We tried this caper of higher network service charges in Tasmania back in the mid-1990's and it didn't go well.
The arrangement was 96 cents per day fixed charge with unit consumption at 6.6 cents / kWh for general supply, 5.5 cents for heating (24/7 flat rate), 4.4 cents off-peak plus typically a 10% discount on the off-peak for those who could be bothered filling out the form.
Suffice to say it was a public relations disaster. Big time. Second only to the Gordon-below-Franklin dam in terms of things the Hydro has come up with that have provoked a degree of upset from the general community.
And so the Liberal government lost its majority at the next election and formed the only Liberal-Green government we've ever had.
Then the prices oversight commission was formed to review prices.
Then the whole system was scrapped and went back to lower fixed charges and higher unit rates. The industry responded in the only way that made sense with an extremely aggressive sales campaign to drive load up as high as possible thus keeping the unit price per kWh down despite having to recover fixed costs as part of it.
It made a lot of sense and was based on some very sound logic, foreseeing a future where literally anyone could generate power and access the network, but politically it became impossible and down here at least there are still quite a few bitter memories of that experience to this day.
It's an oddity really. People pay relatively large amounts, say $100 per month, in fixed fees for a smartphone and don't seem to have a problem with that. Few if any are paying per call and per unit of data without some sort of fixed charge. And yet ask people to pay just a third of that as a fixed charge for electricity and a war starts.
I'm
very sure that every electricity retailer in the country was watching closely what happened in Tas back in the 1990's and were glad they weren't the ones who tried it. Telstra wanted to do it with fixed home phones too but lost their nerve.
Electricity pricing is a problematic issue from a broader social perspective as well as the economic and environmental issues. That point is reinforced once you realise just how many bills are paid late or on some sort of payment plan. It's not 5% and it's not 10% - in some areas it's far higher than that (as in 50% or thereabouts). With the steep price rises in most mainland states that situation isn't going to improve.
Anyway, things aren't too bad here in Tassie:
For King and Flinders Islands electricity prices will increase 1.5% on 1 July.
For the rest of the state the following changes on 1 July:
Tariff 31 (general light & power) = fixed supply charge up 0.3%, energy charge per kWh down 0.6%
Tariff 41 (24 hours supply for heating and hot water) = fixed metering charge down 3.4%, energy charge per kWh up 7.0%
Tariff 61 (off-peak with afternoon boost period) = fixed metering charge down 5.8%, energy charge per kWh up 7.0%
Tariff 62 (off-peak night period only) = fixed metering charge down 10.0%, energy charge per kWh up 7.0%
Feed-in Tariff for small scale solar, hydro, wind etc systems = energy payment per kWh up 33.8%
There will be some print media advertising regarding the new prices over the next few days.