Ergon Energy

[Colonel_Panic]

Vent warning.

Yesterday my whole town got our electricity bills. North Queensland was hit by a cyclone (hurricane) earlier on in the year, and, apparently, Ergon estimated the bills of everybody in town.

Well, their estimation skills are ->-bleeped-<-, because my last bill was in credit by $128. I've only been in this house a year, and I figured it went down because I stopped using the air-con and turned the hot water off when I didn't need it. I also get an $80 rebate applied to my bill, but the bill I got yesterday was $1000 after the credit/rebate was subtracted. This happened to basically everyone in my town; there's a post on the local classified's group with 200 comments of "Yeah, ours is $1000+ too!"

One of the things I'm hearing is that the Queensland Government raised the rates. They're apparently telling people to "shop around", but we only have one provider in Mackay. It's Ergon or it's darkness.

I can't wait to skip town.

[Valkyrie_2]

Vent warning.

Yesterday my whole town got our electricity bills. North Queensland was hit by a cyclone (hurricane) earlier on in the year, and, apparently, Ergon estimated the bills of everybody in town.

Well, their estimation skills are ->-bleeped-<-, because my last bill was in credit by $128. I've only been in this house a year, and I figured it went down because I stopped using the air-con and turned the hot water off when I didn't need it. I also get an $80 rebate applied to my bill, but the bill I got yesterday was $1000 after the credit/rebate was subtracted. This happened to basically everyone in my town; there's a post on the local classified's group with 200 comments of "Yeah, ours is $1000+ too!"

One of the things I'm hearing is that the Queensland Government raised the rates. They're apparently telling people to "shop around", but we only have one provider in Mackay. It's Ergon or it's darkness.

I can't wait to skip town.

Solar power not an option?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MistressStevie]

The economic reason not to raise rates to much is that there are substitutes. 

I ran the numbers maybe twenty years ago and one could generate there own solar power for maybe $0.35 a kilowatt hour or so depending upon storage, backup, life-cycle and continuity constraints.  In my little neck of the universe, Oregon USA, one pays about $0.11 a kilowatt hour today.  If the price were to just about triple it would be cost effective to switch now. 

Conservation of energy usage is also an option up to a certain point.  The experts in that kind of thinking is Rocky Mountain Institufte.  https://www.rmi.org/   Their web site and publications contain a wealth of information. 

Now, if your bill went up almost ten fold, there is probably a little more to the story.  Was there surge or constraint pricing that may suggest this is a single time event.  If not, there are technical options and if the market is at all responsive choices should be forthcoming or worth developing if you feel entrepreneurial. 

Solar Panels, Wind generation, waste heat recovery from some other thermal process, geothermal power, and conservation are all well established engineering options at this point in time.  The economics can be calculated with reasonable medium term certainty. 

But because of those, I suspect there is a better option available as demand loves to be met by supply if there is a way to make a buck.  Check your next bill to make sure that was not an anomaly and start investigating options. 

With a some other ideas added, we could get an energy options thread going as there is likely some expertise floating about.   

[sarah1972]

I did the ROI calculation for our house on adding Solar. Assuming I install ~20 panels by myself so I just have the panel costs + racks + permits etc. I would end up with a 9.1 year ROI. Panels usually last for about 25 years. So it is a truly long term investment. ROI would be shorter if energy prices increase (and they will sooner or later). I did the math on a few other items too (like GeoThermal), it always ends up being an ROI of 10 - 15 years.

Unfortunately storage is still the big issue, a PowerWall or something similar is still too expensive, especially given my power consumption profile (too many computers and stuff).

My parents actually have a grid tied solar, and they get a monthly check of ~40 euros from the utility - that is after their own usage has been deducted.

Anyway, a raise of $1000 + is completely unreasonable and something is dramatically wrong. My gas utility did the same thing 2 years ago, all the sudden we got a $500 bill. Followed two weeks later by a "corrected" bill and another "correction" 10 days after that. Ended up being only $45 we had to pay.

Hope for you it is only a computer glitch.

The economic reason not to raise rates to much is that there are substitutes. 

I ran the numbers maybe twenty years ago and one could generate there own solar power for maybe $0.35 a kilowatt hour or so depending upon storage, backup, life-cycle and continuity constraints.  In my little neck of the universe, Oregon USA, one pays about $0.11 a kilowatt hour today.  If the price were to just about triple it would be cost effective to switch now. 

Conservation of energy usage is also an option up to a certain point.  The experts in that kind of thinking is Rocky Mountain Institufte.  https://www.rmi.org/   Their web site and publications contain a wealth of information. 

Now, if your bill went up almost ten fold, there is probably a little more to the story.  Was there surge or constraint pricing that may suggest this is a single time event.  If not, there are technical options and if the market is at all responsive choices should be forthcoming or worth developing if you feel entrepreneurial. 

Solar Panels, Wind generation, waste heat recovery from some other thermal process, geothermal power, and conservation are all well established engineering options at this point in time.  The economics can be calculated with reasonable medium term certainty. 

But because of those, I suspect there is a better option available as demand loves to be met by supply if there is a way to make a buck.  Check your next bill to make sure that was not an anomaly and start investigating options. 

With a some other ideas added, we could get an energy options thread going as there is likely some expertise floating about.

[Valkyrie_2]

Grid tied solar makes the most sense. No need for battery packs. Use the grid as your battery..


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[kelly_aus]

Estimated bills are BS. Challenge the amount and request am explanation of how they've arrived at that amount. Have your previous bills handy, as they provide needed evidence..

[MistressStevie]

Grid tied solar makes the most sense. No need for battery packs. Use the grid as your battery.

Grid Tied solar requires a net or two way metering tariff option.  I do not know the electric tariff situation in question here.  The grid tied solar systems that I am familiar will not operate in a stand alone situation.  If paying for my own generation options I would personally feel better knowing the system was designed to run on its own in the even the grid is down. 

As we add complexity to the electric grids there may be increasing value in said operational continuity, stand alone operations capacity, and limited storage for essential circuits.  This may just just be an independence issue as many US electric utilities measure downtime in single digit minutes over the course of a year on average.   In 16 years of service with my current local utility we have had less than two total hours or down time. 

[Colonel_Panic]

Unfortunately, solar's out of the question for me. I think at best in Australia you're looking at $3k. There was a subsidy program for a while, but the current Government is environmentally backwards, at least in thinking.

$3k might not sound like much but on welfare it's well beyond my means

[Dan]

That is not acceptable. Challenge the bill. Go to the Ombudsman if Ergon doesn't want to play fair.

[Valkyrie_2]

$3k might not sound like much but on welfare it's well beyond my means

I've just built an RV out of an old school bus. My solar setup just covers ventilation at the moment. I have a 2.5A turbo fan blowing hot air out of the vehicle and that cost $20. The battery cost $20. I have two 10W panels at $30 each and a 15W panel that was $60. The charge controller was $10. I built it up over time, starting with a $10 5W panel and a $3 CPU fan.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dena]

Read your meter and you should find the previous reading on your last good power bill. Call up the company and complain about the incorrect billing using these numbers for support. If you are unsure how to read your meter, there is information available on the internet explaining how to read your meter. With the new electronic meters there are several different types and the procedure to read them is different.

[MistressStevie]

Just a followup question for Colonel_Panic,  what was the outcome?   Did the next months bill continue at the same higher level?