The topic of rising electricity costs for everyday Australians has been a prominent media talking point for months, often coinciding with rising inflation concerns and the housing crisis currently engulfing Aussie consumers.
However, an engagement, communications and mobilisation specialist has told Flow FM’s Country Viewpoint producer Dan Crouch that future electricity price hikes are set to surge to levels which far exceed those that most Australian consumers are currently anticipating.
Nic Seton is the current CEO of the Australian Parents for Climate Action group and he painted a dark picture for energy customers as far as the near-future goes in Australia.
“I'd say the average family is probably looking at a bill that will be somewhere in the many hundreds higher - if the average family is looking at a quarterly bill of around a few hundred dollars, a 20 to 24% increase is going to impact them significantly,” Seton said.
“We should expect that most retailers will be increasing their costs to adjust their own costs of running the business and most families will be impacted.
“It's going to be another blow, especially at this rate. It's a lot higher than the standard rate of inflation, and it's being driven by a lot of different forces around the world.”
Upon being quizzed as to what options everyday Australians have on low incomes who cannot afford solar energy, Seton said the best way to save on energy costs was to better utilise household electricity sources and habits.
Installing solar has a huge effect on people's bills, especially if they can shift the amount of energy they use to the daytime when solar energy is available in their home,” Seton said.
“It has probably one of the best return on investments for any kind of upgrade we can make to our homes because the price of solar has come down significantly over the years and the cost of energy is quite high.
“So really the savings are to be made in using your own energy that we produce at home.”
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