Sport
21 December, 2022
Weir raises energy concerns
Member for Condamine and Shadow Energy Minister, Pat Weir has raised concerns about a report which states that energy costs in Queensland rose more than any other state or territory across the National Electricity Market (NEM) last year.
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A report from the State Auditor-General found that wholesale electricity prices had increased by 162 per cent in Queensland this year.
The increase occurred due to greater volatility experienced in the market over the second half of the year.
Factors cited included high prices for gas and coal, planned and unplanned coal-fired power station outages across the NEM including Callide C and Swanbank, which reduced available supply, and extreme weather such as heavy rainfall and a cooler winter, which led to higher demand for electricity and lower output from renewable energy sources.
This upturn in wholesale prices contrasts sharply with the start of the decade, when Queensland’s whole-sale electricity price was $53 per MWh, the lowest of all regions in the National Electricity Market.
The price increase means that, returns to shareholders have decreased and returns to customers have increased.
The Shadow Minister said that this state of affairs simply wasn’t good enough.
“The state with the most coal and gas, sun and wind is the state paying the most for their electricity,” he said.
“At the moment, we have a number of generators offline.”
Mr Weir said that linking an increase in prices to the conflict in Ukraine, as the Auditor General and Energy Minister Mick de Brenni had done was misleading.
“Almost every generator has its own coal mine,” he said.
“We are not exposed to global coal prices as much
as the Minister is making out.”
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said that the cost of living would be the defining issue of 2023.
“Make no mistake, there are people at the moment who are making a choice about what to put in their trolley at the shopping centre,” he said.
“There is no doubt that there are pressure that will continue to force electricity prices up.”
“Queenslanders are suffering from the sharpest increase in electricity prices in the nation.”