Energy and water

… Public Interest Advocacy Centre consumer advocate Craig Memery said distribution companies should have more portable batteries and petrol generators they can drop off to households that are severed from the grid. ‘It is possible for network businesses to provide temporary battery and generator systems that can meet people’s basic needs of keeping their fridges…

With energy bills rising, most of us take it for granted that we can switch to a different supplier with a better deal if there’s one available. However, some people don’t have this option because they live in a home within an ‘embedded network’. Instead, they’re locked into a deal that’s often more expensive, with…

In particular, the AEMC determined that TNSPs recovering their costs as incurred rather than as commissioned would mean that consumers were paying for transmission lines before they received the benefits of that new line in access to lower priced electricity. As PIAC identified, the rule change would increase intergenerational inequities, with today’s customers paying for the…

High-income earners who juggle school fees and mortgage repayments are among the growing number of people who rely on buy now, pay later credit to pay for essential bills, including food and energy. Research from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre found almost half (47 per cent) of more than 1000 Australian consumers used a credit…

Only a few years ago, Buy Now Pay Later was hailed as the ultimate in consumer credit innovation. The current reality is massive losses for the providers while cost-of-living pressures escalate and the most vulnerable consumers suffer most. Welfare groups are demanding regulation, David Gilchrist reports. … Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s Senior Policy Officer, Thea…

Consumer groups warn buy now, pay later (BNPL) providers will continue to exploit loopholes unless the federal government imposes stricter regulations to nip the next wave of credit products in the bud. As a cost of living crisis continues to bite, consumer groups say BNPL providers – like ASX-listed Zip and US-owned Afterpay – should…

A federal government plan to lower energy bills by capping the price of gas and coal has been attacked as a heavy-handed and “radical” move that puts at risk more investment beyond Senex Energy’s decision to pause its $1 billion expansion plan in Queensland. The comments come the day after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined…

Anthony Albanese has labelled the federal government’s $5bn spend on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project in New South Wales as one of the most significant announcements he will make as prime minister. On Wednesday Albanese and Dominic Perrottet formally announced the almost $8bn joint-funding deal with the NSW government on poles and wires to connect…

The Ballarat end of the contentious VNI West transmission line may be changing, after community feedback prompted Transgrid and the energy market operator to look at other options. The feedback around land use between Bendigo and Ballarat has forced the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and the transmission company to rethink a Western Renewables Link…

ABC NewsRadio’s Thomas Oriti spoke to senior energy advisor with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Craig Memery.

Program director Douglas McCloskey said the structural disadvantages people living in embedded networks faced would hit “particularly hard” if energy prices continued to rise. “People living in embedded networks should have a right to access the energy they need as affordably and fairly as everyone else,” he said.

Profiteering and bad behaviour would need to be reviewed in the wake of the energy crunch, according to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s Craig Memery. “I expect there will be big reviews over the next year that find some* generation businesses have been profiteering through bad behaviour in the #energycrisis. It’s particularly off when you…

Multibillion-dollar power companies are being accused by regulators of driving the power shortages striking the nation in order to receive more compensation payments.