Electricity prices to remain steady

Aurora Energy has today welcomed the Tasmanian Economic Regulator’s announcement that prices will marginally increase for both residential and small business customers for 2024-25.

On average prices will increase by 0.5 per cent, primarily driven by an uplift in network prices under TasNetworks’ new 2024-2029 price determination and offset by a reduction in the regulated wholesale energy costs.

This very slight increase is on top of Tasmania being recognised in 2023-24 as having the lowest regulated prices in the National Electricity Market.

CEO Nigel Clark said while the slight increase was welcome, he acknowledged the difficulty already being felt by customers and wanted to reassure that Aurora Energy was here to help.

“Tasmanians have had a challenging few years, so we’re pleased to pass on what are only very small increases to our residential and small business customers,” Mr Clark said.

“But as Tasmanians ourselves, we understand the difficulty already being felt by Tassie homes and businesses. I want to assure the community that we have support to help Tasmanians doing it tough.”

Aurora Energy is working alongside the State Government to deliver its Supercharged Renewable Energy Dividend, which will provide $250 in financial assistance to every Tasmanian household and $300 to all eligible small businesses from 1 July 2024.

The Australian Federal Government has also committed that from 1 July 2024, all households will see a $300 credit automatically applied to their electricity bills, while small businesses will be given $325.

In addition, up to 100,000 customers will receive payments as part of the Energy Bill Relief Fund. This targeted bill relief includes an expanded cohort of welfare recipients and is in addition to existing energy concessions that are some of the most generous anywhere in the country.

“Subtracting the rebates, customers will actually pay significantly less for electricity than they did last year, and it’s even lower for those on a concession. This is good news for Tasmanians in regards to the affordability of electricity,” Mr Clark said.

Other support includes payment extensions, payment plans and relief through the Your Energy Support (YES) program, which provides tailored aid for customers in hardship.

aurora+ is also available at no additional cost to enable all Tasmanians to better understand and control usage to help keep energy costs down. The digital channel is enabled by the continuing investment Aurora Energy is making in rolling out smart meter infrastructure across Tasmania.

“As Tasmania’s 100 per cent owned and operated energy retailer, we encourage any customer who may be struggling to keep on top of their energy bill and are in need of support to get in contact. The sooner they get in touch, the sooner we can help,” Mr Clark said.

“We get Tasmanians. We are fully based here as a business and all of our financial returns remain within the state and don’t flow back to foreign owned entities.”

The Regulator also announced the Feed-in Tariff rate for customers with solar installations will decrease to 8.782c/kWh due to the reduction in the wholesale electricity price for 2024-25.

Any customers that need an extra hand are encouraged to contact Aurora’s YES Team (Monday to Friday from 9am-4.30pm) on 1300 10 2010.