12 February

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) makes the rules for Australian energy markets and advises government. It wants to make an outrageous change. Right now your electricity bill is mostly based on how much electricity you use. Very sensible. The AEMC wants to change this and make a much larger part of your bill a fixed charge for all households. This would mean the millions of Australians who paid for solar and batteries over the past 30 years will potentially pay nearly $700 more per year for electricity, because with a fixed charge the fact they draw almost nothing from the grid becomes irrelevant. At the same time people who use tiny amounts of electricity would pay much more, again because how much you use will no longer be the main component of your bill. It's almost certain that the big energy companies have lobbied for this, as renewables are eating into their profits. Privatising energy in Australia was profoundly stupid, and leads directly to this.