Australia: Electricity Networks Propose Connection Fees for All Homes – Including Off-Gridders
September 28th, 2015The mask comes off.
Behold…
Via: SolarChoice:
Australia’s major power networks are calling for compulsory connection fees for all homes and businesses – even if they are not connected to the grid – and penalties for those who disconnect, as part of a last-ditch effort to protect their declining revenue streams.
The Energy Networks Association says the proposals are deliberately calibrated to stop people from leaving the grid, and thereby triggering what is often described as the “death spiral”, as networks seek to recover lost revenues from those consumers who remain.
The shift from centralised generation to a decentralised grid based around solar and storage is seen as inevitable, and many analysts say that networks will have to change the way they do business, or even write down the value of their assets.
But the networks are digging in, refusing to countenance write-downs, and now want consumers to pay for the networks whether they use them or not. Alternatively, they want any households that leave the grid to pay their “historic” share of grid capacity as a penalty for leaving.
Even though I don’t live in AU, this angers me because it can come to a town near you anywhere worldwide. I don’t know what I’d do…I’d unplug and absolutely refuse to pay.
Then I’d send the Electric Co. my grocery bill…because according to their logic, even though they’re not using my food, they should still pay for it.
Time for generating authorities to learn about scaling according to their customers’ needs instead of resorting to bullying and whining. Everything changes over time. Makers of buggy whips had to face the inevitable when cars became popular. Also recently Fox news ran a segment on how many people would die if the grid went down – well decentralized power would certainly mitigate this disaster would it not?