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[QLD] $550 Electricity Credit for Every QLD Household ($1072 for Vulnerable Households) @ Queensland Government

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Useful with the price of electricity increasing in July.

Queenslanders will pay less for electricity in 2023–24 through the Cost of Living Rebate, with households receiving one of the following:

  • $700 Cost of Living Rebate on electricity bills for vulnerable households, plus a further $372 under the Queensland Electricity Rebate Scheme, bringing total rebates for Queenslanders doing it toughest to $1,072
  • $550 Cost of Living Rebate on electricity bills for all other Queensland households.

For most households, the rebate will be credited to electricity bills on a quarterly basis commencing from 1 July 2023. Exact timing will depend on retailers’ system requirements and individual billing cycles.

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closed Comments

  • +7

    Bracing for the comments…

    • +121

      I'd make popcorn but I can't afford the electricity.

      • +18

        You can now if you live in QLD

      • +1

        Use gas 😉

        • +16

          Gas is the main reason prices have gone up!

        • +5

          The surplus is totally thanks to King Coal.

        • +14

          Gas is dead. In Queensland at least. I discovered I was being charged over $500 a year just to have the gas connected before I paid any usage charges, I cancelled my account, ripped out the gas HW, put in a reverse cycle electric hot water system, setup 2 switchable 9KG LPG tanks for the hot plate and I recommend others to consider doing similar. I have about 12KW of panels on the roof. A 5 Bedroom house with a ducted reverse cycle AIrConditioner, a pool, a computer server that runs 24/7 and my total energy bill per YEAR is under $500, including gas cylinder refills (we use about 5 cylinders a year).

          Next I'm going to install batteries. I know, at under $500 a year why bother, but I like the idea of being able to go off-grid if I need to. I can see the grid supply becoming a real headache.

          I had 6.5Kw of panels on the roof when I bought this house. I added another 5.5KW and a hybrid inverter. I'll get my investment into the new HW, solar and gas conversion back in under 4 years (2 years from now)
          .

      • Free on solar

        • +2

          If you like your popcorn around mid-day ish

        • +1

          After paying for solar and extras …

          • @LFO: don't we have something like zero upfront solar now? seen this ad all over the internet

            • -1

              @bcYield: Upfront?, probably.
              But then, later on, you still have to pay.
              Akin to buy today, pay tomorrow.

              No free lunches = No free solar.

              • @LFO: from what I know the solar will pay itself sooner or later

                • +4

                  @bcYield: Paying for itself over time is very different to being free.
                  Zero upfront solar will generally cost you more in the long-run, as your also paying for the providers return and profit margin.

      • Brilliant.

  • -5

    Doesnt even cover the 1st July increase….thanks gov!!

    • +36

      Mate how much power are you using? Running a pool and a garage full of fish tanks or something?

      This is going to cover almost 6 months for me even after the increase.

      • +16

        And then what after 6 months……how long before you have paid an extra 550 due to the ridiculous increase

        • +4

          Drop the pool temp a couple of degrees and don't use the outdoor patio heaters so much. It's ridiculous I know 😊

      • Probably growing POT by hydroponics indoors.

        • +13

          Calm down NewsCorp

      • +2

        I'm running a pool and it'll cover me for 3-4 months.

      • Previous comment got deleted due to joke.
        Those who want referral links, use the random referral link here to find an ozbargainer.

      • +3

        My partner and I had a 45-day bill for $289. No kids, no pool, rarely used aircon (and when we do, it's on low speed and 26C)

        • +1

          That's more than my quarterly bill as a couple, and I tend to use the dryer a bit - something not right there.

    • +21

      Nectr have ~10% off standard rates plus rates locked for 12 months (at today's prices). Just signed up this morning.

      Agl were going to nearly double my usage rate and +30% to supply charge (coming from a 2yr fixed price contract)

      • +3

        Yeh agl are kidding themselves. Absolutely massive price increase.

        • +13

          I just switched to Nectr after looking at this. AGL was increasing to 33.154c per kWh and $1.35/day connection for me. Nectr is 23.98c (locked for 12 months) with a 99c a day connection.

          No-brainer.

          • @japes: Cheers. I haven't been able to find locked in rates. My 17c/kWh with Energy Aus finishes soon.

            • @M00Cow: I was on the same kind of deal with agl @18c/99c

              Investigate if there's any kind of contract break fee (usually not with power, but check) because it might be worth cutting over early to get in before price rise.

          • +4

            @japes: Where are you seeing these rates? I checked and it's showing much higher for me on the nectr site (Brisbane metro)

            • +2

              @AaronR: Under 100% Clean, Energex. I'm on the Sunshine Coast so may vary between regions.

              • @japes: Just tried my next door neighbour and he gets the low rates. Looks like it's because I'm on Time of Use. Nectr prices are basically the same as my Origin post July 1 rates (increase of ~40%).

            • +2

              @AaronR: nectr is worse for me, even with the AGL increase. Brisbane middle ring.

          • @japes: Is that for flat rate (Tariff 11) ?

            Nectr website is only offering me Time of Use (which Im currently on with Alinta) :(

            Comparing both their current (soon to be replaced) rates, Alinta is slightly cheaper.
            Will compare again once the new July TOU rates are available.

        • +1

          I don't think they really care. they make a killing from primary power generation and selling it to the other retailers. Ass-hats regardless!

      • +2

        +1 Nectr … signed up with them a few years back after putting in a solar system. Electricity bills due to their discounts, feed-in tariff, tuning the use of power in the house, and solar. Bills went from ~$250/month to $25-55/month. That's mostly due to the daily supply charge and generation variances (time of year, weather etc.). The last Queensland rebate meant we didn't pay for electricity at all for 6 months. $550 will cover us for quite a while.

      • +1

        Same for me AGL doubling my cost per kW. Thanks for the nectr info saved me a load on the AGL increase. Shame we can’t share the friend love. Boo ozbargain :(

    • +5

      Imagine being angry about getting some sort of support

    • Will cover me for between 11 and 28 months, all the usual stuff running in the house, 1 person home basically 24x7, our main AC is on a remote temp controller so it turns on at 28deg, off at 25deg, heat mode when it goes under 17deg and back off above 18deg.

      A pc, 2 laptops, 2 nas, running permanently, a caravan inc its fridge, 3 other fridges in the house, gas hot water, all battery operated tools with chargers always running, stereo going most days, led lights, security system, google speakers, dishwasher and washer run whenever we remember to, all that stuff….

      Fanciest power saving technique we use is turning the toaster and microwave off at the wall.

      We have a 10kw system feeding in the max rate of 5kw for QLD and our monthly bills for the last 2 years are between $18 and $50.
      So at $50 a month it will cover me for 11 months, $18 a month will cover me for 30 months.

      So split the difference based on weather and at $35 a month thats nearly 16 months of my power bill covered.

      Solar system cost us 5k, already well worth it, battery capable but for another 10k…. at our current rate… well, no real point.

    • +41

      It's corporate mega profits driving inflation, not paying your household bills.

      But vote for the libs and see how they protect the corporates driving this inflation.. it'll work out just fine (for the 1%)

        • +15

          If you don't understand the difference between elastic and inelastic demand, you can't really claim to understand economics

        • +6

          Typical economic understanding of Labor voters.

          your detailed explanation of why you think they were wrong sure showed them.
          Is that a Typical economic explanation of <insert whatever right leaning party you voted for> voters?

        • +18

          @pharcyde Just so you know, I tried to neg your post, but I get an error msg saying you've got too many negs. Kindly read this as another neg. Cheers

        • +3

          Typical comment of a brain dead Liberal voter. Did you learn economics from Sky News?

      • lol

      • Yep, how decidesld to subsidise the westralian gas fields for the US/Japan/Chinese owned tax-avoiding companies.

      • why libs ? why not those parties that libs and labor hate the most…

    • +1

      This attitude is pretty silly.

      The price of electricity has gone up significantly, due to the war in Europe and the subsequent sanctions on Russia. These price rises are absolutely inflationary, in their own right, as well as indirectly increasing the cost of most forms of goods and services.

      Assisting people with the cost of electricity during a cost of living crisis is 'free money' in the same way that giving taxpayers cheques to stimulate the economy is. People are not going to go out and buy a new TV because they get a discount on their electricity bill. Instead, they're going to be able to pay their already sky-rocketing rent and grocery bills rather than going hungry.

      Domestic electricity usage is relatively inelastic. Most people, especially those who are already price sensitive, have already taken steps to reduce their electricity usage to a minimum.

      Also, the Queensland government already owns most of the infrastructure that generates and distributes electricity. They can't just discount the cost of power because some generation and most of retail is privately owned, so they've gone for a subsidy mechanism instead.

      • +5

        Why is a war in europe increasing the price of power here?

        • +3

          It has massively increased demand for energy feedstocks that are not sourced from Russia.

          Huge demand and limited supply has resulted in insanely high prices for Australian coal and gas, which are global commodities, but also happen to be the source of well over half of Australia's electricity production.

          The federal government has capped the price at which coal and gas companies can sell for electricity production within Australia, but the capped price is much higher than 'normal' prices and only creates an upper limit.

        • Because we don’t live in a bubble, commodities like gas and coal that produce energy are traded on a world market like it or not.

        • Good excuse rather than owning up to the financial mismanagement during covid.

          • @brendanm: Maybe a bit of that too.

            We do know that the first round of electricity price rises were already forecast in the last months of the previous Coalition government, and the report was hidden by Angus Taylor so it didn't come up during the election campaign.

    • +5

      What will solve inflation? FREE MONEY! Typical Labor gov.

      Good! Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you!

    • +9

      As opposed to the LibNats handing out free money for decades. At least this goes to your actual power bill.

      • +4

        As opposed to the LibNats handing out free money for decades

        Yeah but at least the Lib/Nats were responsible enough to give out Corporate Welfare, mate!

        • +5

          Your partially right, there were also hard working Australians, like Rupert, Clive, Kerrys, Gerry, Andrew,

    • Easy there Harvey Norman.

  • +2

    Similar trick like minimal wage increase with interest rate climbing.

  • +10

    Better than nothing.

  • What exactly is a vulnerable household?

    • +8

      vulnerable households who receive the existing Queensland Electricity Rebate.

      I don't think it's unclear.

    • +2

      In addition to what was posted above, my understanding is it's an assessment also; just like getting on any other government benefit, you're assessed based on your specific case/needs.
      Quite a lot of things can fall into it, but typically it's people who would genuinely suffer (rather than be inconvenienced) if their power (or roof, or water, etc) went away.
      Not everyone can pop down the local park and carry back buckets of water if you can't afford the bill.
      Or manage to get to the library daily to charge devices if they can't afford power.

      I did both for several years, and if I wasn't a teen at the time, It'd have been hard going carrying jug after jug of water.

    • +2

      Qld is only State to offer electricity rebate to Seniors.
      For those holding a full Qld Seniors Card (min age 60) or other Commonwealth concession cards. Rebate requires supplying concession details to retailer.

      There are other ways to benefit - see the link above.

  • +40

    Why not lower the price of electricity instead of giving energy companies our tax money? Corrupt

    • +25

      Because of guaranteed profit contracts. The government could make a law to kill those contracts but then no wealthy (profanity) will participate in future privatisations which means less cushy jobs for ex-politicians.

    • +5

      I guess it is related to the fact:
      The Cost of Living Rebate is thanks mainly to Queensland’s shareholding stake in the state’s energy assets.
      For some households, e.g. those receiving the $700 rebate, the rebate will be partly funded by the Australian Government through the Energy Bill Relief Fund.

      So the households who have invested in Solar (including myself, with zero bills) should benefit from their property too.

    • +4

      No, they're not giving energy companies your tax money to pocket. They're giving tax money to the energy retailer companies to put as credit on your bill. Since pretty much all energy retailers are private companies, it's exceptionally hard to force them to lower prices. They could force govt own infrastructure companies to lower fees, but biggest companies will benefit. Where as this is a direct subsidy to households. It's like a dividend.

      • +2

        Rising electricity costs means higher bills means more money going to energy companies, which means our tax money going into these programs to help people with rising costs instead of just lowing the costs….

        • +1

          Yeah, but unlike say the Krudd stimulus/baby bonus/pensioners bonus not tied to anything, people just spend it on whatever. At least this goes directly into energy bills as credit.

          What would you do in their shoes?

          • +1

            @M00Cow: Exactly, the whole purpose is to use it for some relief towards your energy bill. For sure people would use it on the wrong thing then still complain.

        • +1

          Rising electricity costs means higher bills means more money going to energy companies

          Wait till you see that there's GST on your energy bills..it also means more money going to the govt.

        • since we're talking about whole of economy, more money to energy companies also = high corporate tax and indirectly, higher income tax revenue for the government too

    • +1

      ESG score and NetZero promise. Shutting down power plants will help them achieve their ideology.
      \

    • because price ceilings will cause electricity supply issue as well as even higher charges in the long run.

    • +1

      Governments need to start fixing prices to prevent profiteering. The only people who benefit from laissez faire free market unregulated capitalism are corporations and the people who make up the top end of town (the richest 10%). Nothing benefits the poor like a command economy.

    • Most of qld only has ergon which is govt owned

  • +28

    You will own nothing and you will be happy.

    • +5

      So long as they're both true.
      At the moment, for a lot of people, only the first half is.

    • Considering the popularity in car rentals like GoGets cars and consumption of certain electronic manufacturers that make it hard to do repairs seems like people are happy owning nothing.

      • You didn't even mention spotify and netflix.

        Don't be lazy. Cover more angles!

        • +2

          Who wants to own the crap on Netflix anyway, if I owned it id flush it down the toilet.

        • +2

          I sort of get netflix, because storing video in acceptable quality is a costly and nerdy endeavour in itself.
          And for this reason, Video rental was always a thing, even into the DVD era.
          But I never thought I'd see the day when people opted not to own their music.
          Plenty of movies I'll only watch once, but very few songs I'll only listen to once.
          It feels like a twilight zone where the iPod/iRiver/Zune never happened.

          I never thought I'd miss the ZUNE store of all things; it was basically Spotify, but each month for your subscription cost you got to KEEP 10 tracks.

          • @MasterScythe: These days the best way to build an offline music library is to use stream ripping programs with the streaming services, particularly the lossless ones (Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz). You still have to pay for a subscription though.

            • @RefusdClassification: I was trying to buy an album the other day and you literally COULDN'T, it was wild to realise.
              And Tidal has been proven to make a MESS of audio quality (Deezer isn't bad).

              I did find one service that just outright sells MP3 albums; and that's Amazon Music; being limited to MP3 is a shame, but they appear to genuinely be the only option left to BUY if your genre isn't popular enough to make it into a JBHiFi.

  • +9

    I understand the sentiment of this but ultimately it's out of tax payers coffers in the long run (and yes, I've claimed the same here in Vic)

    Spend the damn money on some renewable energy solutions which, at scale come damn near free once you go big enough

    • +9

      Spending money on Renewables has been done by the end consumer - its the Solar Rebates (or STC) that has magically made it so every one who now has solar panels installed (which they paid for) and used to get somewhere comparable to a decent Feed In Tariff (FIT) now is getting not much.

      On a clear summers day, I can generate 65-70kwh of electricity. I use around 10 of that during daylight and used to get a FIT of 17c,but I paid 22c+GST for buying during the evening. Now I get 10c for the first 10kwh and 5c for the remainder - oh, and in that time, we have supposedly an energy crisis so I now pay over 30c+GST per kwh.

      Every house with Solar in Australia is now massively supporting all the coal fired power plants closing early. Why ? Because when every householder is effectively giving the grid their power for free and you have no coal costs, no manpower costs, no maintenance costs (householders responsibility) and you get charged a "supply charge" of around $1-$1.20 per day for the priviledge…. The big boys like AGL/Origin are spending money on battery storage as they have the ability to buy it a scale the household can't.

      All the while Qld has a massive surplus (over $12b!) predominently from coal and LNG exports to other parts of the world to be used in their power and cooking - so until those receivers of our exports do the same, 25 million Australians are carrying the economic can for stuff we have already solved at our own expense.

      • +3

        Well said. I did laugh when in Victoria they wholesalers & retailers successfully argued to.make FIT the same as the coal generators gate price. They claimed that household solar producers weren't paying for poles & wires. Eh, so what is that day supply charge? And even worse, youre paying 5c for my electricity to sell it to my neighbour for 25c in the poles & wires we both pay for.

        Then they whinge about the oversupply of energy during the day due to solar. Well I'm yet to see a plan which has offpeak-cheap electricity during the day. Why is the offpeak electric got water systems all programmed to after midnight?

        • I've found one, if you are in Regional Qld in the new rates gazetted (as of 1 July 2023) https://www.qca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/gazette-20…

          Tariff 12C has cheaper daytime rates then any other time:

          12C Residential time-of-use primary tariff Usage:

          Peak (4pm – 9pm) 55.325 c/kWh
          Day (9am – 4pm) 9.924 c/kWh
          Night (all other times) 18.521 c/kWh
          Daily supply charge 107.721 c

          Solar feed in jumps to 13.441 c/kWh

          I'm planning on swiching to it, between 9am-4pm I'm better off forcing my battery to charge from the grid (instead of my solar) and export my solar production, as buying it back earns me 3.517 c/kWh more than if I had just used my solar instead of exporting.

          (BTW: Anyone here an expert of Sungrow inverters, please DM me! I'm trying to figure out how to force it to export only between 9a-4p and then switch back to self consumption for all other times. — I've managed to figure out how to force it to charge my battery between those hours and not to discharge the battery during that time but if I could export ALL of my solar not just excess, and buy back what I need — that would be awesome!)

        • Peak electricity charges for us are increasing by 53% with Alinta. I am so angry about this. All of the urban rooftop solar panels should be driving costs down not up.

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