Surf Coast
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Friday, 29 November, 2013
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Ex-councillor does numbers to reveal power bills ‘rip-off’ By NOEL MURPHY ELECTRICITY retailers are ripping off local customers by refusing to detail consumer use or charge proper tariff rates, according to a former Surf Coast councillor. Ron Humphrey said more than 3600 regional complaints to the Energy Ombudsman – from 70,000 across the state – had failed to prompt improved behaviour among power companies, including detailed Smart Meter bills. “A large number of the complaints relate to the back-dating of bills to consumers due to the non-readiness of the retail electricity industry to be able to read the data provided to them by infrastructure companies that own and monitor the Smart Meters,” Mr Humphrey said. “This is due to the inadequacies of their software. Many retailer electricity providers’ software could not read the ancillary (hot water) meters of their customers, which led to backdated bills of up to a year.” Mr Humphrey claimed his retailer, Power Direct, had altered his “time of use” data, overstating his peak power use by more than 40 per cent and over-charging him more than $600 over three quarterly bills. Power Direct’s overcharging could affect another 4000 customers in the region, he said. “I’m just a two-person house. How much are families being overcharged a year?” Mr Humphrey called on State Government to “step in and act on the protections the public was promised when Smart Meters were rolled out”. “Unfortunately, there’s no simple way to read your time-of-use data because Smart Meters don’t allow it but energy retailers are obliged by law to provide that data.” Mr Humphrey urged power customers on time-of-use plans to ask for the power-usage spreadsheet, which shows time and energy consumed in half-hour increments. A Powercor spokesman said the company collected power-use data, which it forwarded to To Page 5 power retailers.
WAR’S OVER FOR LOCAL TROOPS - P3
ZAPPED: Ron Humphrey inspects his latest bills, with spreadsheets of billing information behind. 100960
Picture: REG RYAN
Generator bid as profit from ‘subsidy’ revealed
NEW MAYOR SENDS CITY GLOBAL - P5
New fear for Alcoa By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
NEW documents about Alcoa of Australia’s operations suggest its Point Henry smelter will close next year, according to the Greens. Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the documents showed Alcoa generated last financial year’s $100 million profit solely from a State Government power subsidy, due to end in seven months. “It’s pretty clear from these
documents that the whole of Alcoa’s profit comes from the Government’s energy subsidy,” Mr Barber said. “When that ends in July next year they’ll shut the smelter, sure as night follows day. Then all we’ll have left is a polluting power station. “It appears to me they’re getting ready to close the smelter and keep running the mine and power plant for profit.” The Independent revealed last year that Alcoa had confirmed its
Anglesea power station would remain operational even if the Point Henry smelter was closed. The smelter has been under a cloud since Alcoa announced an operational review of the facility. A state and federal government bailout kept the plant open, saving 600 jobs until mid2014. The Independent also reported in April that Alcoa was using hardship provisions to terminate a long-term multi-million dollar deal to buy electricity for its
Point Henry smelter from AGL. Alcoa applied for an electricity generation licence for supply or sale for its Anglesea power station when the company’s State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) agreement ends on 31 July 2014. In its application, the company told the Essential Services Commission it needed the generation licence because it was not covered under the SECV agreement. An Alcoa spokesperson said
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the licence application was to enable the Anglesea power station to continue generating and transmitting power to Point Henry. The spokesperson disputed that Alcoa’s profit was matched by a subsidy from state government. “It is incorrect to say Alcoa receives an energy subsidy from the state government through the SECV. Alcoa has a contract where the tariff increases and decreases in line with the world aluminium price.”
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