Aussie mum's $1,200 electricity bill shock sparks warning for millions: ‘Outrageous'

Yahoo

14 hours ago

A Queensland mum has shared her shock over an 'insane' $1,200 electricity bill her family are facing. Millions of Aussies are being warned to brace for higher electricity bills to hit their accounts, with household power bills set to rise by up to $228 in the coming weeks.
Rachel Green usually spends around $600 and $700 per quarter on power bills for her young family of four. While their winter bills have been known to creep up to $800 if they are using heaters in winter, the 32-year-old Gold Coast mum was stunned after seeing that her next bill was predicted to be $1,236.98.
'We have never had a bill this high, even through summer if we use the air conditioner,' Green told Yahoo Finance.
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Green has a newborn and a toddler, and said the extra heater the family was using could be contributing to the higher cost.
'We're heating one extra bedroom at the moment as we have a new baby, but we try to keep the heaters at around 18C and only use them at night,' Green said.
'We did receive an email from our provider saying they are putting up our power prices, so that could definitely be a factor.'Household power bills are set to rise from July 1, after energy regulators confirmed the final default market prices for the year.
In South East Queensland, where Green is based, prices are set to rise by $77 annually to $2,143. This is based on a residential property without a controlled load.
Wholesale costs (the price retailers pay to buy electricity from the energy market) and network costs (the price of transporting electricity) are two of the biggest contributors to the price increases.
While only a minority of customers are on default offers, energy retailers often adjust the rates of their popular plans in line with default prices. That means many households will see higher prices next month.
Households will get another round of the federal government's energy rebates from July 1, with two $75 rebates given each quarter until the end of the year.
Green found that her family normally used around 22.4 kWh of power in April or $8.90 a day.
In June, that jumped to 44.2 kWh or $16.22 a day.
Green said bills were one of her household's biggest expenses, after their mortgage.
'Interest rate cuts haven't improved the situation that much,' she said.
"We're paying about $10 less each week, which is great, but when everything else keeps going up, it really doesn't make that much of a difference if any. What we're saving in rates we're spending on other bills that keep going up.'
New research from Finder found nearly a third of Australian households experienced 'bill shock' when they received their most recent summer power bill.
On average, households spent $328 for their quarterly electricity bill in April. However, costs are expected to go up as things cool down.
Finder's latest analysis found it would cost $249 to run a heater on average this winter, with an electric heater costing $241 on average and a gas heater $301.
Finder energy expert Mariam Gabaji said electricity usage was up and it was hitting people in their hip pockets.
'Energy bills are increasingly becoming a source of financial stress for Australian households,' she told Yahoo Finance.
'Bill shock can take a huge financial toll and can quickly spiral out of control if they start to pile up.'
Gabaji said simple steps like adjusting the thermostat and reducing reliance on high-energy devices during peak periods could curb costs.
'Compare your electricity plan twice a year, so you're not unnecessarily giving providers your hard-earned cash,' she said.
Green said she was in the process of switching providers and had used the government's Energy Made Easy website to compare prices. Victorians can use Victorian Energy Compare.
She said this process helped her realise she was being "ripped off" and paying too much for her electricity.
'We're also now really rugging up so we don't have to run heaters as often,' she said.
'There are three blankets on each bed and the husband is sleeping in a beanie. But with overnights of 3 degrees in our area, we're still heating the kids' bedrooms at night.
'I feel a bit sad that in modern Australia, families are going without heat in their homes over winter because of the outrageous costs of power.'