Brisbane news live: Regulator approves higher electricity charges in Queensland
Regulator approves higher electricity charges in Queensland
Homes and businesses across Queensland will pay more in their electricity bills to maintain and upgrade power lines after the state's network operators were cleared to raise the maximum revenue they can recoup from consumers.
The Australian Energy Regulator on Wednesday signed off on a 47 per cent increase in the revenue that south-east Queensland's network operator, Energex, can charge between 2025-30 due to higher inflation adding to the cost of delivering reliable and secure power supplies.
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Ergon Energy, spanning north, central and the rest of southern Queensland, will be able to recoup revenues 42 per cent higher than the previous five-year period.
For Queensland households, the increases would add about $48 a year to a typical power bill, the regulator said.
The state's small business customers, meanwhile, would pay an extra $97 a year on average.
Australian Energy Regulator chair Clare Savage said the final decisions sought to strike a balance between affordability and the investment needed to meet the long-term needs of consumers.
'Cost-of-living pressures and affordability concerns continue to be front of mind for households and small businesses,' she said.
'We have rigorously scrutinised both Energex and Ergon Energy's proposed expenditures to ensure consumers pay no more than necessary for a safe and reliable power supply, while enabling businesses to address important emerging issues such as network cybersecurity, mitigating the risks of the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and integration of consumer energy resources.'
7.20am
A sunny day to start May
This might be the last of the sunny days for Brisbane this week, with showers on the horizon and the city predicted to be fairly wet at the weekend.
But for today, a clear day is forecast, with a cool top of 25 degrees.
Here's a breakdown, with what to expect in the days ahead.
While you were sleeping
Here's what's making news further afield this morning:
Peter Dutton has led 'one of the worst election campaigns in living memory', political commentator Niki Savva writes today. 'If complacency wasn't responsible, it had to be stubbornness or incompetence. Maybe a combination of the three. Dutton lacked the desire, the strength, the confidence and the judgment to forge a path back to the centre after the debacle of the 2022 election.'
Accused triple killer Erin Patterson has admitted foraging for mushrooms, lying about having cancer, getting rid of a food dehydrator in panic and not telling police the truth after her elderly lunch guests fell critically ill.
President Donald Trump has acknowledged that his tariffs could result in fewer and costlier products in the US, saying American kids might 'have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,' but he insisted China will suffer more from his trade war.
Australian packaging magnate Anthony Pratt, whom Donald Trump once branded a 'red-haired weirdo', has pledged to invest billions of dollars in American manufacturing as he visits the US president at the White House.
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