{"id":19318,"date":"2018-02-27T16:25:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T05:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=19318"},"modified":"2020-05-21T14:21:10","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T03:51:10","slug":"electricity-prices-australia-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/electricity-prices-australia-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Now Has The Most Affordable Electricity. Adelaide The Most Expensive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Electricity<\/p>\n

In May last year I investigated what the total cost of electricity was for a typical household in Australia’s states and territories.\u00a0 I found that rather than South Australia having the most expensive electricity, as the Coalition claimed, once the effects of fixed charges and controlled loads for hot water were taken into account, it was the second cheapest state<\/a> for household electricity.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, South Australia has suffered a huge rise in electricity prices since then, so I decided to check what typical households are now paying for grid electricity across the country.<\/p>\n

I’d like to keep you in suspense about who pays the highest total cost of electricity until the end of the article, but as you’ve probably read the title it’s a bit late for that.\u00a0 Besides, it’s possible a politician will read this and it’s a miracle if they ever read past the introduction, or executive summary as they call it.<\/p>\n

To quickly sum up the results, as far as the average punter is concerned, Adelaide has clearly shifted to worst place while Sydney’s electricity is now the most affordable in the country, despite price rises in the middle of last year.<\/p>\n

Benchmarks For Household Electricity Consumption<\/h2>\n

When I looked into this 10 months ago I wasn’t happy with how out of date the information I had on household electricity consumption was.\u00a0 Fortunately, I now have a report published in October 2017 for the Australian Electricity Regulator<\/a> on household energy benchmarks<\/a>.\u00a0 This report gives the figures put on electricity bills so people can compare their consumption to the average in their area.\u00a0 This made it easy for me to compare electricity consumption between states — or it would have if the report hadn’t transcended outmoded concepts such as “states” and given the information by climate region instead.<\/p>\n

I suppose I could have gone through the report and organized the information on a state by state basis, but quite frankly I have better things to do with my time.\u00a0 I really do — honest!\u00a0 I have a library book and I’m not afraid to read it!1<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 Fortunately, I can extract information for state and territory capitals and I am happy with using that.<\/p>\n

Household Electricity Consumption Is Declining<\/h2>\n

I like having more up to date information because household grid electricity consumption changes over time.\u00a0 For example it keeps declining, as this graph from the report shows:<\/p>\n

\"Falling<\/p>\n

As you can see, household electricity consumption (and it is household<\/em> electricity consumption despite it not being clear in the title) has fallen in every state shown.\u00a0 The Northern Territory is a weird outlier, but it’s not a state and should have become one if it wanted me to be concerned about its electricity consumption2<\/a><\/sup>.\u00a0 The reason why household grid electricity use is declining is due to increasing uptake of rooftop solar power systems<\/a> and improved efficiency, both largely driven by increasing electricity prices.<\/p>\n

Household Size<\/h2>\n

While the average Australian household size is 2.6, the typical household size is 2 people on account of how the police have a tendency to investigate any situation involving only 60% of a person.\u00a0 Here is a graph from the report showing a breakdown of household sizes in case you don’t believe me:<\/p>\n

\"Household<\/p>\n

As you can see, the most common household size in every state and territory is two.<\/p>\n

Calculating The Total Cost Of Grid Electricity<\/h2>\n

It’s possible to work out the total cost of electricity for typical 2 person households in the various capitals by looking at their:<\/p>\n