It’s no wonder Australian consumers are becoming depressed every time they see their electricity bills, prices have increased out of sight in the last few years to the point where utility costs are becoming an unreasonable burden on our cost of living, and big price hikes are certain to continue indefinitely……..
In New South Wales for instance an increase of 64% is expected within the next three years!
A number of reasons are responsible for these ongoing price hikes which have seen the price of electricity increase by an average of 11% every year for the last 5 years, and first and foremost you may think that fossil fuel prices and more demand than supply is the reason. In actual fact though, this is only responsible for a fraction of the total price hike.
A major factor is that Australia’s vast electricity grid network requires significant and constant improvements to meet the demands of increased consumption due to a growing population, ageing infrastructures, commercialisation and industrialisation of the country. The cost of these upgrades ultimately falls to consumers, as the charges incurred are simply passed along from their energy retailers.
The second part is that aside from these continuous upgrades, which are much neglected in many parts of the country at the moment, the main bulk of electricity costs come from the ongoing maintenance required for the grids. All state electricity grids have to be maintained extensively for safety reasons and to retain its effectiveness of supply. Economist and engineers says that these maintenance costs alone are a substantial amount of money, even excluding isolated maintenance, storm damage and repairs on transmission lines and city generators, and again these costs are ultimately passed down to the consumers in the form of extra charges and regular electricity price hikes.
This trend is set to continue as long as we depend on these grids for the bulk of our electricity. That is where solar power technology becomes even more advantageous…… Solar panels are completely independent and require little or no maintenance at all. Producing your own electricity minimises the stress on the grid thus reducing the huge maintenance costs. Having more individual homes and businesses with solar panels installed will also lessen the need for constant upgrades on the grids, which will further reduce electricity prices.
Another significant way solar technology can help is that our electricity girds must be capable of providing for peak demand, say on a very hot or very cold day, even though this amount of power is rarely required. What having a large enough percentage of solar power following back into the grid does is to help even out the peaks and dips every day between highest and lowest demand. Thus making it much easier for your local provider to be able to manage and predict their requirements more efficiently.
So there are a lot of good reasons why having many more householders and businesses in your area with solar PV systems installed is likely to save your whole community money, and protect against power surges and blackouts, as well as making a big difference to your carbon footprint and reducing our overall carbon emissions. Have you made the switch to solar power yet?
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