Evoenergy price rise approved by regulator

The increase in network charges will see an increase of $241 a year for a typical household, while small businesses will have to fork out an additional $1476 on average.

Evoenergy estimates the price rise will be around $5 a week for the average consumer.

The price hike was first proposed by Evoenergy in early April, after the energy distributor said it was looking to increase network charges due to the ACT government's renewable energy policies.

It had previously said a 133 per cent increase in feed-in-tariff payments that it was required to make to large-scale wind and solar generators was partly to blame for the proposal.

Evoenergy general manager Peter Billing said the payments the company was required to make to generators had changed over time.

"Over the past year, there has been a significant drop in wholesale electricity prices making them much lower than the contract prices the ACT government established with large-scale generators," Mr Billing said.

"This has resulted in significant top-up payments required to cover the difference.

"We understand it can be confusing when wholesale prices are going down and these costs have gone up. The reality is these costs are fixed by contractors whereas the electricity market and the wholesale electricity price moves based on supply and demand."

Despite the price increase, the energy bill hike forecast by the regulator was less than what was initially proposed by Evoenergy in April.

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In its submission to the regulator, Evoenergy forecast electricity bills would rise by about $282 a year.

The price increase will only apply to network charges, which makes up 43 per cent of the total electricity bill.

Other costs such as wholesale costs and retail margins will not be impacted by the price rise.

In the decision published on its website, the Australian Energy Regulator said Evoenergy's proposal was consistent with national electricity rules.

"The jurisdictional scheme component of network tariffs is increasing as a result of increasing costs incurred by Evoenergy relating to large scale feed-in tariff schemes, as well as previously under-recovered revenue relating to these costs now being recovered by Evoenergy," the decision said.

"The jurisdictional scheme increases are the primary driver of total increases."

The regulator said it had paid close attention to electricity consumption forecasts in the ACT given the impact of COVID-19.

Mr Billing said the energy distributor had no control over long-term contactors with renewable energy generators.

"However, we will continue to work with the ACT government as part of our legislated responsibility to administer the large-scale feed-in tariff scheme," he said.

"We know an increase in electricity costs will be difficult for many people, especially for those already doing it tough.

"I strongly encourage anyone having trouble paying their bill to contact their energy retailer to seek assistance."

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