Latest news with #OriginEnergy
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
$300 electricity bill hike looming for millions as price increases confirmed: ‘Inevitable'
Millions of Australian households will face higher electricity prices in the coming weeks. Major retailers AGL and Origin have confirmed their price changes for customers, and some households will see their bills increase by as much as $300 next year. AGL's prices will increase by 13.5 per cent in New South Wales, 7.8 per cent in South Australia, 7.5 per cent in Queensland and 6.8 per cent in Victoria from July 1. NSW customers will see their bills go up by as much as an extra $300 a year, based on medium usage. The average increase across all NSW customers will be $267, according to the retailer. Meanwhile, South Australia customers will see an average $200 increase, Queensland $155 and Victoria $110. RELATED Aussie mum's $1,200 electricity bill shock sparks warning for millions ATO superannuation warning as deadline for $30,000 deduction approaches Rare $2 coins worth up to $350 amid huge spike in demand Origin will raise its prices by an average of 9.1 per cent in NSW, 5.5 per cent in South Australia, and 3 to 4 per cent in Queensland. Electricity charges for Victoria have not been locked in yet, but gas will cost the average Victorian household an additional $85 a year. Aussie households will receive letters and emails from their energy retailers over the coming weeks ahead of price changes coming into effect from July 1. It follows the decision by the energy regulators to increase the majority of default prices for the year, which will see standard energy plans rise by up to $228. These are contracts offered to customers who can't or don't shop around. While only 10 per cent of customers are on default offers, retailers use the default pricing as a benchmark for their market contracts. The latest price hikes have been blamed on increased network charges, higher costs to serve customers and higher wholesale electricity expenses. The federal government has extended its energy bill relief until the end of the year, with the first $75 quarterly instalment to hit accounts from July 1. The price hikes follow two years of price increases across most networks, with the average annual electricity bill increasing by as much as $360 since June 1, 2023. Canstar data insights director Sally Tindall has urged households to shop around. 'The cold hard truth is that electricity price hikes are pretty much inevitable in states such as NSW, Queensland and South Australia this winter after the regulator approved hikes to the reference prices across all networks in these states,' she said. 'The exact costs for your daily supply charge and electricity rates are up to each provider, however, unless you're on an embedded network or in a state where there are limited options, this is one bill you can, and should, take control of.' Tindall said the reference price could be a good starting point, with providers required to tell you where the cost of your plan sits in relation to it. The greater the difference a plan is below the reference price, the more competitive it is. 'In Sydney, single rate plans are, on average, 7 per cent lower than the reference price, however, there are plans available that are up to 23 per cent lower than the regulator's benchmark,' she said. 'In Brisbane, the gap is even wider, with the average discount listed at 6 per cent, while the highest is 27 per cent.' Australians can use the Australian Energy Regulator's Energy Made Easy comparison website to compare prices. Victorians can use Victorian Energy Compare.
9 News
14-06-2025
- Business
- 9 News
'Suckerpunch' electricity price increase locked in for eastern states
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here BREAKING Australian killed, another injured in Bali villa shooting incident Prices will increase by more than 13 per cent in parts of the country, but one state may be shielded from the worst of it. "This will be a suckerpunch for a lot of customers," Canstar spokesperson Sally Tindall said. The cost of electricity is about to jump higher than predicted across Australia's east coast. (Nine) AGL and Origin Energy locked in new prices for millions of customers today. Starting on July 1, AGL's prices will jump 13.5 per cent in New South Wales. They will also rise 8 per cent in South Australia, 7.5 per cent in Queensland and 6.8 per cent in Victoria - adding $110 to an average Victorian household's bill. Today, the federal opposition slammed the government's action on energy prices. "They imposed price caps that haven't worked, they've completely failed, and we continue to see price hikes," Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said. Origin Energy hasn't locked in its electricity charges for Victoria just yet. Gas will cost the average Victorian household an additional $85 per year, which is the largest increase for any state in the country. "There are plenty of options and payment plans available," Origin's Chief Marketing Officer Catherine Anderson said. "We would really encourage our customers to reach out to us, we're here to help." The cost of electricity is about to jump higher than predicted across Australia's east coast. (Nine) For those struggling to pay, some help is on the way. Every household will automatically get a $150 electricity discount thanks to the federal government, and another $100 is being offered to concession card holders in Victoria. For everyone else, the advice is to shop around. "Don't get mad - get even," Tindall said. "By shopping around you, could potentially save hundreds of dollars off your electricity bill." Other retailers will lock in their prices in the coming days. national Victoria power Electricity CONTACT US
AU Financial Review
05-06-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
From stopping thieves in the GFC to running a $1b company, via The Star
Scott Wharton remembers the chaos vividly. He had been working for Lehman Bros for five months in Hong Kong, reporting to the chief financial officer of the US investment bank's Asia-Pacific business. Wharton, who is the chief executive of ASX-listed car leasing and salary packaging company Smartgroup, was fulfilling a lifelong dream. He took the advice of mentors, such as Ilana Atlas, now an Origin Energy director and chair of Scentre Group, and sought overseas experience to build his corporate career after an unusual background studying genetics, biochemistry and law at university in Australia.
The Age
01-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
‘Fork in the road': How a failed nuclear plot locked in Australia's renewable future
When Australians went to the polls and voted Anthony Albanese back as prime minister, they also voted for something that will outlive the next election: the power industry's guaranteed switch from coal to renewable energy. What they didn't vote for were state-owned nuclear reactors, forced delays of coal-fired power station closures and a slew of other Coalition promises widely viewed as threats to the country's era-defining challenge of cutting harmful emissions while keeping electricity supply and prices steady. Although times remain testing in the energy sector, a feeling of relief is clear. 'The nuclear conversation is dead and buried for the foreseeable future,' said an executive at one of Australia's biggest power suppliers, who asked not to be named. Even as the Nationals keep arguing for a nuclear future, any genuine suggestion that atomic facilities could still be built in time to replace retiring coal plants after the next election rolls around was now downright 'ridiculous', said another, adding that renewable energy was on track to surpass 60 per cent of the grid by 2028. 'That's great for the energy sector – it simplifies the path forward,' they said. Make no mistake, a seismic shift across the grid has been well under way for years now. Australia's coal-fired power stations – the backbone of the system for half a century – have been breaking down often and closing down earlier, with most remaining plants slated to shut within a decade. At the same time, power station owners including AGL, Origin Energy and EnergyAustralia are joining a rush of other investors in piling billions of dollars into large-scale renewables and batteries to expand the share of their power that comes from the sun, wind and water. The federal government has an ambitious target for renewable energy to make up 82 per cent of the grid by 2030. 'There won't be a renewable energy industry in 2030; it will just be the energy industry.' Andrew Richards, Energy Users Association of Australia The task of balancing a system dominated by less-predictable renewables becomes much more challenging, and requires the multibillion-dollar pipeline of private investment in the transition to continue. But ousted opposition leader Peter Dutton, before losing the May 3 federal election and his own seat, hatched a plan to change that course dramatically. A grid powered mainly by renewables would never be able to 'keep the lights on', Dutton insisted. Instead, he declared, a Coalition government would tear up Australia's legislated 2030 emissions-reduction commitments, cut short the rollout of renewables, force the extensions of coal-fired generators beyond their owners' retirement plans and eventually replace them with seven nuclear-powered generators, built at the taxpayer's expense, sometime before 2050. For Australians who wanted to see urgent action to tackle climate change – and investors at the forefront of the shift to cleaner power – the campaign to dump near-term climate targets in favour of nuclear energy came at the worst possible time. Some likened it to a 'near-death experience' for the momentum of the shift to a cleaner, modern energy system that would have wiped out investor confidence and killed off billions of dollars of future renewable projects. 'When you reflect on the significance of energy in the campaign, it's reasonable to say this was a fork in the road,' said Kane Thornton, outgoing chief executive of the Clean Energy Council. Loading The Coalition was convinced it was onto a winner. The government had been on the nose in the polls, cost-of-living stresses were everywhere, and Australians were more worried about the size of their electricity bills than where their electrons were coming from. Dutton argued for months that nuclear plants would be the best way to keep prices down, even though almost no one agreed with him. 'I'm very happy for the election to be a referendum on energy – on nuclear,' he said. In the end, the idea proved too toxic for voters. It delivered big swings against Dutton's candidates in electorates chosen to host reactors, while support for Labor grew in many of the places selected to develop massive offshore wind farms, which the Coalition had planned to scrap. The decisive election result 'locks in' the government's ambitious push for an electricity grid almost entirely powered by renewables, said Leonard Quong, the head of Australian research at BloombergNEF. 'The Labor Party's landslide victory … is a win for climate, clean energy and the country's decarbonisation trajectory,' he said. Loading The Albanese government's plan to transform the grid as more coal-fired plants exit is backed up by modelling from the Australian Energy Market Operator. It includes accelerating the build-out of renewables, backed up by thousands of kilometres of extra power lines, storage assets such as batteries and pumped hydroelectric dams to stash clean energy for when it's not sunny or windy, and a small but essential fleet of gas-fired power stations. Over the coming decade, the government's flagship renewable energy policy, known as the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), is expected to underwrite the financing of enough new wind and solar farms to double Australia's renewable energy generation capacity, according to BloombergNEF, plus a seven-fold increase in storage. As things stand, Australia is on track to fall shy of its target for renewables to supply 82 per cent of the grid by 2030. But even if it does, a massive increase is still inevitable. The renewables build-out hit record speed last year, said global consultancy Rystad Energy, putting renewable sources on course to surge from 40 per cent to 65 per cent of the grid by the end of the decade. The government's ambitious targets were 'driving significant change', said Andrew Richards of the Energy Users Association of Australia, representing major manufacturers. 'There won't be a renewable energy industry in 2030 – it will just be the energy industry,' he said. Still, there are some who work in the energy sector who think the door should not be closed on nuclear power permanently. Although nuclear is not seen as a viable option for the 2030s or even 2040s (CSIRO calculates the first reactor would take at least 16 years to build), EnergyAustralia chief Mark Collette thinks the technology is at least 'worth considering' as part of a much-longer-horizon energy mix – for instance, when the next generation of large-scale wind farms retires in 20 to 25 years. There are also questions about whether there will be enough renewable energy, supported by gas, to meet ballooning demand in the 2050s and beyond, especially if the rise of electrification, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and energy-hungry data centres overshoots current forecasts. 'The gap left by coal will be filled by renewables, but what if we've got demand [forecasts] wrong?' said Matt Rennie, co-chief executive of energy consultancy Rennie Advisory. 'This is where the long-term future for nuclear energy becomes interesting – it makes sense to have the conversation.' For now, sidelining the nuclear debate will empower the sector to double down on the investment boom into wind, solar and storage projects to get ready for a fast-approaching future without coal, energy companies say. Loading There are also hopes that it will recast the focus on big challenges that still stand in the way of a smooth transition. These include the soaring cost of building high-voltage power lines needed to connect far-flung renewable energy zones to major cities, resistance among communities asked to host new energy infrastructure, and an impending domestic shortfall of natural gas that will be needed to power a renewed fleet of gas-fired turbines. Shannon Hyde, local boss of French energy giant Engie, said policy certainty was 'good for business and investment confidence' as the company sought to progress plans for more large-scale renewable generation and storage projects in Australia. 'But local challenges remain,' he said. 'We know the energy transition will depend on a partnered approach with ambitious and purposeful governments.' For Kane Thornton, who steps down as head of the Clean Energy Council in August after 10 years, every minute spent talking about nuclear energy was a minute that could have been spent addressing matters that were 'real and important'. 'I think we will look back on this and shake our heads at it as another distraction and another chapter of the quite silly energy policy that we've debated in this country for the past decade,' Thornton said.
Sydney Morning Herald
01-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Fork in the road': How a failed nuclear plot locked in Australia's renewable future
When Australians went to the polls and voted Anthony Albanese back as prime minister, they also voted for something that will outlive the next election: the power industry's guaranteed switch from coal to renewable energy. What they didn't vote for were state-owned nuclear reactors, forced delays of coal-fired power station closures and a slew of other Coalition promises widely viewed as threats to the country's era-defining challenge of cutting harmful emissions while keeping electricity supply and prices steady. Although times remain testing in the energy sector, a feeling of relief is clear. 'The nuclear conversation is dead and buried for the foreseeable future,' said an executive at one of Australia's biggest power suppliers, who asked not to be named. Even as the Nationals keep arguing for a nuclear future, any genuine suggestion that atomic facilities could still be built in time to replace retiring coal plants after the next election rolls around was now downright 'ridiculous', said another, adding that renewable energy was on track to surpass 60 per cent of the grid by 2028. 'That's great for the energy sector – it simplifies the path forward,' they said. Make no mistake, a seismic shift across the grid has been well under way for years now. Australia's coal-fired power stations – the backbone of the system for half a century – have been breaking down often and closing down earlier, with most remaining plants slated to shut within a decade. At the same time, power station owners including AGL, Origin Energy and EnergyAustralia are joining a rush of other investors in piling billions of dollars into large-scale renewables and batteries to expand the share of their power that comes from the sun, wind and water. The federal government has an ambitious target for renewable energy to make up 82 per cent of the grid by 2030. 'There won't be a renewable energy industry in 2030; it will just be the energy industry.' Andrew Richards, Energy Users Association of Australia The task of balancing a system dominated by less-predictable renewables becomes much more challenging, and requires the multibillion-dollar pipeline of private investment in the transition to continue. But ousted opposition leader Peter Dutton, before losing the May 3 federal election and his own seat, hatched a plan to change that course dramatically. A grid powered mainly by renewables would never be able to 'keep the lights on', Dutton insisted. Instead, he declared, a Coalition government would tear up Australia's legislated 2030 emissions-reduction commitments, cut short the rollout of renewables, force the extensions of coal-fired generators beyond their owners' retirement plans and eventually replace them with seven nuclear-powered generators, built at the taxpayer's expense, sometime before 2050. For Australians who wanted to see urgent action to tackle climate change – and investors at the forefront of the shift to cleaner power – the campaign to dump near-term climate targets in favour of nuclear energy came at the worst possible time. Some likened it to a 'near-death experience' for the momentum of the shift to a cleaner, modern energy system that would have wiped out investor confidence and killed off billions of dollars of future renewable projects. 'When you reflect on the significance of energy in the campaign, it's reasonable to say this was a fork in the road,' said Kane Thornton, outgoing chief executive of the Clean Energy Council. Loading The Coalition was convinced it was onto a winner. The government had been on the nose in the polls, cost-of-living stresses were everywhere, and Australians were more worried about the size of their electricity bills than where their electrons were coming from. Dutton argued for months that nuclear plants would be the best way to keep prices down, even though almost no one agreed with him. 'I'm very happy for the election to be a referendum on energy – on nuclear,' he said. In the end, the idea proved too toxic for voters. It delivered big swings against Dutton's candidates in electorates chosen to host reactors, while support for Labor grew in many of the places selected to develop massive offshore wind farms, which the Coalition had planned to scrap. The decisive election result 'locks in' the government's ambitious push for an electricity grid almost entirely powered by renewables, said Leonard Quong, the head of Australian research at BloombergNEF. 'The Labor Party's landslide victory … is a win for climate, clean energy and the country's decarbonisation trajectory,' he said. Loading The Albanese government's plan to transform the grid as more coal-fired plants exit is backed up by modelling from the Australian Energy Market Operator. It includes accelerating the build-out of renewables, backed up by thousands of kilometres of extra power lines, storage assets such as batteries and pumped hydroelectric dams to stash clean energy for when it's not sunny or windy, and a small but essential fleet of gas-fired power stations. Over the coming decade, the government's flagship renewable energy policy, known as the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), is expected to underwrite the financing of enough new wind and solar farms to double Australia's renewable energy generation capacity, according to BloombergNEF, plus a seven-fold increase in storage. As things stand, Australia is on track to fall shy of its target for renewables to supply 82 per cent of the grid by 2030. But even if it does, a massive increase is still inevitable. The renewables build-out hit record speed last year, said global consultancy Rystad Energy, putting renewable sources on course to surge from 40 per cent to 65 per cent of the grid by the end of the decade. The government's ambitious targets were 'driving significant change', said Andrew Richards of the Energy Users Association of Australia, representing major manufacturers. 'There won't be a renewable energy industry in 2030 – it will just be the energy industry,' he said. Still, there are some who work in the energy sector who think the door should not be closed on nuclear power permanently. Although nuclear is not seen as a viable option for the 2030s or even 2040s (CSIRO calculates the first reactor would take at least 16 years to build), EnergyAustralia chief Mark Collette thinks the technology is at least 'worth considering' as part of a much-longer-horizon energy mix – for instance, when the next generation of large-scale wind farms retires in 20 to 25 years. There are also questions about whether there will be enough renewable energy, supported by gas, to meet ballooning demand in the 2050s and beyond, especially if the rise of electrification, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and energy-hungry data centres overshoots current forecasts. 'The gap left by coal will be filled by renewables, but what if we've got demand [forecasts] wrong?' said Matt Rennie, co-chief executive of energy consultancy Rennie Advisory. 'This is where the long-term future for nuclear energy becomes interesting – it makes sense to have the conversation.' For now, sidelining the nuclear debate will empower the sector to double down on the investment boom into wind, solar and storage projects to get ready for a fast-approaching future without coal, energy companies say. Loading There are also hopes that it will recast the focus on big challenges that still stand in the way of a smooth transition. These include the soaring cost of building high-voltage power lines needed to connect far-flung renewable energy zones to major cities, resistance among communities asked to host new energy infrastructure, and an impending domestic shortfall of natural gas that will be needed to power a renewed fleet of gas-fired turbines. Shannon Hyde, local boss of French energy giant Engie, said policy certainty was 'good for business and investment confidence' as the company sought to progress plans for more large-scale renewable generation and storage projects in Australia. 'But local challenges remain,' he said. 'We know the energy transition will depend on a partnered approach with ambitious and purposeful governments.' For Kane Thornton, who steps down as head of the Clean Energy Council in August after 10 years, every minute spent talking about nuclear energy was a minute that could have been spent addressing matters that were 'real and important'. 'I think we will look back on this and shake our heads at it as another distraction and another chapter of the quite silly energy policy that we've debated in this country for the past decade,' Thornton said.
