 cents per kWh. Tariff 31= 7.92 cents per kWh.

Power Billing period. 20/06/2014 to 19/09/2014. Tariffs as follows: Tariff 11= 26.73 cents per kWh. Tariff 31= 12.37 cents kWh.

Service fee of $7.26 per quarter. How can Ergon Energy honestly justify such a huge increase over a short period of time while continuing to supply dirty energy.

Kind Regards

Paul Mr Richard Swinton

Dear Senate Committee Members

I have installed a 2 KW solar photovoltaic system on my house in northern NSW and it angers me that the Government seems to be working hand in glove with the energy companies - generators, network operators and retailers - to punish those people who start to take responsibility for shifting to a renewable energy system to minimise contributions to climate change.

When the energy companies purchased into the system, the knowledge about climate change was widely available and they chose to ignore it and its potential impacts on their business investments, and so are now trying to change the rules to prop up their profits.

We are in the process of a paradigm shift, and these companies should be using their favoured positions to move towards a distributed renewable energy system, not call on the Government to prop up the dying dinosaur.

They are in a similar position to Kodak which was unable to accept that it needed to change from chemical photography to digital; or Holden and Ford who couldn't change their thinking to face the transport needs of a zero carbon economy.

Please ensure that the outcomes of your enquiry lead towards a zero carbon energy system and that the benefits go to the consumers, not the incautious investors in antiquated energy companies. sincerely

Richard Swinton Mr Peter Le Muth

Electricity companies have been out of control since they were farmed out to private companies.

I saw this coming and put up Solar Panels to reduce electricity costs , but when the system was fitted it was not fitted correctly and and showed the power being solar produced be charged to me ! On complaining to Energex and AGL I was told I had to pay or be disconnected so I paid AGL Aus $1600 to settle . I am now looking at battery storage systems and will disconnect from the main grid ASAP.

Further to the above situation when I first bought the property the original owner paid Energex for power to the block however Energex insisted I pay for a transformer Aus$ 6000 this was already paid for in the original subdivision and power connection. When I disconnect I would like either my money back or be given this transformer !

It is a sad situation when the average Australian citizen is faced with rising costs of a basic need every year at around 20% not many people get 20% pay rises every year !

Yours Sincerely

Peter Le Muth Mr Ken Seaton

The entire electricity network including poles wires/generators/regulators/ retailers and the like should come under federal government regulation and ultimately control.

I think an inquiry into the above should take place before solar / wind generators and all associated business and jobs desert this country in a flash.

I would like the solar energy and rebates if available become quarantined from

Tax and network charges. ( the retailers want to charge me network access for suppling energy to them)????

Mr Mario Stylianou

Im am an Electrcian and I Would not want advocate putting solar at the price of eight cents per kilowatt not worth it to install , increase the in feed Tarif now Ms Christine Kaye

Please don't block the RET.

My solar hot water system was already installed on my house when I purchased it from the Sydney Olympic Authority / Clarendon Homes, just after the Sydney 2000 Olympics. My house was one of the Media Village Accommodation. Solar was considered a viable way to enable acting as a responsible citizen back then and was good enough for Government organisation to include in their plans. I have since added more Solar panels to help reduce the cost of energy to my home and to reduce reliance on costly and depleting fossil fuels stores. It is also my small way to prepare for my retirement (5+ years), when I will not have lots of funds available to spend on energy. Global warming is a scientifically-confirmed phenomenon. In Australia, we will definitely need to plan for cost-effective cooling options, such as solar powered energy. Those of us planning retirement will be negatively-affected by Energy suppliers who are merely looking to maintain their already high levels of profits by gouging solar energy consumers. Mr Paul Wilson

Just a statement that the actual electricity component of my bill is only averaging 5%. The remainder is labelled as availability This is in a village of population <200 with a service that has existed for at least 50 years, so the infrastructure is already there and in pretty good order.

On last enquiry into solar generation, the electric company told me that they will not buy any electricity from my home if i had solar generation installed.

Big discrepancy in charges i thought.

However, their field servicemen have been very good on the one occasion i needed them.

thank you

Paul Wilson Mr Neil Dixon

I welcome an enquiry such as the Corporate power that overrides a fair Feed In Tariff rate. The feed in tariff needs to be addressed by a full and independent inquiry. A few years ago we were encouraged, & subsidised to install solar to reduce the carbon footprint. It was a large outlay & we should receive an ongoing decent feed in tariff to offset our investment in solar. Mr Bernard Terry

The way powerful companies influence Government decisions stands out with the energy and distribution industry. Mrs Wendy Brentnall-Wood

I am tired of the government not supporting small businesses and homes in renewable energy provision. Australia should be leading the world in renewable energy development and uptake but the government just makes it harder. Mr Neil Thomas

There is a move by the power companies to recover the cost of smart meter installation. However they no longer need to employ meter readers which must give an annual saving of some millions of dollars per year every year. i.e. their savings will in time exceed the once off expenditure to install the smart meters. To charge customers as proposed is a scam. Mr David Rowe

We had a three year contract with Energy Australia last year telling us that our charges remain the same...we would get 11 cents off ..last bill 8 cents off no big deal but a deal is a deal ...thinking of getting solar ...you should regulate that business ...pink bats all over again Mr John Marshall

Our bills are over the normal level despite cutting down severely on usage.

When we went to Brisbane for family reasons, our daughter lived in our house for several months. Not being aware of electricity costs, she incurred a bill for well over $1000 - which we had to pay. The electricity provider should and would be aware of abnormal usage and warned the user of same.

Footnote - The $1000 bill was several times greater than the normal. Ms Julie Ruth

Finally i have an outlet for my anger. The Federal Government's rhetoric on the Carbon Tax was a total sham. The electricity prices in my neck of the woods FNQ have actually increased since the removal of the tax because the QLD government (ERGON) have increased the charges on our electricity bills by 50%, we received absolutely no benefits from removal of the tax. WHAT A SURPRISE.. NOT. What a rip off. Queenslanders are actually using less power to compensate for the huge price increases,so this is how the power companies ( governments) react. It stinks and it is time to do something about it.

Yours sincerely,

julie ruth Mr Graham Macleod

Dear Senate,

I have found the company AGL to be unfair in the way they charge me GST on the money my solar panels generate? the guidelines state they can only do this if a person has an ABN number which I don't and yet even after contacting them through the ombudsman they still charge me this unfair amount?

Another issue is I get charged the entire bill with fees calculated on the total amount, yet I have a credit that if they applied first it would lower my actual costs?

their reply to this is this is how we do it and it won't be changed!

AGL only gives a pathetic 9c a kilowatt hour for the clean Green energy we produce and they then sell this at a ridiculous rate to people who want clean energy!

why cant they trade us a kilowatt for a kilowatt not this pathetic 9c? they will still make money on the green energy sales.

I still have no idea why they can get away with this especially with the sliding scale we are charged for different amounts we use during the day?

Could you please look at why the electricity Solar home owners put into the grid is worth less than what we import?

I asked these question to the top representative and was told basically bad luck?

Are all electricity company's allowed to charge what they want? I ask that the Senate enguiry look into a fairer system where extra electricity made in a solar home is banked into the company and can be drawn out if and when needed at the same rate without money exchanging hands?

The cost of electricity is so high now and yet the actual cost to make electricity by these companies is only around 16% of our bill, the rest is supposed to be for infrastructure and upkeep of poles and wires? I have no poles and wires anywhere near my home and all new areas have underground supply! why are they allowed to charge us for what we don't have and charge what they like?

I remember when the system was privatised with promises of lower prices and competition but every utility and service privatised costs us 4 times as much with no savings.

Please make the electricity providers in Australia accountable for fraudulent billing practices overcharging and an unfair exchange cost to the solar home?

9c is an absolute rip-off and needs to be stopped.

Thank you to the Senate Enquiry I hope my humble words make a difference.

Respectfully Graham Macleod Mr. Norman Murray

I have had problems dealing with both Origin Energy and AGL. The problems began when I had Solar installed. Origin was totally uncooperative in recognising my solar input, and refused to read my meter. I eventually took the mater up with the ombudsman who achieved a partial solution and I finally got an apology from an Origin executive.

I switched to Aust.Power and Gas but when they were taken over by AGL the problems started again. They refused to recognise my off peak power use. After numerous submissions that problem has been resolved but I always check my bill thoroughly for complications, which I have had quite a few. Mrs Jean Cole

I disagree with the way we are paid for the unused electricity from the solar going back into the grid. I think we should be paid at least the same rate as we are charged for the electricity we use. I also disagree with a vengeance on the service fee, what is it for and why is it so much anyway, how do they work it out. We live in Widgee our power goes off at the drop of a hat adn it quite often comes on again and then off a few seconds later, we get lots of power surges which doesn't do our fridges any good and causes the TV set top boxes to go faulty and to be replaced at our expense.

If the government had anything about them they would encourage people to have solar to keep the carbon down not just get them to get solar then reduce the buy back electric costs.

Regards

Jean Ms Kay Thornton-Cohen

SA Power Networks will punish many SME businesses if they install Solar.

If a business is on a Business Rate 2 tariff and has a CT meter and they install solar SA Power Networks will put them on a Demand Tariff which incurs set monthly FEES. The solar can not have any effect on these FEES. Many small struggling businesses would end up paying more for their electricity after the meter was programed for solar, than what they were before.

They are being punished for trying to save money and the climate. While SA Power Networks increase the ever increasing profits. Mr Roger Lewis

Aurora Energy/Tasnetworks Estimated Bills with Solar Installation

I recently received a substantial estimated bill from the abovementioned parties. However, the Aurora on line Estimate Your Bill calculator indicated a tiny bill.

It transpires that Aurora merely passes on bills calculated by Tasnetworks so Aurora could be abolished with savings to customers.

In estimating bills Tasnetworks assumes there has been no solar generation. Their excuse is my installation may be unreliable and that they are allowed to make estimated bills ... However, I am afflicted with frequent drop outs in their supply; my high quality solar installation is much more reliable and there was no valid reason why the bill had to be estimated.

The failure to include an allowance for solar generation is grossly unfair. The solar component is quite predictable from previous results and applying this prediction would have yielded a quite accurate result.

It is apparent that the estimated bill calculation is needs revision. Ms Shannon Leahy

I had the benefit of choosing a solar power company, 2012, who handled all the details, installation, connection and power company. They ensured that everything was up and running and we have enjoyed the real reduction in power bills. Then yesterday I received a letter saying that the power company has the power to turn it off if they think it's unsafe (not fix just turn it off) why? There has been no hassles, solid returns that have helped me stretch my carers pension. I found the letter confronting and confusing. Mr Ron Jones

Put on a 3kw solar panel system to lower my electricity bill because I have become unemployed. Bill dropped by about 40%, but since then has been creeping back up with the increase of the service fee. The removal of the carbon tax was meant to see a drop in power bills, this has not happened

I recieved a letter from my service provider AGL telling me my bill would rise by an average of $1:30 pr week on the 1st July 2014. In August the carbon tax was repealed.

I then recieved a letter dated 4th September 2014 from AGL notifying me the carbon tax had been repealed and my bill would drop by 7.8% and when you work it out it is a drop of $1:38 per week

It appears to me that it was put up earlier so they could just give you, your own money back Mr & Mrs Brian & Daphne Hay

Dear Sir, Madam

I am personally appalled at the fact that as a pensioner we attempted to minimize our outgoings so that we can enjoy our final days in our home with minimal costs to meet. We have not elected to draw a pension from the govt but rather to use our own resources to live as we have been able to do that and contribute to the state of the economy in our own small way. We elected to install a large 5 KVA solar system which with the smaller reduced rebate of eight cents we received allowed us to produce enough power to erase our total power bills.

After the latest round of energy increases we find we are now back to where we started paying a large amount approximately half what we were paying before after spending 10thousand dollars to avoid this very thing. My solar system is producing a huge amount of excess energy through the day we are only two people a retired couple and use very little power which happens to be at night when no solar is produced and so we find we are now being penalized unfairly. It seems to me today if you take everything you can from the government and give nothing back and do little to help as a citizen of our nation you are rewarded and alternatively if you try to do what is decent and good and minimize your reliance on external support systems such as the pension etc you are constantly penalized. I am angered by the fact that now we are now just producing spare electricity for the grid and receiving very little return at all. As I see it we are facing the greed of companies now wanting huge returns from the user pays system that just produces obscene benefits to line the pockets of the helpless public who are just a small cog in a large machine unable to do anything about it, especially those who try to do something in their small way.

I see the extravagance in advertising and pay packets of the management of these large public companies who once served the public but now are more concerned about the returns and annual bottom line profit which feeds the greed of their managements pockets and does little for the people at all but that is the way our community spirit has gone everyone wants what he can get that benefits him not our neighbor. This has to stop or all of us will witness the collapse of all that is good and decent. So stop lining the pockets of management streamlining the company to compete with their opposition and start being realistic and fair and just with the citizenry particularly those who try to help, That is how society will grow and treat one another with respect and decency not the other way around thank you Daphne and Brian Hay Dr Bill Parker

Our home has a 5kW PV system. With attention to the conservation and timely usage of electricity, the system is adequate for home needs for most of the year during the day.

We export to the grid.

The most important thing I wish to say is that this home contributes to infrastructure that offsets the needs for new power stations in WA. It also contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

I would like to acknowledged for this. I would also suggest that in some way (on-line survey?) all residential customers be asked for their opinion before any changes be made to tariffs or network charges.

I am strongly opposed to being charged a fee for supplying infrastructure to the state's benefit. Mrs Mary Moore

I think it is about time somebody did something about these power companies. We put Solar on our house a few years ago. The moment we applied for the smart meter the price we paid for our electricity went up, even though the meter was not installed for a further 3 months. We had the Solar installed and then the price rose further, even though we had a contract. How can this be allowed to happen? If I break a contract, I have to pay, but they change the rules whenever it suits them and are allowed to continue doing business without question. Now I no longer feel we are getting the full benefit of our solar panels and after paying out and also thinking of the future power requirements of this country, this mess needs to be fixed. We need a full and independent inquiry NOW. Take no prisoners and whoever allowed these corporations to make profit regardless of business conditions needs to be held accountable. Mr. Myles Griffiths

All our energy providers, with full support from our governments, need to invest in renewable energy and get this clean alternative up and running asap. Anything else is just tinkering around the edges of a dead and dirty horse Mr Paul Duncombe

I have solar panels installed at both my ho,e and holiday home. When they were installed the buy back rate was the same as the selling ate. The State government and Aurora subsequently conspired to pull the rug an offer a paltry but back rate from 2016. A fine way to discourage energy efficiency and renewables I don't think. Mr Anthony Poutsma

I would like to submit my objections to the electricy industry in general hampering the efforts of individuals and government in switching from coal fired electricity generation to renewable generation. It would appear the electricity generation companies have been spending significant amounts of consumer funding to upgrading transmission networks, yet I am also led to believe these upgrades are not making allowance for the continuing addition or renewable energy input into the networks (The transmission lines are the equivalent of one way pipes) So at the same time these companies have been spending big on infrastructure, they are remiss in preparing for the inevitable increase in renewable energy generation. Yet they have also been wrongfully spruiking that electricity price increases are a direct result of renewables. Thus not only are these electricity providers failing to provide for the future they are actively engaging in propaganda politics that are proving to be instrumental in turning society against a fundamental change towards renewable energy production. The transparency of the electricity providers is as opaque on one hand as it is glaringly obviously biased on the other. The industries resistance towards transitioning to renewable energy a travesty that must be reversed. Mr Ron Woods

I am particularly concerned about the practice of transferring customers based only on a phone call.

I was phoned by Energy Australia early in 2013 regarding my electricity supply. I told the caller very clearly that I did NOT want to change supplier, but a short time later I received a letter thanking me for choosing Energy Australia.

I immediately called the number shown on the letter and told the employee that I did not want to change supplier, however he claimed that I had specifically asked to change. I told him that was not the case and I had made it very clear to the initial caller that I did not want to change my current supplier.

He then tried to pressure me to change both my electricity and gas to Energy Australia. In response to his persistence, I told him that under no circumstances would I change to Energy Australia and, if they sent me a bill, I would not pay it, as I had not authorized any change.

After many minutes of arguing on my part, he eventually assured me that the change would not proceed. A few weeks later, however, I received two cards from Energy Australia, one advising me that the change of my electricity to Energy Australia was complete, the other advising that the change of my gas was complete.

I immediately contacted the Energy Ombudsman, which resulted in my electricity and gas being returned to my original suppliers. I also received what I felt was a quite insincere apology phone call from Energy Australia.

A short time later, I started to receive gas bills from Energy Australia for a property in Corio. I wrote to Energy Australia, advising them that I had no connection with that property, and received a letter advising me not to pay the bills, and that the error would be rectified.

Despite that, I have continued to receive Energy Australia gas bills for that property for well over twelve months. Now I just ignore them, as it's clear that Energy Australia has no real interest in rectifying the problem. Ms Sylvia Leviston

Under the previous (labor) government, energy providers were obliged to buy back domestically produced solar energy at something like 17cents per KWH (the LOWER end of their own charging scale)....NOW , under Liberal watch, it has dropped to something like 5 cents per KWH...... which is the energy company cheating the consumer on a one for you, two for me basis...... The NLP government is simply NOT doing its job here...... That is what government is FOR ...... checks and balances :) ...... NO profit-driven corporation is going to monitor themselves..... I am asking you NOW to do your job :) thank you

Sylvia Leviston,

Tasmania Leigh Adamson

I am very unhappy with the way the major electricity producers run roughshod over people who produce solar. I am particularly angry at the way they can purchase solar power for such a cheap rate and resell it at enormous profits when a person like myself has invested a large personal sum of money to have roof top solar installed.

I want the RET to be maintained at current levels for the forseeable future Mr Frank Eden

Most of the grid capacity is used only for a few days of the year. Solar is an excellent way to reduce the peaks and remove the costs associated with that unused capacity.

Centralised generation and distribution has large losses not just in the coalfired power generators themselves but in transmission losses. We need to move to a distributed model, and renewables fit in well with that.

The network companies have no incentive to sell less power - and yet we know that the economic cost of inaction on global warming will be extreme.

The Government must find a way to help network companies act for the greater good. Increasing the RET target would be a good way to achieve this, tax incentives on investment in renewables would also help. Mr Monty King

The 6.5 cents paid to me for feed in to the grid is ridiculously low , I think Ergon needs to look at their costings in a more favorable way towards their customers who help to reduce their running costs. Ms Sylvia Leviston

Under the previous (labor) government, energy providers were obliged to buy back domestically produced solar energy at something like 17cents per KWH (the LOWER end of their own charging scale)....NOW , under Liberal watch, it has dropped to something like 5 cents per KWH...... which is the energy company cheating the consumer on a one for you, two for me basis...... The NLP government is simply NOT doing its job here...... That is what government is FOR ...... checks and balances :) ...... NO profit-driven corporation is going to monitor themselves..... I am asking you NOW to do your job :) thank you

Sylvia Leviston,

Tasmania Dr Margaret Sharpe

couple of years back I was contacted by a group that suggested a change of nominal supplier from Country Energy to Momentum. I have solar panels (10 of them) and solar hot water. My experience is that overall my panels cover all my electricity bills, and I can ask for a refund for the credit I get from time to time. My last bill would have been about $100, and I had left $50 credit in, so only paid about $50. I've amassed a credit of $180 or so since. Apparently Country Energy still read the meter (Momentum is based in Tasmania). I have no complaints, but realise that for some people to amass the money to install solar panels is very difficult. Mr Ivor Morgan

Solar panels are becoming more efficient by the Month,the tide is against big oil and power stations,to keep putting false obstacles in the way of Solar energy is a pathetic way to hinder the progress of science. Mr Brian. M. Charlton

I wish to voice my disapproval of the recent high increase in the standing charges now applied to retail consumers.

I believe in the User Pays principal, but the electricity retailers appear to 'Want Their Cake and Eat it Too'

Power generation owners ( State or Privately Owned) may well be in an awkward situation with an older

Power station that is significantly over valued, and need to right down their estimated value of the asset or risk having a stranded asset. Mr Ian Willmington

IN the last year my power bill has risen from a tariff of 26.73 c/kwh thru 28.015 and down to 25.378 after carbon tax removal BUT my :Charges to Property has risen from $25.65, thru $47.21 to $60,89 !!. Supplier Orign says charges are for meter read and maintenance. Also they mentioned prices are set by regulator but other charges are a commercial decision by providers. The best saving I can see from the carbon tax removal are under $140 Per Annum - a far cry from the $500 + Tony promised. John Morter

Australia has the most suitable climate on earth for the use of P V Panels to supplement our energy supply.

It is nonsensical to remain dependent on coal for the bulk of our needs when solar and other renewable sources are readily available. Mrs Val Mutton

We left our dream property 7 years ago because the power bills were escalating. Our downsizing, purchase of photovoltaic panels and careful use of power has not helped - our power bills are still higher than years ago when we were in a huge all electric powered house with all water provided by pumps etc. We simply cannot afford the ever rising utility bills! Any government that can provide us with cheap, clean energy has my vote! I will spend my twilight years literally in the dark! Mr Andrew Curthoys

It is important that electricity companies are held to account and recognise the important and valuable role that solar plays. I am self sufficient in solar energy and export power back into the grid. I am concerned at the over investment in poles and wires by companies and the lack of acknowledgement of the significant role that solar plays in helping reduce the demand for new electricity generating plants.

The sun is available to everyone, why not use it? Lets think about the future rather than dragging ourselves back to the past.

Ensure that electricity companies do not over invest in poles and wires, ensure that there is a place for solar power, ensure that we have a future and that we can live with the impacts of climate change on our world. It is clear the climate is changing too quickly for mankind to fully understand or appreciate, yet the current government's policies are taking us backwards and not addressing the opportunities for the future. Solar is part of the future electricity generating options - let's embrace it. Mr Walter Knowles

I installed at my own cost, eight solar pannels (1.5Kw)in February 2011. After the Gross Meter was installed Energy Australia wrote to me and said they would pay me 26cents per Kw (20 cents from NSW Government)I generated from the Solar Panels. On the 1 July 2012 Energy Australia reduced the rate per Kw from 26cents to 20cents. I wrote to my Local member of NSW Parliament and he wrote back accusing Energy Australia of reducing the Kw rate, wher in fact it was the NSW Goverment reducingtheir contibution from 20 to 14 cents. I feel very strongly that Solar Power is essential to avoid the consequense of Climate Change. This needs to be conveyed to all State and Federal politicians. The RET should be retained. Mr Terence Dexter

We decided to go Solar after the Bligh QLD Labor Government encouraged us to do so by offering us an 8cent pr Kw Hr their share return for doing something which would help the planet and help keep power prices down.

The Newman LNP have now reneged on that promise by withdrawing this 8cents incentive to go solar, and we now find ourselves at the mercy of the major Power companies such as Energex who are now only offering an 8 cents pr Kw Hr for our solar energy supplied to them as against 24 cents a kw hr be sold back to us.

I find this extreamly unfair considering we only did what the State Government of the day was encouraging us to do at that time.

Energex are now profiting from a situation which was caused by various State and Federal Governments taking no accountability for their actions, and allowing these providers of Energy to profit from this situation.

I also find it very hipocritical that these very same Governments say they are trying to keep power prices down with alternative energy, but discourage its use at the same time!

Regards Terence Dexter. Dr Ross Burton

Dear Whomever re Energy Companies.

I watched as the State Government of Western Australia divided up the old Western Power giving the WA voters statement/comments like increased competition will equate to lower energy prices. That has proven so wrong and multiplied inefficiencies exist with ‘blowout costs’ results! re PV Panels

Since the Photovoltaic Cell option has become viable, it is abundantly obvious to most thinking West Australians that this is 'the way to go' for the householder and also for small business. I am not naive enough to consider that all business users are able to generate adequate electricity supplies to satisfy their business needs. I also concur that there remains need for generated power for these businesses and peak period household power usage. re Power Generator Efficiencies

Whilst the energy companies continue to generate power kilometres away from many or most of the major users, which causes considerable loss of efficiency as electricity travels through kilometres of wires and whilst these same companies due to their location(s) continue to inefficiently use coal fired generators solely for producing power, rather than also utilising the coal firing to generate heating and cooling, we will be being pressured by these companies and the governments of the day who are obviously in collusion with these large companies to consistently raise the unit price of electricity. re Blaming largely silent, or silenced voting population

Given that I've not stated anything new or startling, I believe it is time for the elected Governments to cease blaming household consumers for electricity supplier’s inefficiencies. It is clear as people view the electricity usage rates that business uses considerably more electricity than do household consumers. re Solar Power Generation

Get the Government to ‘own up’ to the reality of the issues and ‘face up’ to an obvious reality that Solar power is here to stay and will increasingly increase in popularity consistently challenging until it overtakes the current major generators. If the Government doesn't act sensibly and quickly they will find people increasingly generating their own energy supplies and even disconnect from the power grid.

As a user of PV cells, I am convinced that such method of generating electrify has huge merit, saves fossil fuel, reduces emissions and sensibly enables householders and others to maintain a level of control on their budget which directly enables spending to be focussed into other projects. That other countries are more heavily accessing solar power generation, with considerable benefit is obvious and that our elected governments are being forced to try to put a hold on the growth of this source of power generation is quite ludicrous. Should that continue I believe that state of affairs will have negative long term impacts upon Governments and householders costs until the critical mass of thinking is reached when, a change of mindset will take place and admissions of incorrect thinking will give way to logic and common sense will prevail, but all too late for too many.

Please encourage even greater efficiencies through the use of natural resources like solar energy, etc., help Government get out of the ruinous states of mind in which they currently are and serve the communities more adequately by leading the way with helpful common sense.

Yours faithfully

Ross Burton Mr John Thirgood

The mainland private retailer have put an unfair strangle hold on rooftop solar and crushed the opportunity heavily seeing massive job losses , gst revenues to Government with homeowners denied a fair deal on a feed in tariff.

Here in Tasmania where we have followed mainland jurisdictions example (driven by Corporate vested interest to deny a fair deal on the fit. In determining a fit a production cost and with Line losses ad into the equation, the low fit rates 6 & * cents etc denies costs avoided in both high transmission (which are totally avoided) and the fair level of costs avoided in local transmission poles and wires substations etc which we see are perhaps over 98% avoided. This outcome in Tasmania sees the avoided costs simply passed on to consumers in a marginally lower rate than otherwise (approximately currently just below point two of one cent per kw hr only! where the fit driven by a simple adjustment to the pricing formula on transmission costs. We see that the retailer margin should be excluded from the fit rate, as they should make their margin whether they resell feed in or transmitted power via the network from the generator. On the Mainland the fit rate may need futher adjustment to compensate where feed in is unable to be used if this occurs when standard fixed generator levels are effected instead of just affecting top up levels in the supply demand occurring.

However in Tasmania there is no negative effect as Hydro power systems vary to meet demand and simply solar feed in simply reserves water in the dams for later premium use.

So the Merit Order Effect is certainly at play here as rooftop solar competition affects the corporate profits.

THIS IS NO EXCUSE TO RIP CONSUMERS OFF ON SUCH A LOW FIT RATE ! Just because they have the corporate might to do so.

Our local submission for Tasmania on a far FIT rate is available here within this document :http://www.saveoursolartas.org/images/Save%20our%20Solar%20Tas%20response%20to% 20issues%20paper%20sep%202014.pdf Mr Mark Saul

Energex (Qld) is currently under the spotlight, being accused of gold plating. We have suffered an 80% increase in our power bills over the past 6 years following years of gold plating. Energex and Ergon now want to raise our (consumers) costs over the next 5 years. You have to be kidding! Those that have the power to stop this rot must act now before it is too late. Energex reaped a profit of $406 million for 2013/14. Additionally, the south east power network is the newest on average since 2006. This has to be sufficient data to cast doubt on Energex claims that further spending on infrastructure is required over the next 5 years and directly at the expense of consumers. To further exacerbate the problem for solar owners, the state government has axed the 8c feed in tariff thereby leaving solar users not on the 44c tariff completely at the mercy of their respective supplier. The common sense approach here is to not allow the main suppliers like Energex and Ergon to have their way and unnecessarily rip off Queenslander consumers over the 5 years. Don't tick off on their proposal to add further pain to alraedy struggling consumers. Mr Brian Moynihan

We have used solar power for 20 years, first with a stand alone system then to grid connection. We moved to a new house 20 months ago and installed a 2 KW system which means we lost our 66 cents feed in tariff and now receive 8 cents. With the new 2 KW system we export to the grid three times more then we import. We are charged 30 cents per KW hour plus service to property. We paid to install the technology and generate and export clean energy to the grid for which we are only paid 8 cents; this is outrageous and extremely unfair. Miss Lynda Kirton

Hi,

My concerns are the service fee charged by energy companies. I had a 70% increase in the service fee from one quarter to the next. There was no explanation. All I hear is that prices (of electricity) are not going up - but moving to this 'service' fee is just another way we are being conned.

In my job, I get to look at lots of electricity bills from various suppliers and generally they are hard to read and not very user friendly. I would like to see some consistency in their style overall. Mr Michael Chambers

I have heard that AGL's new gas export plant being built near Childers is to have the build costs recouped over five years by significately increasing the cost of gas to the Australian consumer so export prices price can be kept low. I use LPG as well as solar. If this is true I will go solar hot water as any increase in LPG will make it unafforadable for me. Mr Ian Onley

Since I installed solar panels on my roof, I have been with three different companies, Lumo, Origin and now powershop. I could not understand why my bills were still so much higher than I thought they should be with the first two mentioned companies. Now, with the third company they are much lower and more reasonable even with the low FIT of 8c per kw. Eight cents seems a ridiculously low figure for clean renewable energy and is clearly designed to penalise those seeking to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

Thankyou for the opportunity Mr Gregory Ewing

I am angry that my electricity bills have been continuing to rise due to power companies overspending on infrastructure. My power company AGL is also lobbying against the RET when all Australians, companies and individuals alike, should be supporting the adoption of renewable electricity sources. Mr Emanuel Sibley

I am opposed to the action the federal government is treating the citizens who have solar power and trying to push the coal driven energy companies agenda Ms Marion Johnstone

Earlier this year I investigated changing power company due to excessive rates from Energy Australia. I moved to Momentum, largely because they offset our power with renewable hydro power and their rates were better.They are also Australian owned. When Energy Australia got wind of the change, the offered me a 13% discount to stay, which indicates to me that they were overcharging me by 13% all along.About the same time,I found out that my neighbours installed a solar system a couple of years ago. They showed me their bill.I pointed out to them that they had never received a feed in tariff from Energy Australia. It turned out they were eligible for about $600 but they had to fight very hard to get it with masses of complicated forms.It is also totally unfair that responsible citizens who have paid to have solar, to reduce their carbon footprint,have to pay 4c per kWhr more to use the same electricity as those who never bothered. This country should be encouraging Solar, not discriminating against it. Ms Eva Haehr

Yes I am very upset with how companies reap massive profits from excessive gold-plating of the electricity grid which we have to pay for. Not only that it is about time the so called fat cats' cut their wages / salaries and profits so they can use this money for their gold-plating, instead of ripping off every day Australians. We have put solar on our roofs and what do we get??? Almost nothing in return, we thought this was supposed to be good for the environment and to safe money, but the ever increasing electricity costs make it impossible to get savings . This feels like these electricity companies are punishing the every day Australian for trying to do the the right thing by the environment etc. These excessive rises have to stop for once and for all.

I hope our voices are heard and appropriate action is taken, as the every day Aussie has the gut full of being constantly ripped off.

Thank you,

Eva Haehr Mrs Annie Bird

Our reason for installing solar panels on our little north facing cottage was to try to reduce our terrible power bills. My husband is disabled, feels the cold and, without going into detail, causes the use of gallons of hot water. We were in a bad financial state and solar saved us. We still get big bills in the Tasmanian winter but nothing like we used to. Solar should be encouraged. Save the World Ms Susan Russell

I had both Gas & Electricity for many years with AGL. Since moving to Flinders 4 1/2 years ago nothing but problems with billing. Letters stating the gas meter was not accessible when it is in the driveway for anyone to read, electricity box also accessible. Talking to friends, neighbours we discovered meter readers were estimating not reading the meters. I subsequently received calls from Energy Australia to swap my Electricity to them. I advised them I was on contract with AGL, on a Pension and unable to. They still sent forms out to me, which I returned within the 10 day cooling off period, not to go with them, next thing my Electricity bills started to come from Energy Australia and do until this day. My 3yr contact with AGL was for 15% discount, less with Energy Australia. Now 66, on the Aged Pension so do receive NSW Govt rebate Julian Smith

I was disgusted when my electricity bills (Origin, I have since changed provider) came with large, red, misleading messages regarding the so called 'Carbon Tax' and its cost on both the envelope containing the bill and the bill itself.

It's up to our politicians to ensure that truth and balance are maintained in the messages supplied to the electorate. (Now we have corporate logos on police cars, for god's sake!)

Things are not looking good for the future of our country at the moment. Ms Vicki Schilder

I am very concerned that our energy suppliers are charging whatever they like. I installed solar panels last year and my bills are now the same as prior to the Installation. It sickens me that these companies are screwing the little people. I understand from talking to Electricians that alot of older people have had to turn their fridges off as they can't pay their over priced bills. It is wrong and we need fairer pricing for power. Don't scrap the RET either - the people want a clean environment and they want to turn away from coal power and be a sustainable country. Mr Gregory Smith

In principle I am outraged at the oligopoly position of the few electricity providers in south Australia, and the excessive claims by the poles and Wires companies continually bleating that they need to upgrade their infrastructure.

Specifically, I approached a few different supply companies in SA to compare prices and was advised of the charging ranges and discounts for one particular company, which in the face of it, seemed the best deal I could do for my needs.

Very soon after I had signed on for a fixed period, the charge rate per KWH overall, increased, and so I was locked into the contract. No mention of this imminent increase was mentioned at the time i made my enquiries and I feel this behaviour is unconscionable. I also feel that this behaviour is endemic in this industry and that the power supply companies change the way they present their information and charges to consumers in order to confuse and befuddle them. All of their information should be in plain english and easily understandable, so that the young and elderly can make informed decisions re their contracts without having to seek help from a 3rd party to explain the variables. I also believe that these traditional companies know they are in a death spiral due to the decreasing price of renewables and they are determined to continue to place upward pressure on their pricing structure in order to achieve the profits that their earlier modelling said they would achieve. This expectation does NOT justify the prices they are charging nor the prices they want to charge in the future. They are continually taking action politically to devalue the renewables sector and to leverage their own product to the detriment of consumers and the environment. I have no time for these luddites. Mr. Bernie Clark

The debate is being skewed by political expedients. Our base load capacity is below that required to ensure any disaster will not cripple industry. Thru bad policy the previous state gov didn't aquire enough gas to keep 2 gas generators running. I have NSW retailers asking for my business, stating , they get a 40% discount on power generated in Qld. and so can give me a cheaper price.

Are we serious in this debate? Remove the wholesalers from the selling chain and split the savings between the generators and the customers.

Letting the profit go to the in betweeners has caused the price hike. Dr Elisabeth Wynne

The most worrying thing about Western Power, my energy company in WA, is that they have heavily invested in coal fired power stations, in spite of the many sound economic and environmental reasons for moving to renewable energy - mainly solar and wind energy.

The WA government has now announced that electricity in WA will rise an average of $300 annually, per family, as part of it's mid year budget.

They have done nothing to legislate for more energy efficient housing, solar on new homes, or anything to stop big houses consuming a lot of energy for air conditioning in summer.

The rationale for this cost rise has nothing to do with the real cost of electricity, and everything to do with raising revenue, the governments AAA rating being down graded to AA, because of heavy borrowing to fund a sporting stadium, and high rise property development in the city, both of which benefit private companies, and developers, at the expense of taxpayers.

It is not appropriate for a state government to raise revenue via over charging for electricity to compensate for poor decisions, and payback for property developer donors.

Even though I live in WA, I am aware of the influence of property developers over decision making in NSW, and it's impossible to avoid the conclusion that the same thing is happening here.

The WA government also attempted to reduce the solar rebate, and was only prevented from doing so because of community outrage.

People with solar, like myself, still have no assurance that government policies won't change to reduce rebates in the future - this also affects investment in renewables.

The mining boom is ending, as far as employment is concerned, and WA needs jobs to come from new technologies, and the WA government (and the Federal government) by their policies that favour coal (in order to shore up votes in the Collie region) are leading to our electricity being much more expensive, and much more polluting than it would be otherwise.

In conclusion, the current WA government appears to have no policies relating to the environment and for reducing carbon emissions. This is a huge problem, and needs to be addressed in concert with policies around energy generation. Mr Mark Singer

Dear Inquiry Chairman

I write as an owner of a small 1 kW PV system installed in 2009 and customer of an electricity distributor.

I purchased the system and our family altered their energy behaviour to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This central and defining issue of our time has been systemically ignored in the discussions of network distributor behaviours.

We cannot avoid the need to respond to climate change. This criteria should be the key determinant of the appropriateness of distributor actions, so that energy efficiency, distributed networks, renewable power, energy storage, tariffs, charges etc, can be evaluated against a single measure of lowering emissions. This approach will be widely welcomed in the community and allow necessary change to proceed.

Regards,

Mark Singer Mr Alan Horsefield

The people who originally signed onto Solar Energy should still retain their 44cents until the agreed date. 2028 ?? The new customers should be getting the Current retail price per KW. Then after 2028 everyone should be getting the Current Retail price. By 2028 the Retail price of electricity would probably be up to 44cents anyway 9with inflation)

After all, the People used there part of their own money to install the solar. regards

Alan Horsefield Mr. Gerhard Koziol

Dear Sir! I believe,we the electricity consumers,and Solar Energy Producers, have been ripped off long enough.A fair price would be a Feed In Tariff of at least 1:1!! I also believe,since we produce pollution free energy, we should be additionally rewarded for reducing Australia's overall greenhouse gas production.The argument of loading the local distribution network is absolute rubbish . Ms Lalitha Chelliah

I am a firm believer in renewable energy and have installed solar panels to help this cause. The difficlty I am havimng with the elecriticity companies is that their billing is unfair; One company I was with charged me flat rate and eventually when I discontinued their service they owed me over a $1000 that I could have used for my daily expenses.This kind of billing is not user friendly and infact takes money from peole and the comapnies benefit from this type of billing. The other issue is the rising cost of service charges; It has doubled if not triled over the last few years; We cannot be held responsible for their losses. It is unfair that they rise the costs to consumers especially when their actions destroy the environment.Thankyou for taking my submission Lalitha Mr Dale Lancaster

I live off the grid, the power lines do not extend to our house. I live 20km's from the nearest town (Woodburn), about 7k's from the nearest powerline. I am on solar power, backed up by a petrol generator (which rarely gets used). We pay for all our upgrades to the solar system, we have never recieved a single cent of assistance. I am sure that my tax dollars go towards power infrastructure and administration, however, none of this is used by myself. This is not fair. I am disgusted that power companies get support from the government to produce their dirty power, when I produce my own clean power with zero assistance.

It would be great to get some sort of assistance to maintain and upgrade my solar system.

I also want people to realise stand alone solar power works perfectly- This has the potential to make the big power companies irrelevent. You do not need a greedy power company at all!

Again, I would like to have the issue of support to stand alone power users investigated, as it is most certainly the way of the future. Mr Tony Gardner

Our initial complaint in 2011 with AGL was the length of time (3 months)they took to process paperwork for our solar rebate. This included some pressure applied through the industry ombudsman. Now in 2014 our smart meter has been reset to zero without our consent and we have not received a rebate for 6 months despite contacting AGL on several occasions. Responsibility is shifted by AGL to SP ausnet, the owner of the wires, I find this aspect of privatisation thoroughly frustrating. I do not believe that privatisation and deregulation assists the consumer and would prefer one port of call where the reponsibility is clear. Katherine Venes

Dear Senate Committee,

I appreciate this chance to share my views.

There are 4 issues I consider serious. One is the drastic lack of investment in clean energy infrastructure and business by these companies.

Two is the fact that even if I go away for a month my bill is hardly any different, the base amount to have power connected each month is far too high for low and middle income people and should be more use-based.

And Three , we absolutely need independant regulatory body to monitor and intervene where these wealthy corporations have vastly more wealth and power to damage peoples lives and livelihoods than very many people who have little recourse, this should be standard for any big corporation with massive or dominant market share of essential goods and services...power, phone, food, water, petrol. It is blatantly clear that otherwise vested interests may not be in best interests of public.

Fourth, noone choising to live off-grid should be penalised for doing so, ie it is highly unethical to charge people for infrastructure they choose not to use.

Thankyou for your attention, and I hope you will consider the urgency of protecting the Australian public from unscrupulous business practices.

Sincerely Kat Venes. Mr Joe Springer

I am seeing more and more electricity bills in the commercial sector that have massive network charges. These high network charges can be 80% of the bill and therefore solar is off the table. What can be done to make these network charges fair. Rob Coles

Consumers should not be paying towards suppliers capital investment and/or over specifications Mr Matt Oliver

Since moving from Origin to Powershop my electricity bills have decreased significantly. I would like to add more solar panels to my house to become self sufficient in electricity but would lose my feeding tariff if i did so. I think the feed in tariff needs to be higher and reflect the costs that the power companies charge for supplying electricity. I changed to Powershop because of the stance Origin was taking against renewables in favour of coal. Mr William Featon

Apart from the general price of electricity becoming unaffordable for many people on low incomes, my main complaint is with Origin's policy of not negotiating their solar feed in tariff, when the QLD Premier, Cambell Newman, cut the 8c. govt. feed in tariff that was being paid for the solar contribution by those who put solar panels on their roofs, he recommended that those who had been previously receiving the state govt. rate, negotiate with their provider, I have tried on at least two occasions to do so with Origin only to be told that their 6c feed in tariff is non negotiable, also I am a pensioner and am also my wife's carer, when I started to fill out the application form for the additional discount because she requires an oxygen concentrator to be able to breathe at times, I discovered that she would have to be assessed by a state govt. department in Brisbane, which is about two hours by car from where we reside, surely an examination by a general practitioner should be sufficient without having to put people through the discomfort of a long road trip and a long wait to see the govt. doctor just for a few miserable dollars off an already exhorbitant electricity bill.

Yours.

Will. D. Featon Mr Rodney Ogborne

Hello I am a blind pensioner who invested some $16,000 a few years ago to stop my spiralling power costs and am happy with its , but i am not happy with year on year power costs going up in fact i heard in 5 years the cost of power has risen over %100 so why? The easy reason isnt solar usage but power companies taking advantage of us and I am sick of it and i want the senate to take notice and start an enquiry into these practices.performance Mr Darren Williams

Personally I am disgusted with the feed in tariffs that are being paid by electricity companies. It will not put us off installing solar but I feel quite frustrated and sad that there is a uneven playing field for solar against other non-renewable produced energy. It is illogical to be suppressing solar when there is so much to be gained for future generations. I will that solar power be chosen as a way to create our future energy. Mr Robbie Burns

I am totally appalled at the greed of the Electricity Company's with their continual rising costs. Craig Lambie

Dear Senators,

I have 2 experiences worth sharing.

1. Personal experience with Lumo

2. Owners Corporation (Body Corporate) experience

1.

My most recent experience with the Energy Companies should probably be reported to the Ombudsman, it is such poor form from Lumo Energy.

I moved into my place in July, and requested Powershop to connect my power.

I moved in no problem, and power was on, however Powershop have not been able to bill me for the power, as they say lumo has not released the property when I never spoke to, or requested Lumo power to touch the property!

2.

One of the buildings I own property in was recently looking for an energy contract for our common power for the Owners Corp (OC)

We had quotes from 4 suppliers. Origin was a lot cheaper than the others, given the lack of Carbon price in their new price. This made it very difficult to have the members of the OC committee go with a more responsible power company based when they have no remit to use Ethics in their decision making, only Dollars.

The lack of Carbon pricing made Origin a dirty, but cheap option :(

Also Powershop (a respectable power company) could not quote on this type of contract due to some regulatory issue.

Regards

Craig Lambie (not related to any MPs)

Concerned Citizen, Voter

Local: City of Melbourne, City of Port Phillip Chris Andrews

With the removal of the carbon tax my electricity bill from AGL increased rather than decreased, despite promises from AGL in a letter headed Great news about carbon tax reductions that I would have great savings following the removal of the carbon tax, and Chief executive Michael Fraser saying in The Australian Business Review that the company would cut prices by between 8% and 9% on average.

I generally use around 12kWh of electricity per day. At the rates that AGL charged prior to the 1st of July 2014, 90 days of electricity use cost me $333.87. At the rates that AGL is charging me since the 1st of July, and since the removal of the carbon tax, 90 days of electricity use costs me $349.07, an increase of 4.6%.

AGL employed underhand tactics to disguise this increase, even going as far as claiming it as a decrease and giving me a fake credit.

This is how they have done it. AGL increased my electricity rates for 46 days from the 1st of July to the 15th of August (which is after the removal of the carbon tax). They have now credited this increase to me under the heading Carbon Tax Repeal Credit. This credit is obviously not due to the removal of the carbon tax because, as explained above, my electricity costs have increased since the removal of the carbon tax, and because it was entirely collected after the repeal occurred, and after AGL knew that the repeal had occurred. This is plainly a cynical ploy to convince people who only look superficially at their electricity bill that AGL have reduced electricity charges since the removal of the carbon tax, whereas, in fact, they have increased electricity charges.

Apart from lying about passing on savings from the repeal of the carbon tax, AGL is insulting the intelligence of their customers by using this underhand ploy to convince people that they are passing the savings on.

It's likely that many electricity suppliers have used this or similar tactics to convince people that they are getting a credit from the removal of the carbon tax, and that their electricity charges have been reduced, when in fact they have been increased. Mr John Carson

I have 21 Solar panels on my roof generating approximately half my electricity needs. The Government should continue to support Green energy generation and become a leader in the field not a folower. Mr Krishna Rajaratnam

Electricity charges have been increasing long before the carbon tax was introduced. Consequently I do not subscribe to the premise that the carbon tax caused the increases to the extent that we are experiencing today. Christina Finch i used to be an origin customer. I rang to obtain my usesge data. It was provided within an hour by email but in the wrong format for analysis in the victorian government's My Power. Planner website. I rang again to get the correct format this time was put through to the official area for that task. Eleven business days later the data had still not been provided but within an hour of me threatening to contact the Ombudsman, it was delivered. When i rang to cancel my supply and move to powershop, Origin suddenly decided to offer a 30 percent discount. Origin is at least a highly cynical outfit with poor customer service Mr Dale Curtis

I would like to complain on behalf of my daughter's business re. paying a power bill to Origin. She made an EFT payment to the wrong account, and Origin refused to honour her pay-on-time discount because of this mistake. She had already made several instalment payments, and her last payment due was only around $500, out of a total bill over $4000. She paid it on time, but to the wrong account. I argued with Origin at length over this issue, but they refused to budge. In the interests of customer satisfaction, and the discount in question (around $150), I found their attitude appalling. Mr Richard Hainsworth

Please explain the actual costs associated the transmission of electricity from Coal fired plant to my home. Jason Lawrence

Not happy about apparent rate gouging from Red Energy. When i put solar on, I was required to shift to time of use tariff. This is still demarcated into 2 time periods same intervals as dual rate but higher tariffs. Had no satisfactory response from Red Mr Frank Darmody

Hi I found out the charge is 27.51 but Origin are charging me.

30.83

I am not sure if that is correct. Mr Robert Kuurman my experience with getting solar connected has been a hard one.

we are with AGL/united energy. when my solar was installed the smart meter we were forced to get was not yet installed. when the contractor turned on the system the old analogue meter ran backwards, this was fine for the first month then united energy refused to read the meter until the smart meter was installed, there backlog not mine, this meant they were charging me electricity at the previous years usage instead of the clearly less usage when system ran at full capacity. after going to the ombudsman the meter finally was installed. due to united energy having an antiquated paper recording system for installations it took several months for them to recognise the connection . this meant that I didn't get credit for power I generated until approx. 841kwh was showing on the meter. then they started at this amount even though they had had the benefit of the generation. Since then I have no problems until now. Dr Douglas Stuckey

Having spent over $25.000.00 installing solar to use the free power we can easily get from the sun, I have been disappointed in how the utilities continue to hack away with additional fees and charges. This is to the point that on average since solar installation we still have to pay for some electricity from the grid.

This means that it will take over 12 years for us to recoup our investment as opposed to what was supposed to be 5 or 6 years.

We are not subsidising anyone! In fact we are helping to reduce global warming at a high cost to us.

In any event, please think of the next generation when you review the massive investment by utilities which has a guaranteed R.O.I. That is just not fair. We like many others will get off the grid when the battery storage becomes more economical. I can't wait for that day. PLEASE THINK OF AUSTRALIA BEFORE THE POLLUTERS. We will vote you for it!

We all expect a fair response from the Senate Committee, we hope you can deliver. Mr Alan Stokes

Try being honest with consumers for once you are looking more and more like a dodgy caryard.If you have misrepresented actual costings to the pricing regulator there should be nowhere for you to hide.Why would your own staff out you in the media upon ceasing employment? I would say she had no option to speak up without losing her job...With the big pay check comes responsibility and I personally want to see each of you individually named and shamed.As the saying goes where there,s smoke there,s fire but in this case I think it fair to say it,s a roaring blaze !! Mr Reg Young

Please give better credit for solar power owners with at least 20c/kwh. Mr Chris Webbe

10 years ago, 5 bedroom house with pool and 2 x teenage children and 2 x adults and home office and 1 x air-conditioned the average electricity bill was sub $300.00 per quater. 3 years ago same house 1 less teenager average price was $400.00. 2 years ago with no teenagers only 2 x adults with pension assistance and no home office average bill $500.00. Last year same average bill $600.00. This year same average bill $800.00. Carbon tax not really noticed amongst all this other price movement. Simply cant afford it any more. All prices per quarter year. Something really wrong here if we are headed for #3000.00 per year for electricity. Dr Sue Bettison

We receive electricity from AGL. They require us to have a two-year contract with a financial penalty if we leave AGL before that two years is up. We moved house part-way through the contract, and continued with AGL at our new residence to avoid the fairly hefty penalty for breaking the contract. However, AGL treated ouus as having broken the contract, even though we continued with their service at our new home. Further, they insisted that we begin a new two-year contract at the new house.

We installed a solar system as soon as we moved in. We wanted to go with another provider who offered a higher feed-in tariff and no contract. However, the penalty for doing that was too high. I believe that this is restraint of trade. Could something be done toprevent electricity companies from doing this? Ms Sharne Vogt

I am with Origin in Qld. We have solar panels and a solar hot water system and are locked in on contract to the top tariff, before it was cut. We invested in solar and pay for green energy on our electricity bill as part of our treatment of the Planet. The inability to upgrade the system without losing the top tariff is inequitable as with price increases the amount of solar put on originally is now not enough. We are prepared to invest in more panels but would lose our top tariff making it unaffordable and yet us doing this takes load off the electricity grid system. Analysis by different interest groups of the proportion of electricity costs attributable to production, distribution etc shows that the largest component is distribution so every new estate built that requires electricity distribution infrastructure is what is helping push up the costs. This is inequitable as the developers of those estates should be paying totally for this infrastructure as they are the ones getting the profit from sale of the estate, why should it be borne by everyone. Thank you for your consideration. Mr Peter Medbury

I adopted roof-top solar electricity fairly early, not to save money but because I thought it was the right thing to do. I also have roof-top solar hot water.

AGL is my electricity supplier.

The service is reliable & I have had no problems with solar connections (nett or gross) or payment for power generated.

I do not accept the proposition roof-top solar energy systems are pushing up the prices for other customers.

Roof-top solar is not the reason the energy companies gold-plated the poles & wires. It was to guarantee service on days when there was peak demand.

Roof-top solar should not just for people who can afford to purchase a system. Low-income families and people who rent should have access to the benefits of roof-top solar.

The inequities need to be removed.

I agree that $0.60 is too generous a payment rate for gross metering. I also think $0.08 is too low for excess energy produced by nett systems.

There needs to be a compromise figure, perhaps a rate similar to that charged for electricity usage.

Thank you. Ms Christine Dixon

I have been a customer with AGL for the past 4 years. We received our bill with the supposed credits for carbon tax however at the same time increased tarriff charges & Supply Charge. Thereby I got a womping $6.04 reduction in my electricity account for the quarter. Where is my 1/4 of $550 as promised by the govt. I also installed solar in October this year & I pay a rate of $1 per day supply charge up from .5021, tariff rate of .2537 yet I am only offered .08 c for excess feed back to grid. So no matter what we do we still face continuous increases in energy for less and less supply & service. Mr Nicholas Paton

I take no issue with not receiving a solar rebate if the time for rebates are behind us. I do have an issue with the power companies using my excess energy and paying me far less than what they are selling it on to others and then forcing me to buy it back at an elevated cost. I would like to see my excess energy noted and for me to get it back over night without paying for it. The commercial agreement for this would be a storage fee charged by the energy distributor for use of the grid as a battery. This would see less homes having to spend money on battery off grid solutions and keep the grid viable for all. Mrs Wendy Rettke

Governments should be encouraging people to use solar energy with a view to it be cleaner than fossil fuels. Our solar tariff will be going down in September next year and energy companies aren't interested in giving us a better deal as soon as we mention we have solar panels. Mr Mike Hill

My company regards itself as a discerning consumer and has held energy contracts with Origin and AGL in the past, trying to find the company best committed to renewable energy. We now learn that these companies have been working against the renewable energy industry in Australia and charging us exorbitant rates, treating pre-existing customers as fools and offering us up to 45% 'discount' when we telegraphed our intention to end our contracts. We are with Powershop now, a cheaper company providing us with green energy and sensitive to our needs to access our accounts electronically and flexibly. WestWyck Pty Ltd wants to bring an end to the madness that is an extremely expensive system funding gold-plated poles and wires infrastructure and move Australia quickly to clean green power. Mr Mick Davidson

I feel that the power company's are spending to much money on poles etc. so they can keep charging which in view is not fair. Dr David Reiter

Energy companies in collusion with State Governments are certainly ripping off consumers to cover the cost of their antiquated and fossil fuel infrastructure. Most of the charges we have to pay with our current solar installation relate to a service charge approved by the Queensland State Government, which has risen about 300% in the past two years. This has nothing to do with service, but everything to do with invisible taxes that have not been submitted to voters for comment or approval. Internationally, Australia is well out of step with other countries that have served notice to energy companies to either adapt to renewables or face extinction. We have a brilliant opportunity to create new industries and thousands of new jobs simply by signalling to the emerging renewable industry that their time has come, and that Australia will pay more than lip service to phasing out polluting energy companies. Mr Roger Hammond

Why is the price of power over 3x what it is in the USA? Currently 7c/kWh in Nebraska vs 26c/kWh in Victoria. They have the same technology, geographical challenges and a greater climactic conditions variance.

Why has the price of daily supply increased over 1000% in the past 15 years? Was 10c/day in 1999 now over $1.10/day. It seems the power companies are giving power away with misleading discounts which don't apply to the supply charge. It is not a user-pays model. Mr Mick Bridger

The upgrading to a gold plate standard in a time of reduced electricity usage across the board, is nothing more than robbery under false pretences.

On the other hand , if the state governments had only used what little common sense they collectively have, the contracts that allow the power companies to claim an ongoing, rather than case by case, 10% interest on any new infrastructure would never have been allowed.

Stop this thievery, the gen population is tired of gifting their hard earned cash to these multi national companies. Mrs Maureen Bakker

We produce more power than we use and still have to pay!

As pensioners we get a rebate,we direct debit,do all the right things,and still have to pay.

We receive 6cents per Kwt,and pay 29cents+ per Kwt,we consider this THEFT.

How long will it take people who put on Solar now to pay it off? 25years? Mrs Tricia Pilgrim

We installed 5kw of solar about 18 months ago. Unfortunately we were not able to lock in the 44c tariff before it ended, so we get 10c per kWh for what we feed in. We pay however 29c per kWh for any power we draw, 3 times what we get in return. That means we need to produce and sell 3 times as much electricity as we use to break even. On top of this, we then get charged a daily availability charge.

Often we will get to double production vs usage, but we always end up on the wrong end.

Then to rub it in, they are selling my overproduction to my neighbours, who don't have solar and making a 19c profit per kWh from my infrastructure.

It just doesn't seem right or fair, that the same resource has such different values, depending on which way it is travelling. Ms Birgit Kroeck

We have been with Origin Electricity for some 6 years now and included in our quarterly bill is 25% green energy. Even though our usage has dropped considerable over the years (installing LED lighting and generally turning off applicances and using less) our bill has increased enormously as has everyone elses. Our goal is to install solar panels - we have to evaluate if it's possible since we live in a leafy are and our roof is quite shaded. Nevertheless we are saving up and the ultimate goal is to be able to go off the grid. any financial incentives from the Government are greatly appreciated.

Mr Geoff Andrews

Dear Senators,

I am very disappointed with the selfish disregard of community needs shown by the big electricity distribution businesses. They should be facilitating and encouraging renewable energy, rather than having to be dragged kicking and complaining to intergrate renewables effectively.

Distribution businesses want to buy solar electricity for 6 cents, and sell it next door for 35 cents, or sell the same amount of electricity back to the householder later that day, for 35 cents. How much infrastructure is really involved, when the electricity generated is used locally.

And if the PV generation peaks a few hours before the electricity load, that points to a lack of planning by the distribution businesses in not encouraging more PV owners to face some panels to the West or North-West. Mr Delbert Gibson

WE HAVE TO HAVE CHEAPER ELECTRICITY PEOPLE CANT AFFORD THE HIGH PRICES THAT THEY ARE NOW PAYING. Mr Zlatko Manovski

After signing up to Origin to their discount deal, they failed to notify me about the deal reverting to full price after 12 months. I saw this as a definate ploy by the company to trick unsuspecting clients into paying more than they need too.