Savings on power costs in dispute

AS businesses strain under the weight of high electricity prices, estimates on the size of cuts to electricity prices in regional Queensland have been called into question just a day after they were released.

Queensland Competition Authority announced regulated prices for regional Queensland on Thursday, saying a “typical” residential customer could expect a 1.3 per cent or $ 20 cut to the annual bill in 2018- 19.

For “typical” small busi- nesses paying about $ 2500 a year, the cut was bigger at 3.4 per cent or $ 86.

But Townsville businessman Mark Bogiatzis, who operates Great Northern Laundry which pays up to $ 15,000 a month for electricity, was cynical about announcements on cuts in prices.

“Any saving is good but 3 per cent is not much when prices have been going up 10 per cent every year over the past six years,” Mr Bogiatzis said.

“The price of electricity is the main gripe of most small business people. It’s a real problem.”

But while the authority released its 2018- 19 determination on Thursday, yesterday it released estimates on charges for new advanced digital meters.

Spread across all regional residential and small business customers, excluding GST, it was estimated to be 1.435 c/ day, or $ 5.24 per year.

Queensland Electricity User Network said if the Government chose to apply the charges, the cut in “typical” residential bills could be reduced to $ 14.24.

“We await the decision of the Queensland Government on the metering charge for 2018- 19,” the network’s spokeswoman Jennifer Brownie said.

“Without the metering charge you cannot estimate if power risen.”

Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham has described the cut in prices for regional households as “the largest fall in a decade” and said its directions to government- owned network and generation businesses over regulatory appeals and bidding practices had prices have fallen or