"As Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and his senior ministers continue their campaign to vilify rooftop solar, a new report has thrown further light on the real reason behind the massive increases in electricity bills in recent years – the huge increase in money pocketed from the network providers by the state government.A report prepared for the Queensland CaneGrowers association by Melbourne-based energy consultancy CME says receipts pocketed by the state government from its network operators has more than doubled each year – from $47 million in 2007/8 to $970 million in 2011/12 – and this has been paid for by the consumers.
The report is damming in its assessment of these returns, saying that it was sourced from a combination of $26 billion in network investment (some of which was not needed); an inflated regulated return on that investment; and from asset revaluations – an accounting exercise that has allowed the network to charge consumers more for the assets they own.
“Almost all of the increase in retail electricity prices in the period from 2007 to 2012 has been due to rising network charges,” the CME report finds. “(And) the large increase in retail electricity prices between 2007/8 and 2011/12 has delivered an even larger increase in pecuniary benefits to the Queensland Government.” "
