topic Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification in Energy Accounts & Plans

Energy rates increasing without any notification

DaveM — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 00:35:25 GMT

Just checking with others, my single variable electricity rate in Qld has gone up again in the background. I looked at last bill and it was $0.304, and in the app for this month its gone up to $0.340. No email to let me know the price changed. I know its variable, but when looking at plans on the AGL website it says we will let you know when things change. I get their emails since I get the bills fine 🙂

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Lester — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 03:11:42 GMT

I've been getting emailed bills for years now, and as such with recent changes to plan tariffs in South Oz, I have always received an email to advise increases, with old rates and new rates listed clearly near each other.

Not sure if / why AGL would do that differently in QLD.

You are VERY lucky to be on 34c, here in SA it is 43.51c for a standard value saver deal single tariff, and just under $1.0226 supply charge a day.

My brother lives NQ and only has one supplier available, and he's on 33c (might have gone up recently, not sure), go figure how that works with no competition there like we supposedly have.

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

PeterPow — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 01:16:33 GMT

Hi Dave, I have found this exact same thing. I have had 3 rate rises over that past year without even one notification.

From 23.3 cents now up to 36.9 cents. I am going to ring them and see how I go. My plan definitely says that I will receive notification of any price changes before they happen. I will post if I get any news.

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

megan_AGL — Tue, 28 May 2024 00:30:39 GMT

Hi DaveM,

Thank you for reaching out.

We are concerned to hear that you didn't receive your price change notification letter/email.

If you are currently receiving your bills via email there should be no reason the price change notifications aren't reaching you as well.

We would suggest to check your safe senders list and your junk/spam folder.

If you aren't able to locate the notification, please let us know as we can always re-send you a copy.

Kind regards,

Megan

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Old_Mate — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 02:05:01 GMT

I have a price comparison spreadsheet and I have noticed my Fit dropped 1 cent in the last month

The supply charge went up .5 of a cent. From 131.18 to 131.714 cents.

Demand charge has gone up from 15.24 to 18.546 .

General has gone from 22.5 to 28.369.

and not any notification.
They say compare , but this is like shearing a sheep on the run. And don’t get me started on the Demand calculation.

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Deepesh_AGL — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 22:25:21 GMT

Hi Old_Mate, It looks like you are on our variable rate plan and I can see where the confusion is stemming from. I will send you a private message shortly to discuss further. Cheers, Deepesh

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Lester — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 01:18:28 GMT

@Old_Mate I am very concerned with demand tariffs, and how they might become more widespread, giving retailers ever more profits based on what I see as an extremely unfair and unnecessary extra burden on consumers.

I understand the reasoning for demand charges, to drive down peak power use, but feel that it's ridiculous we have been forced into such a situation in this country that people have to be heavily penalised if they **bleep** up and use a high amount of power in those hours for just one day of a billing cycle, to charge that for a whole month.

Digital meters can allow accurate charging of consumers for exactly what they use, at whatever time, so isn't that enough ??!!

I assume you didn't go onto demand tariff by choice ?

Are you in Queensland by chance ?

I've noticed this seems to be a QLD thing from previous posts.

If retailers want people to use more power in off peak demand times, they should lower the rate for those hours, and maybe increase tariffs somewhat for peak times, but only on a dedicated demand plan.

It needs to be optional for those that can benefit from that arrangement, it won't suit working people where power is mostly consumed in the early morning / late afternoon and through the evening.

Unfortunately our govco seems to allow some fairly insidious practices to be introduced, possibly due in a large part to their policies and directives with energy supply.

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Old_Mate — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 07:09:49 GMT

It buggers belief that after recording all the energy usage for every 30 minute interval they pick the highest in one day to calculate Demand charges for the month. Surely if the have collected all they could calculate the peak demand for each day and use that for the charge .

as it stands if a peak is incurred on one day it is pointless being frugal for the rest of the month , which contradicts the supposed reason for the charge.
Yes I am from Queensland and after the smart meter was installed the demand charge appeared on my bill.

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Lester — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 12:56:43 GMT

What is it with QLD, and demand tariff ?

Is it a test ground to see if consumers revolt before making it more widespread ?

Not sure if all retailers charge it, but worth checking out, IF you have any options up there.

My brother only has one supplier in NQ, think SEQ has more options.

Did you ever check if you had the option to go on a normal TOU plan ?

I recall someone else on the forum here from QLD once commented no choice, the only plan he had was with demand tariff.

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Old_Mate — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 21:06:53 GMT

When Demand was applied to myAGL plan ,I enquired about TOU and was met
with a comment that” Time of use was for commercial customers” .
I was told “The presence of the Demand charge in your bill is not due to
your retailer. It's due to the underlying tariff type that your distributor
(Energex for you in SE QLD) has assigned to your meter. “ .
I have since found that Origin has a plan that does not have Demand
charging , but the General Daily and a Solar maintenance charge I also
applied.

After a bad storm yesterday I wondered , Do customers get charged demand
charges on the days that they have lost power and can not consume during
the outage ? I am yet to find out.

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Lester — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 22:31:25 GMT

I think demand is tied into TOU charges isn't it (?), not the old fixed / single tariff . . . but you can correct me if you are on fixed / single with a demand charge attached.

Here in SA, we are automatically placed onto TOU tariff when you go to a digital meter, and that is required to install a solar system, so it can handle 2 way communications.

While you can apparently ask to stay on Fixed (or single) tariff, if you don't know, you get put onto TOU.

But TOU is one of the main reasons for power cos and retailers wanting digital meters, to incentivise power frugality from consumers, as well as control over very specific load shedding and network safety (switching off peoples solar when the grid is under threat form overload).

Of course the power cos / retailers say demand charges are also make people more conscious of using power in low load times, and free up peak demand times.

All brought to you by GOVCO policy, and too soon a push onto renewables, before the grid is ready.

So the competition with Origin charges roughly same overall, just call it a different thing ?

Just checked my brothers March 2024 bill I have a copy of, he's is with Ergon in NQ (the only supplier in this area), he's on Tariff 11 - Residential Flat Rate (General Domestic), with 10kw solar and 10kw battery, Solar Exports - Solar feed-in for Regional Queensland, daily supply charge is (was) reasonable (1.09521 + gst).

I won't put current rates for power, he's had a price rise since this, but still, he's miles in front of the game.

Monthly billing, he gets ~ $140 a month avg credit, and since his ~ 12 month solar install to that date, he had then a little over $2000 in CR.

The only way to beat bills (for now and the near future) is suitable solar system, with a decent battery.

Until the rules are changed to limit combined advantages, but I feel that will take a while to make the investment worthwhile.

I have the solar, just waiting for the right time (and savings) to get the battery.

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Lester — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 23:03:56 GMT

Just got hold of brothers latest Ergon bill for NQ.

His fixed rate went up post March bill to 0.00745c per kwh (yes, an increase of 0.745% of 1 cent), his FIT dropped 1.064c to 12.377c, his supply charge did however go up 14.722c a day to $1.24243.

His CR for Sept went up to $170 for the month anyway, shows how a solar with a battery can make a big difference.

Re: Energy rates increasing without any notification

Old_Mate — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 05:46:22 GMT

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