Lead Story
Issue No. 14 - December/January 2004
South Australian Electricity Pricing
Power Struggle
by Professor Richard Blandy
I chair the South Australian Energy Consumers’ Council, set up by the Rann Government in November 2002 to advise the South Australian Minister for Energy, Patrick Conlon.
The Council’s members include deputy chair Max Baldock (State Retailers Association), Karen Lablack (Business SA), Carol Vincent (South Australian Farmers Federation), Richard Yeeles (Chamber of Mines and Energy), Jamie Stewart (Property Council), Dan Fiora (Consumers Association of SA), John Pike (Electricity Consumers’ Coalition of SA), Pam Simmons (SACOSS, Representative of Household Consumers) and Peter Bicknell (Port Adelaide Central Mission, Representative of Household Consumers).
The Council’s 2002/03 Report was tabled by Minister Conlon in the South Australian Parliament on 16 October and is available from the Energy Consumers’ Council (contact Ms Tracy Goh, Dept. of Treasury and Finance, State Administration Building, Victoria Square, Adelaide 5000, tel. 08 8226 9497, e—mail Goh.Tracy@saugov.sa.gov.au). This article draws heavily on the Report.
As a result of the residential price increase of January this year, South Australian residential electricity prices are the highest of any State. As shown in Figure 1, South Australia’s residential electricity prices have been climbing steadily compared with Australia’s generally since the mid 1990s, but particularly as a result of the price increase that occurred in January 2003.
Figure 1: Residential Electricity Prices in SA and Australia, 1992/93 – 2001/02
Source: Electricity Supply Association of Australia, Electricity Prices in Australia, 2001/2002, Table A1 (except data for 2002/03).
2002/03 data has been added to reflect the price increase after the release of AGL’s standing contract prices in January 2003.
The privatisation of electricity assets in South Australia by the previous Government, part...
