Ouch! That electric bill is unreasonably painful

[kareina]

We received our electric bill today. They do things a bit weird here in Australia; rather than billing you once a month, they send out the electric bill once a quarter, so it has time to really build up to an impressive total before they ask you to pay it. (To be fair, for a substantial fee, we *could* switch to a "pay as you go" plan, wherin we paid for the electricity before it was used, and then we'd need to pay more before the money ran out, or they'd turn off the power till we did pay, so there are options, but we haven't chosen to avail ourselves of them.)

The down side of getting the bill all at once is that I actually *notice* when it goes up. Today's bill covered a 91 day period (25 April to 24 July), during which we used 3269 kWh of "residential light and power", and 1616 kWh of "hot water".

Comparing this bill with the same period from last winter, where the period was only 87 days, but we used 3522 kWh of "residential light and power" and 1743 kWh of "hot water".

Now, to my mind if we use less energy for a larger period of time, the bill should be substantially lower, yes? Indeed, the bill helpfully tells us that our average daily usage this time was only 53.7 kWh/day but for the same period of time last year it was 60.5 kWh/day.

Why, then, is this bill fully $108.62 *higher* than last year's bill??? Does it *really* cost them that much more to provide the electricity now than then? And just how fast does it go up? Last year, the full 87 days were charged at one set of rates (in a somewhat complicated system with different fees for "Energy Step 1", "Energy Step 2", and "Energy Step 3" each having their own rate, and taking up a different amount of the total kWh for each category (light and power vs hot water). But this year they charged us one set of rates for 67 days, and then a higher set of rates for 24 days, which tells me that they raised their rates right in the middle of a billing cycle.

The good news is that not only are we using less power this year than last year, but the giant hot-water heater that the house comes with is only a minor portion of the fees. Last year the "hot water" portion of the bill was only 24.7% of the total, and this year it is 23.5% of the total, so while the bill may be up, it isn't because some of us enjoy our hot showers.


(note: I've already paid the bill--knowing that it was coming, I've been setting aside a bit each pay check so that I'd have it available, my complaint isn't that I can't afford it,just that it is so much higher than I think it should be, or perhaps that should be that the cost of electric is rising at a faster rate than I find reasonable.)

Comments

[fjorlief.livejournal.com]

Yup, rates going up, all over, all around the world. Some of my friends and family, who heat with natural gas, are bracing themselves for the increases scheduled for this (northern hemisphere) winter, when rates are expected/scheduled to rise 40%. Haven't heard what is expected for electric rates here, yet. (My heat and hot water are natural gas, so my electric bill is relatively small)

It isn't just gasoline that is rising in cost at a steep rate here, but also utilities rates, and basic foods like wheat and corn based products, dairy products, meat and veggies and fruit. I've seen prices rise 50 to 100% over the last year. Not a big deal to those at the top of the economic food chain, but dammned difficult for those lower down. I'm really grateful for the chooks in my backyard, (even if their food has also almost doubled in price in the last year)

[aumtattoo.livejournal.com]

OUch. Quarterly bills are no fun.

[smurftums.livejournal.com]

Currently Tasmania is importing electricity from the mainland due to our storage dams (for Hydroelectric power) being at less than 20 percent capacity. The state government seems to think that it is cheaper buying in power than putting money toward renewables and energy conservation.