Post Carbon Tax Repeal electricity bill.

[gordon_s1942]

The bill arrived today for the period from the 30th July to the 28th of October, a total of 91 days broken into 2 parts, the first is for 47 days (30/7 to 14/9) and I was charged 24.29 c/kWh plus a 'Supply charge' of $32.35.
I am not on any plans or rebates with Origin who took over this area after another restructure of the industry, the 4th one in the last 15 or 20 years.
The names which mean nothing may change but each one sees an increase in charges.

From 15/9 to 28/10 (44 days) the rate has dropped to 21.94 c/kWh and the 'Supply Charge' is now $30.29.
It shows the total 'Carbon Repeal Adjustment' is a total of 19.69 (cr).
Based on that, the 'guessestimate is around $80 per year.

Irrespective of the rebates, according to the bill I have used a few hundred kWh's less than the last quarter which has surprised me since my son recently bought and has been using a 2nd hand MIG welder, not a lot but a few times along with some other electrical tools helping his mates fix their cars.

At one time that 'Supply Charge' was a fixed rate for a reading period but now its set 'per Day'.

We 'prepay' an amount every fortnight and now have built up a nice 'credit' to buffer against any 'Bill shocks' because no matter how frugal you are, its easy to use a bit more power that you thought and also its nice to know if the need demands, you can use what you need within reason.

I will be curious to see how others have fared since the Carbon Tax repeal on the power bills, including those on Solar panels only or those with Battery backup.
Of course, those 'Totally Off Grid' dont need to answer.

[Coldamus]

Gordon,

I'm in the upper Hunter area of NSW, also with Origin Energy. Altitude is approx. 1500 ft (450 metres). It is cold here in winter (min -6 C.) and hot in summer (max 45 C.) Typically two of my quarterly bills are high (roughly $600 to $800 for a single person household) and two are moderate ($350 to $500). Most of my power use is for heating because I'd freeze to death in winter without it. I virtually have to run a heater 24/7 for at least 2 months per year.

Today, I paid the latest bill of $660. My bill was broken into 61 days at the old rate of 29.95 cents per kwh and 32 days at the new rate of 27.47 cents per kwh. In addition, there's a daily service charge that seems to have been the same throughout . It works out at roughly $1.23 per day.

There's a carbon repeal adjustment on this bill of $40.70 CR. (my previous bill was probably higher than yours, hence higher rebate). I also received an NSW Gvt. low income household rebate of $59.87 CR. I think that's calculated at $225 per annum converted to a daily basis.

As an aged pensioner, power bills and any large or unexpected bills are a major hurdle. I don't prepay anything but do budget rigidly and accurately. I run a budgeting spreadsheet extending at least 6 months in advance. In the debit column, I slot in the due dates and estimated amounts of all expenses such as annual CTP car insurance, monthly rent, phone and internet bills, plus weekly allowances for food, fuel, etc. My income (fortnightly pension, etc.) is projected in the credit column and there's a third $ column for the estimated bank balance. If the projected balance is negative at any point, I rearrange payment dates where possible to avoid that. The estimates are conservative (i.e. expenses overestated and income understated) to allow a margin for unexpected items.

As expenses are paid and income received, I replace the estimated amounts with actuals, so the spreadsheet doubles as a bank statement record. In effect, I can tell what my bank balance should be on any day for at least the next six months as well as what it actually was for the last umpteen years.

Because electricity is my largest single expense, i run another spreadsheet to estimate power bills in advance. I read the meter every few weeks and enter the date and reading into the spreadsheet. From that information and the previous bill date and reading, the spreadsheet calculates estimated power usage and cost as at the next scheduled reading date. It includes the daily service charge, the government rebate, GST etc. It works well and my actual bill is always within a few dollars of the estimate. For the next period, I'm not sure whether to allow for a carbon tax repeal credit because I don't know whether that was a one-off or a continuing thing. For the moment, I am being conservative and leaving it out.