Not all that long ago, the supply of electricity to Australian households and businesses was something we all just took for granted, and rarely discussed.
However, over the past few years the sourcing, generation, supply, security, sustainability, impact on the environment and – above all – cost of electricity have become major issues.
It’s so serious that even our sometimes slow-on-the-uptake politicians have recognised it as something that simply has to be addressed.
That’s why we’ve spent a couple of months summarising the findings of the Victorian Government’s Thwaites Review and the current Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Retail Electricity Pricing Inquiry.
If you haven’t read those posts, we think you’ll get a better understanding of what’s going on in the electricity market if you do, so here are the links:
- Our response to the Victorian government’s Thwaites Review Part 1 and Part 2
- Why Australian energy prices keep going up (looking at the ACCC preliminary report)
- What the ACCC report has discovered about electricity pricing
- If you’re wondering how Victoria’s electricity prices stack up …
- How the ACCC inquiry into electricity prices is trying to help you
Is anything going to change?
We are optimistic that our leaders are highly motivated to find ways to put downward pressure on electricity prices, because there’s nothing else on the political and social agenda that’s more important to more Australians, and even the ongoing success of Australia as a first-world nation.
Of course, like everyone else, we wish there was a simple solution that could be implemented immediately, but the reality is that the cost of electricity didn’t go up overnight and it is likely to take even longer to reverse the effects of so many contributing factors.
Our best guess – because, right now, our guess is as good as anyone else’s – is that it will be at least 12 to 18 months before we see any significant legislation take effect, and perhaps another 12 to 18 months from there before most people start to get ‘cheaper’ electricity.
We’d love to be more optimistic, and we truly hope the timeline is much shorter, however the short-term goal simply has to be something achievable, which is putting the brakes on the seemingly constant increases in household bills.
Where does GloBird Energy fit in?
As we’ve explained previously, GloBird Energy was established with the belief that it was important to have small, local businesses (in all sectors) challenging the big, established corporate players.
To borrow the slogan of the old Australian Democrats, we think lean, hungry, motivated, and principled smaller players in any market are the best way to ‘keep the bastards honest’!
In the case of GloBird, that means keeping our overheads as low as possible, doing everything we can to be smarter about how we do things, and keeping our customers happy.
To do that, we try to keep everything as simple as possible – for you and us – from the time you first hear about us, through the sign-up process, in formulating and outlining just a handful of offers, with our billing, and especially with our customer service.
Here comes the ‘but’ ….
Unfortunately, the best of intentions doesn’t pay the bills.
The ongoing volatility of the energy market here in Victoria makes doing business in this sector very tricky … and that’s just to stay in business, before we can even consider ourselves successful.
It’s important that we remain viable and can continue to do what we set out to do – to provide Victorian consumers with the most competitive deals for their electricity (and, in 2018, gas) that we possibly can.
That means that we have no option but to pass on rising costs to our customers. Our margins remain as low as is practical (and responsible), so we simply can’t absorb any of the small increases that are constantly happening behind the scenes, let alone anything more substantial, such as a rise in the wholesale cost of electricity.
The annual review of regulated electricity prices sees prices rise in Victoria on January 1 each year (Tasmanian prices also change on January 1, while the other states make their changes in July), which means your next bill will be higher.
But we promise that we will continue to do our very best to offer the most competitive deals, and always put our customers first.