Reply to Senator Canavan opinion

To the Editor,

The sooner Australia has a federal ICAC or similar the better. Hopefully it would make politicians like Senator Canavan think carefully before wasting taxpayers’ money spreading fake news and deliberate distortions such as those posted under his name last week in “Gladstone Today”.

Senator Canavan equated high power prices with high uptake of renewables. A quick search online revealed very different reasons for the high prices. The price of fuel for renewables (sun, wind and rain) has not changed from zero since humans first used them. The price of electricity has been distorted up and sometimes down by other factors strangely missed by the Senator. Perhaps he hasn’t heard of the war in Ukraine.

E.g. in Denmark, the biggest cause of expensive electricity bills is a six-fold increase in fossil fuel gas prices over the last six years.  If the renewable grid had been completed before the war the Danes would be laughing all the way to the bank.

The reason that Hungary, a heavy fossil fuel user, has low household electricity costs, is that household electricity has a heavily subsidised, government-imposed price cap.

Spain has high electricity prices, not because of renewables, but because it has so many extra taxes on electricity after it is generated, e.g. VAT of 21%, electricity production tax of 7%, IEE (special tax on electricity) of 5.113%.  Other taxes on power are an Access Tariff, a retailers margin, and a metering equipment rental.  No wonder they’re paying through the nose for power.

If you examine all the other countries on Senator Canavan’s graph, which uses information from British Petroleum (BP), you will find all sorts of factors other than renewables affecting electricity prices.

If Senator Canavan wants to make an honest comparison of power prices from various sources he should obtain each of their LCOEs (Levelised Cost of Energy) before writing outright rubbish for publication. He is an elected member of the Australian Senate and the public should be able to trust what he says.

Hugh Bridge