Power bill reforms risk backfiring if they lean on higher fixed charges instead of rewarding households for using energy at the right time, Rewiring Australia said today.
Welcoming new modelling on network pricing, CEO Francis Vierboom said Australia's electricity system must catch up with how Australians now generate and use power. "The old system charged you for how much electricity you used. The new system needs to reward you for when you use it.
"A battery that charges on midday solar and powers the evening peak is doing real work for the grid. An EV that charges when the sun is shining is saving everyone money. That's the behaviour we need to reward - and that's what dynamic pricing does." The AEMC's modelling shows getting this right could save households billions over time, on top of savings already being enjoyed from cheaper renewable generation.
Mr Vierboom said the risk was getting the design wrong.
"If reform leans too heavily on higher fixed charges, it will weaken the incentive for households to invest in solar, batteries and EVs which are the very technologies which make the grid cheaper to run.
"We're putting more batteries and electrification into homes than ever before. We now need pricing that lets those assets do their job - cutting bills and avoiding unnecessary spending on poles and wires.
Cheaper Home Batteries is delivering an enormous asset to the nation, and the batteries inside EVs will multiply that opportunity.
"If we electrify everything, we need it to work with the grid. 'Ask not what the country can do for your battery - ask what your battery can do for your country.'" Mr Vierboom said.
Rewiring Australia has proposed recovering residual network costs in a way that better reflects the property being connected rather than flatly across every account.
"If we get the balance right, this is how we deliver a cheaper, cleaner and more reliable grid for everyone," Mr Vierboom said.
