How About a 285 Percent Rise in Energy Prices for Starters? By James Reed
Oh shucks … I only wrote about a 100 percent increase in energy prices the other day, and now the MSM is reporting on the increase being up to 285 percent. Soon it will be 1,000,000 percent and rising. You will have to sell your home just to boil an egg. I thought I was accidentally on the satire site, The Babylon Bee, but no, sadly. Most people will simply have to turn off the fridge and maybe get an ice chest, or get food every day. No electric lights, candles, maybe the old hurricane lantern could make a comeback. I fail to see any justification for the price rise given Australia’s abundance of raw material, but, that’s show business.
“One of the biggest power retailers has removed offers for new customers over fears it will be unable to provide low rates without losing money as energy prices soar.
Simply Energy will instead focus on trying to keep its 730,000 customers in a bid to stop clients from changing providers.
'Our current focus is on helping our existing customers understand their energy costs and manage short-term rate rises, while taking steps to keep our business strong in a changing energy market,' a spokesperson said.
Some energy providers have marked up power rates as much as 285 per cent a year for an average three-to-four person household, costing homeowners an extra $1,200.
The price hike prompted power company ReAmped Energy to urge its 80,000 customers to find another retailer and save hundreds of dollars.
An Australian Energy Council spokesman said power providers would lose money if they did not increase their rates.
'If a retailer were to acquire customers without (pricing) hedge cover today, it is unlikely that the DMO price would enable them to recover their costs,' he said.
Simply Energy is one of 19 energy providers that have stopped offering deals to new customers.
Power price expert Joel Gibson said affordable rates were becoming harder to come by.
'Cheap fixed-rate plans (are) disappearing by the day,' he told Daily Telegraph.
ReAmped Energy CEO Luke Blincoe said external factors such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the exposure of Australian domestic gas prices to the global commodity gas market were to blame for the soaring price of electricity.
'The Australian gas price is now effectively coupled with the global commodity price for gas so we've seen a really steep incline,' he told the Today Show.
'As late as the last seven days that's really rocketed away. The reason we have to take action is because the wholesale price is higher than the retail price.'
The CEO delivered the same warning in a video uploaded to Facebook.
'With the state of the Australian electricity market the best thing you can do is leave ReAmped energy and find another retailer,' Mr Blincoe said.
'Prices are going up, and they're going to keep going up and we simply don't want to be passing those kinds of costs through to our customers.'
His stunning admission comes in response to the soaring cost of wholesale power which usually accounts for one third of a household bill.
The CEO said ReAmped Energy had worked 'really hard' over the last few years to save Aussie families millions, but right now it was impossible.
The retailer has warned customers their prices could go up by 100 per cent and said the best advice he could give was to 'switch now'.
Mr Blincoe told the Daily Telegraph that until recently wholesale power could be purchased for about 5c a kilowatt hour.
The CEO said prices are now more like 30c/kWh, in a troubling sign for his competition which he revealed were 'quickly' leaving the market.
He predicts the only retailers that could survive the surge in wholesale power costs were those who were 'making margins on the wholesale market as well'.”
The prepared Homestead has a video today discussing how one will need to live without electricity, which is worth a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIxl4qhzFt0
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