Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW - AGL punishes low energy users

 

Thursday, 01 September 2011 11:32

JUST when you thought your electricity bill had gone up far enough, gas prices too have increased. This increase would have been somewhat easier to swallow at around four per cent, were it not for AGL changing their pricing structure for its retail customers.

AGL has decided that it’s more than reasonable to charge low consumption at a much higher rate than any of the higher consumption tiers.

They’ve increased the charge for the first 41.096 megajoules (MJ) per day by a staggering 41% while reducing the daily service charge by 17%.

Below is a breakdown of the old and new prices which took effect on 5 August.

AGL Gas Prices effective 5 August 2011

Gas usage	Old charges	New charges
First 41.096 MJ/day	1.9492 c/MJ	2.7401 c/MJ
Next 49.315 MJ/day	1.8667 c/MJ	1.6489 c/MJ
Next 189.041 MJ/day	1.8040 c/MJ	1.6258 c/MJ
Next 2,465.753 MJ/day	1.7479 c/MJ	1.6115 c/MJ
Next 10,964.384 MJ/day	1.7380 c/MJ	1.5224 c/MJ
Remaining balance	1.7325 c/MJ	1.3772 c/MJ
Service charge	57.409 c/day	47.498 c/day

An increase of less than one cent doesn’t sound like much, but it very quickly adds up. A household using 15,000MJ a year will now be paying nearly over $15 more on their quarterly bill, an increase of 12%. This level of consumption is below the average of 23,000MJ per household, according to IPART, and is the sort of level many single and couple resident households would use.

The consequences of this, of course, are that those who can least afford it – pensioners and other low-income earners – are being punished for consuming less energy than other households and put in even greater financial difficulty.

The price change also doesn’t make any sense from an environmental or efficiency perspective. By jacking up the price at the lower end, it rewards those who can afford to use more or waste energy.

What’s worse is that despite there being an energy price regulator, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), nothing can prevent AGL from making such a price structure change.

IPART regulates standard gas prices and by how much they can increase, but cannot regulate how retailers charge their customers.

So AGL is free to pump up the charge for initial consumption, which everyone has to pay, and reduce the charges for the rates that barely anyone uses.

CPSA has sought for IPART to be given the powers to regulate such pricing structure changes, but it’s thus far fallen on deaf ears. This would allow groups such as CPSA to put forward a case where prices are fairer to households that do not use much energy and are on low incomes. 

Sony MHC-EC709iP Mini Hi-Fi System purchase

Time to replace the old Teac stereo unit which is 30 years old with something more modern that can understand MP3 files – LOL 

Add high-quality audio to your bedroom, living room or office with this 360W Hi-Fi music system. You can play CDs, listen to the radio, or connect your compatible iPod or iPhone.

• Powerful 360 Watt (RMS) music system
• Two-way bass reflex speaker system
• DSGX Bass Boost Function and EQ control
• FM/AM Tuner with 30 Presets
• Single Disc CD Player; CD, CD-R/RW playback recorded in audio or MP3 file formats
• MP3 Playback
• Audio-in lets you easily connect MP3 players, PCs or other devices
• Works with iPhone, Made for iPod; charge, play and control.
• Flip-Down iPod And iPhone Dock
• Clock, Alarm And Sleep Timer
• Remote control is multifunctional, controlling CD player, AM/FM radio and iPod/iPhone playback.

ALDI: Men’s Professional Grooming Kit $19.99

• 5-in-1 men’s grooming kit includes: rechargeable shaver, large trimmer attachment for styling precision, nose/ear hair and eyebrow trimmer, 2 hair clipper attachments with 8 locking lengths for styling options

While browsing through ALDI today tossed this onto the trolley. Been trimming the beard for nearly fifty years with a pair of barbers scissors so thought why not give it a go, can always return no questions asked. After unpacking and putting the shopping away unpacked the package to have a quick look. It appears to be quite well made, flicked the switch on the shaver and the battery has charge so ET the wife (ex hairdresser) attached one of the clippers and gave it a test run around the lower part of my neck. No pulling no pain so that’s a good start! Instruction say to charge initially for 16 – 18 hours so doing that now.

More to come…

Chook run cleanup

Beautiful day so decided to rake out the hay from the main chook run and the adjoining annex area and replenish with cleaner hay that comes of the floors of the two storage sheds down at the horse agistment. We purchase 10 or 12 bails every few months and its surprising how much ends up on the floor which usually gets swept out and dumped. Now that we are retirees I find myself looking for ways to be a bit more thrifty so I bag the hay (empty horse feed bags) and bring it home for the chook run. The finer stuff contains a lot of grass seed, just throw it around where the grass is struggling to grow in the backyard and the chooks will come along and scratch it in and before long – green grass!

Raking out the two areas fills the green bin.

Garden is coming to life

A

First time for everything

Exciting day for us backyard chook lovers, our two Pekins decided to lay their first eggs – together!

Got home from tending the horses and doing a bit of shopping and as usual straight down to the chook run to let the girls out. Checked inside their shed and found a surprise in each box – eggs!

My last tax return

I retired in July 2010 and a couple of week ago we went to see the accountants with all the usual paperwork to do my last tax return. Arrived home today after tending to the horses and a bit of shopping and the first thing is to check the mail box. These days we don’t like to see anything in there but today was a pleasant surprise, a nice healthy cheque from the ATO!

So that’s it, for me personally no more tax returns  – hooray.

But wait…tax returns have not disappeared completely, we have our own SMSF that requires an annual tax return around Feb of each year. Never mind next time around the tax return will be very straight forward, no contributions or any other stuff just a pension paid out from monthly interest earned on a term deposit with a regional bank. I don’t think we will need an actuary report will will reduce costs even further.