I have just decided that Origin Energy really can go fuck themselves - I am not paying anything any more.
I am so fucking tired of dumb cunts who give shit service and ....
If I was to be paid a comparable hourly wage for dealing with them and their bullshit for all the fucking around they have caused me.... as say one of their idiot managers would be paid...
I think they would be into me for about five or six thousand dollars...
I don't want to be involved with them any more - even paying down the debt that I technically do owe, less the amount that they refuse to acknowledge which I incurred to keep my place running when they disconnected me without notice, complete with a refusal to supply meter readings and receipts....
To go back a long way.... On the railways.
I am now in one of those spaces - many years ago I was absolutely fucked - dead tired, and there is a procedure that they park the country trains at the city station and they do not allow people to board, until the hauling locomotive has changed ends or been hooked up - as the occasional jolt, from the coupling, can cause people who are standing and unsteady on their feet, to lose balance and fall over...
But there are no decent seats on the platform and if your dead tired the train seats are a good option, considering that the carriages will sit there for like 30 minutes to an hour before departure....
And the charade is to make all the passengers stand around on the platform - for all that time, until the locomotive is hooked up, and if any people do decide to get on the carriages and conk out - the ticket punchers go through the trains telling people to get off....
Like they can't do something really smart like let people on and then announce "The locomotive is about to couple up to the train, this can occassionally shake the carriages, please take a seat or remain seated for the next minute."
No because that is too much like growing a brain...
In my need to conk out and find find a sitting up bed... on the train I was taking anyway but wasn't leaving for another 3/4 of an hour etc... I climbed on board and took a seat.
Soon after a guy came onboard and he sat next to me on the other side of the aisle - and he had thin blood spotted bandages around his head and stainless steel sockets screwed into his skull....
He had obviously been recently operated on and to put it bluntly - he looked fucked - as in exhausted in every sense possible sense of the word and he NEEDED to be seated....
We got to talking, and it turns out that he has just come out of hospital, for his third round of surgery to remove some brain tumors - that had regrown... he said, "If they grow back a 4th time, he will just die.... it's just too hard and too much to go through it all again."....
And we talked on for a while and then the fucking brainless ticket nazi came through and told us to get off the train and stand on the platform - for however long it was going to take until they hooked up the loco....
And this guy with his stainless steel surgical steel implants poking out of his head and blood spotted bandages wrapped around the rest, he looks at the dumb fuck ticket nazi and says, "No. I won't."
The moron ticket nazi then starts reciting, "Oh well the rule book says, blah blah blah...."
And so the guy looks at the ticket nazi and shouts, "Fuck Off." at them.
And away the ticket nazi scuttles...... never to return.
I have always admired that person.....
I guess I am now at that point in my life where I am no longer prepared to entertain officious fuckwits, - the little moron ticket nazis of life.
One of the most irritating things the managers of Origin Energy get up too - amongst all the other really irritating things they get up too, is how they address their emails - which makes it look like they are a statutory authority, instead of dumb cunts with a generator, on one end of the wire and a meter on the other......
Note the term "Ombudsman Team Leader" - prefacing "Customer Relations Team" - which comes before the word "Origin".
Origin
Origin
Funny how they don't use these words in this layout.
That duplicitious use of titles in a way that makes it appear as if they are from the ombudsmans office...
It's just pure manipulative sleaze.
They are so fucking slack...
They have cost me so much... that I just refuse to pay them anything, any more.
Their new corporate logo should be:
That being said, just phone "The Power Shop" and transfer your account over to them. and pay up for the renewable power - because the arseholes running Origin are plugging coal and fracking for all that it's worth....
Go buy this book on their Fracking activities in Australia:
The Powershop 1800 462 668 - Free call between 8am – 7pm Monday to Friday.
Just call them, transfer your account over and don't even bother contacting Origin Energy ever again......
Be free of them.
The people running Origin are doing everything that they can to fuck up the renewables.
Fucking up the renewable power generation and fucking up the people who buy it and fucking up the people who stick it on their homes, business's and farms.
Get your solar panels, battery banks and wind generators up - and while I do love Tony Abbot and his greedy sleazy unethical compatriots - I think what they are doing has some good features, but I kind of like the everyone can make their own power and the decentralised distribution method .
This bullshit about "Oh Abbott and his cronie$ fucking up the renewable schemes etc., so therefore it's fucked - that is all crap.
The solution is simple - just keep right on by passing the pricks, and keep right on closing your accounts with them.
Stop feeding them and they starve and die.
Fill your back yard up with solar panels and sell the power directly to the neighbours at 50% of the price that Origin charges, which is still 2 X as much as what Origin pays you when you sell it back to them....
If you can put up say 20Kw of panels - that is 5Kw for 4 houses.....
Here is a good place.
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/
You don't have to go out and buy a big 5000W system... you can build up and self install small 240W systems and if you want, then you can combine them.
See you can buy / install a 240W system (safely) without commercial licencing and testing etc... and that will do a chest freezer set up as a fridge.
Then you can get another 240W kit for your lighting, and ventilation.
Then you can use polypipe coils to heat your place in winter, your hot water and an evaporative cooler in the summer....
Another 240W unit will take care of that - and a laptop etc....
And if your renting - you can make the systems portable - like 240W of power for like say $800 - that is the panel, the charge controller, the batteries, the inverter and some wiring etc., for the next 30 years plus... paid off in 3 to 5 years...
And if your own your own home, you can build lots of 240W systems and when you have enough generation capacity - you can get them commercially installed into ONE big system - but 240W will start to cut chunks out of your power bills, and the more you install the lower the bills and the faster you can pay them off and the more you can spend on more 240W systems....
I am not saying this is THE system but if funds are tight, you can buy and build a small system that will run a small chest freezer, as a refrigerator - with a simple timer switch - and run it only in 15 minute increments every 2 hours etc... during the main part of the day...
It will charge up and keep a laptop running - and it will keep a small fan going, and a 10W 12V pump to run hot water inside from a coiled Poly pipe solar heater...
It's no wall wide plasma screen feeding demon with a 200 litre fridge and 10 lights on in 10 rooms power trip - but it's a good system for a very frugal grid free life...
And you can add to it.....
Some of the bits in this are pretty damned good and worth their asking price....
But you can get less efficient and way cheaper inverters for a lot less... And you can use things like cheap or used car batteries etc..... if your really struggling to get by.
And there is always Ebay etc., for the more basicer stuff....
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/Solar-Panel-200W-Monocrystalline-12V
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/Solar-Panel-200W-Monocrystalline
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/12v,24V-30Amps-Solar-Regulator
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/Batteries/AGM-BATTERY-105
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/Pure-Sine-Inverter-150W
But you can get some cabling, fuses, battery clips, battery box, etc., etc., etc., and for like $800 you can you can get a GOOD quality system that will supply enough to run a very frugal life style - if you use most of the power during the day light hours....
But in winter time when the sun is low and it's cloudy for days, that is where you go and buy a second panel and hook that up......
Come spring, summer, and autumn, you now have a 400+ watt system....
And if you go and spend $100 a month - or say $250 a month, on your cutsey solar system/s - your mains power consumption will drop - leaving you MORE cash to spend on the solar and the more solar you buy, the less mains power you need etc...
If your struggling to make ends meet - there is a middle way between ALL or NOTHING - the big payout or no solar power... and that is solar power in small steps....
You see, in selling off our national assets - the global bankers and their "privatised" corporations are fucking us in the arse, with everything they have got, in every way they can, until we shit blood.
And this can be your way of saying "Fuck Off" to the coal burning criminals with the outrageous power supply bills.
https://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/8/26/energy-markets/retailers-hardship-policies-failing-report
Victoria’s peak body for financial counsellors says energy retailers are failing low income and financially vulnerable customers struggling to pay their bills.
In its Rank the Energy Retailer report, based on a survey of over 100 financial counsellors, the Financial and Consumer Rights Council said the unrealistic payment plans and "less than acceptable" debt collection practices were unfair and exacerbating financial hardship.
The report said Victoria experiences over 40,000 electricity and gas disconnections annually; about 800 households per week.
"With energy prices continuing to rise, the alarming trend of disconnections in Victoria will continue unless immediate action is taken," the council said.
FCRC executive director Peter Gartlan said Financial counsellors were witnessing first-hand the failure of retailer hardship practices on a daily basis.
“What they are telling us is that poor internal processes and lack of staff training make it extremely difficult for customers and financial counsellors to access and communicate effectively with hardship teams," he said.
Overall, financial counsellors ranked Origin Energy as the current industry leader in handling customer financial hardship issues, followed by AGL then EnergyAustralia.
As with the ‘big three’, second and third tier energy retailers ranked poorly across all measures, FCRC said, with a small margin between best and worst performers.
Of the second tier retailers, Lumo Energy achieved the highest overall rating and Australian Power & Gas the lowest.
“It’s time for the State Government, regulator and energy retailers to commit to making the necessary changes that are urgently needed to improve hardship practices and better support those in financial difficulty,” Mr Gartlan said.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/tony-abbott-still-determined-to-kill-renewable-energy-target-31138
Tony Abbott’s Renewable Energy Target review panel appears destined to do what it was created to do – to recommend closure of Australia’s last significant climate and clean energy scheme to new entrants.
The Australian Financial Review, in a front page report, on Monday confirmed the worst fears of the renewable energy industry when it said that the panel had been “instructed” by Tony Abbott to look at ways for the scheme to be folded.
This is shocking news, because it will bring to an end a $20 billion industry, and cost thousands of jobs, and force household and business bills to soar. It was immediately branded as a “reckless” idea, and as “economic vandalism” by the Clean Energy Council.
But it should not be surprising news. The intent of the Abbott government towards renewables was made clear by its refusal – despite a statutory requirement to do so – to commission the Climate Change Authority to conduct the review.
Instead, it appointed a panel composed of climate skeptics, pro-nuclear advocates and fossil fuel lobbyists. The biggest beneficiaries of a decision to close the scheme to new entrants will be the fossil fuel generators, who according to new analysis released on Monday, will see their earnings boosted by up to $10 billion – the big three retailers, AGL Energy, Origin Energy and EnergyAustralia, being the biggest beneficiaries.
And such a decision will satisfy the right-wing ideologues and deep-lined antipathy to renewable energy within the Abbott government, and its determination to kill the remnants of the Labor/Greens “Clean Energy Future” package. The AFR also repeats what has long been suspected, that Environment Minister Greg Hunt – and Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane – have been effectively sidelined from the process, despite the issue crossing into their portfolios.
The PM’s office has had carriage of the project since the start, and his intentions have long been clear. The secretarial support has been housed within Abbott’s office – and within reach of his principal business advisors – including climate denier and renewables opponent Maurice Newman, and Abbott’s own energy advisor, former AGL executive Sarah McNamara.
The AFR suggests that Joe Hockey – who says he finds wind turbines “utterly offensive”, and another noted anti-renewables finance minister Mathias Cormann, are also having a large say in proceedings. Hunt, who has constantly vaunted his ability to influence the outcome, is said by the AFR to be “unhappy”.
But government insiders who have worked on the RET Review have told RenewEconomy that the intent of the review has always been to cut the current 41,000GWh target to a maximum of 25,000GWh (what might be called a “true” 20 per cent target), and possibly close it to new entrants altogether.
The tenor of the “consultations” also confirmed this view. The panel members, Dick Warburton and Shirley In’T Veld, the former head of coal generator Verve Energy, have made their climate skeptic views very clear. Economic rationalist Brian Fisher, who has done extensive modeling for parties opposed to the RET, has also not hidden his opposition to the mechanism.
There were glimmers of hope that the RET could be retained, particularly when the panel’s own modeling dismissed the two major arguments to drop the target – that the target could not be physically met, and that it would be costly to consumers. The ACIL Allen report said there would be no issue meeting the 41,000GWh target, if the policy intent was made clear and soon, and that even based on its own conservative inputs, consumers would be better off in the long term from having more renewables in the grid.
Instead, the new argument was based around a “transfer of wealth” from the generators to consumers. But even then, the report is believed to have favoured a “scaling back” of the target to 25,000GWh or 27,000GHW – a position said to be favoured by Hunt.
The irony is that even though the panel members appeared firmly opposed to the RET, they still recommended that it should be kept – even if scaled back. This, insiders say, was not good enough for Abbott’s hard core insiders, who insisted it must go.
The report by Jacobs, on behalf of The Climate Institute, Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF-Australia says that the biggest beneficiaries to dumping the RET would be the fossil fuel generators. The Jacobs report suggested $8 billion in additional profits to coal-fired generators out to 2030 and an extra $2 billion to gas generators.
AGL Energy – presuming it completes the purchase of Macquarie Generation’s 4.6GW of coal generators in NSW – would pocket an extra $2.7 billion, EnergyAustralia would an extra $2 billion boost and Origin Energy a $1 billion boost. All three companies have been active in their opposition to the RET, and to subsidies for small-scale solar in particular.
Although, the RET Review panel was not due to deliver its final report to Abbott’s office until later July, it was always going to “consult” with draft findings before that delivery. That is when the RET Review panel was instructed to “look more closely” – as the AFR puts it – on the option to close the target to any new entrants, and possibly to await the result of Australian Energy Market Operator estimates which showed no new capacity is needed on the eastern states grid for at least another 10 years. The fossil fuel generators, who are largely responsible for that excess capacity, fear that more renewables means more early closures for ageing coal plants.
Whether the Abbott government finally agrees with a scale backed target or an effective closure, any changes seem likely to be blocked in the Senate, where the Palmer United Party has promised to side with Labor and the Greens.
But it matters not. The large-scale renewable energy industry has already ground to a halt. No new projects have reached financial closure since the election of the Abbott government, and the Abbott government knows that even by doing nothing – apart from allowing continued uncertainty – no new projects will come to market.
Households will also be affected. Through rooftop solar, they have so far contributed more than $12 billion of the $18 billion invested in renewables over recent years, initially driven by generous feed in tariffs and then as a hedge against rising electricity prices once those tariffs were removed.
The government, though, can remove some of those remaining incentives that defray the upfront cost of the system, without needing legislative changes. Industry experts say that could cause the rooftop solar market to fall by one-third or even a half, with the loss of thousands of jobs.
Meanwhile, state governments – with huge vested interests in state-owned networks and generators – continue to act against renewables. The WA government is even canvassing importing coal from Indonesia rather than develop renewable energy projects at home, while in Queensland, businesses have been hit by a whopping $500-a-day service charge (essentially to read the meter) to dissuade them from installing solar.
The renewable energy industry – which possibly unwisely sought to negotiate a “compromise deal” with the big three utilities in 2013 – said a move to halt the target would be “devastating” to the industry.
“Such a move would be reckless, given the government’s own analysis shows slashing the RET would save no money on power bills, yet would devastate billions of dollars of investments made in good faith in renewable energy projects across the country,” acting CEO Kane Thornton said.
“Hundreds of Australian and international investors have built their businesses based on the strong bipartisanship of this policy which has existed in legislation since 2001.
“Tearing up this bipartisanship, and the policy itself, would show that the Australian energy sector is clearly not open for business – it would stop industry dead and smash investments that have already been made.”
Indeed, some international groups such as US solar developer Recurrent Energy have already packed up. Others, including Goldwind and Trina, have warned of the potential fallout, while Australian groups Pacific Hydro and Infigen Energy are directing their efforts overseas.
The Australian Solar Council echoed the CEC remarks. It is taking its “Save Solar” campaign to marginal electorates, with the first stop at the northern Brisbane seat of Petrie, held by the LNP’s Luke Howarth, in Thursday this week. The ability to make solar a potent political issue – many marginal electorates boast more than 20 per cent solar penetration – appears to be their last resort.
“Solar saves money, creates jobs and shifts votes. The Abbott Government is about to find out how much Australians love solar and the Renewable Energy Target,” CEO John Grimes said.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/8/18/policy-politics/agl-origin-and-energyaustralias-shame-self-interest
AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia’s 'shame' of self-interest
In any horse race, son, always back the horse called self-interest.
– NSW Premier Jack Lang advising a young Paul Keating
The big three energy retailers – AGL, Origin Energy and Energy Australia – as well as power retailer Simply Energy and its power generator owner, GDF Suez, are being targeted by a shame campaign from a combination of environmental advocacy groups because of their attempts to have the Renewable Energy Target reduced.
Greenpeace and the Total Environment Centre are taking a mass-market approach of communicating direct to the general public about who’s naughty and nice in the power sector in terms of their investment and lobbying position on renewable energy.
Meanwhile, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Climate Institute, and WWF have taken the more cerebral tack of commissioning economic analysis illustrating that it is self-interest, not concern for consumers, that lies behind power companies’ attacks on the RET.
Greenpeace’s Green Electricity Guide ranks all the Australian power retailers placing; Powershop number one in the nice category. They are active only in Victoria at present and owned by Meridian Energy, a major New Zealand utility and developer of Australian renewable energy projects such as Macarthur Wind Farm.
For those outside Victoria, the niche green energy specialist retailer Diamond Energy gets top billing (active in Queensland, NSW, South Australia as well as Victoria). For Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia there is no choice of power retailer.
Another retailer receiving high marks is Click Energy, which is highly focused on the solar market having nabbed Dominic Drenen, who used to head up Origin’s solar division when it was the largest solar retailer in the country.
In terms of who’s naughty, Simply Energy heads the list – owned by GDF Suez, which also owns Hazelwood and Loy Yang B brown coal fired power stations. Simply is then followed by EnergyAustralia and Origin.
AGL manages to separate itself several rungs down the naughty list yet, in the end, Greenpeace has chosen to lump it in with EnergyAustralia and Origin, labeling them as the 'Dirty Three' in the report it has released documenting these companies’ track record on renewable energy.
The intention of this work is clearly to encourage consumers with an environmental conscience to switch away from these retailers and towards those more focused on renewable energy. This is being done in conjunction with a campaign by GetUp!
Now, of course, these companies aren’t trying to kill-off the RET because they are evil nor because they possess some incredibly altruistic concern for the welfare of their customers. As Michael Corleone explained in the classic movie The Godfather, “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business” – in the end it all comes down to economics.
Energy market modelling by engineering firm Jacobs-SKM illustrates that the ‘Dirty Three’ plus Simply Energy’s GDF Suez would see a multi-billion pay-off if they can manage to persuade the government to reduce the large-scale RET from 41,000 gigawatt-hours of energy down to 27,000 GWh (what has been termed a 'real 20 per cent' renewable energy market share target).
This would increase their profits through reducing competition faced by the fossil fuel generators they own – thereby increasing power prices and, in several cases, also increasing sales volumes.
That chart below details the net present value of increased profits the major power companies would capture from either freezing the scheme (termed 'abolished') or reducing it to a 'real 20 per cent'. AGL is the biggest beneficiary to the tune of more than $2.5 billion once you take into account its acquisition of Macquarie Generation. Energy Australia gains around $2 billion, GDF Suez about $1.7 billion and Origin about $1.5 billion.
One of the main reasons behind this gain in profits is that power prices in the wholesale electricity market will rise. This then acts to offset savings households might gain from reduced subsidies to renewable energy. The chart below illustrates that with the exception of one year (2017), households are expected to pay slightly more overall per megawatt-hour of electricity as a result of cutting the target. This finding by Jacobs-SKM echoes findings from other well-known energy market analysts such as ROAM Consulting, Intelligent Energy Systems and ACIL-Allen.
Of course, the key consequence of reducing the RET will be increased power production and carbon emissions from fossil fuel generators. According to Jacobs-SKM an extra 154 million tonnes of CO2 will be emitted to 2030 if the scheme were scaled back to a real 20 per cent.
Using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s attempts to monetise the damage suffered by society from global warming, the Climate Institute estimates the power companies’ extra profits will leave a damage bill for everyone else of $14 billion out to 2040. A breakdown on which power stations will see the biggest increase in emissions, and their associated damage bill, is illustrated below with Origin’s Eraring power station topping the list.
However, with so much focus on electricity price effects, one suspects this vital component of the cost-benefit analysis of the RET may be missing from the final Warburton review.
If I was to be paid a comparable hourly wage for dealing with them and their bullshit for all the fucking around they have caused me.... as say one of their idiot managers would be paid...
I think they would be into me for about five or six thousand dollars...
I don't want to be involved with them any more - even paying down the debt that I technically do owe, less the amount that they refuse to acknowledge which I incurred to keep my place running when they disconnected me without notice, complete with a refusal to supply meter readings and receipts....
To go back a long way.... On the railways.
I am now in one of those spaces - many years ago I was absolutely fucked - dead tired, and there is a procedure that they park the country trains at the city station and they do not allow people to board, until the hauling locomotive has changed ends or been hooked up - as the occasional jolt, from the coupling, can cause people who are standing and unsteady on their feet, to lose balance and fall over...
But there are no decent seats on the platform and if your dead tired the train seats are a good option, considering that the carriages will sit there for like 30 minutes to an hour before departure....
And the charade is to make all the passengers stand around on the platform - for all that time, until the locomotive is hooked up, and if any people do decide to get on the carriages and conk out - the ticket punchers go through the trains telling people to get off....
Like they can't do something really smart like let people on and then announce "The locomotive is about to couple up to the train, this can occassionally shake the carriages, please take a seat or remain seated for the next minute."
No because that is too much like growing a brain...
In my need to conk out and find find a sitting up bed... on the train I was taking anyway but wasn't leaving for another 3/4 of an hour etc... I climbed on board and took a seat.
Soon after a guy came onboard and he sat next to me on the other side of the aisle - and he had thin blood spotted bandages around his head and stainless steel sockets screwed into his skull....
He had obviously been recently operated on and to put it bluntly - he looked fucked - as in exhausted in every sense possible sense of the word and he NEEDED to be seated....
We got to talking, and it turns out that he has just come out of hospital, for his third round of surgery to remove some brain tumors - that had regrown... he said, "If they grow back a 4th time, he will just die.... it's just too hard and too much to go through it all again."....
And we talked on for a while and then the fucking brainless ticket nazi came through and told us to get off the train and stand on the platform - for however long it was going to take until they hooked up the loco....
And this guy with his stainless steel surgical steel implants poking out of his head and blood spotted bandages wrapped around the rest, he looks at the dumb fuck ticket nazi and says, "No. I won't."
The moron ticket nazi then starts reciting, "Oh well the rule book says, blah blah blah...."
And so the guy looks at the ticket nazi and shouts, "Fuck Off." at them.
And away the ticket nazi scuttles...... never to return.
I have always admired that person.....
I guess I am now at that point in my life where I am no longer prepared to entertain officious fuckwits, - the little moron ticket nazis of life.
One of the most irritating things the managers of Origin Energy get up too - amongst all the other really irritating things they get up too, is how they address their emails - which makes it look like they are a statutory authority, instead of dumb cunts with a generator, on one end of the wire and a meter on the other......
Note the term "Ombudsman Team Leader" - prefacing "Customer Relations Team" - which comes before the word "Origin".
Lara Ombudsman Team Leader
Customer Relations TeamOrigin
Meagan
Ombudsman Enquiry & Complaint ConsultantOrigin
t 1300 137 609 Ext 58351
f 08 8415 8998Funny how they don't use these words in this layout.
Lara Team Leader
Origin Customer Relations TeamThat duplicitious use of titles in a way that makes it appear as if they are from the ombudsmans office...
It's just pure manipulative sleaze.
They are so fucking slack...
They have cost me so much... that I just refuse to pay them anything, any more.
Their new corporate logo should be:
"You can pay up, while we fuck up!"
That being said, just phone "The Power Shop" and transfer your account over to them. and pay up for the renewable power - because the arseholes running Origin are plugging coal and fracking for all that it's worth....
Go buy this book on their Fracking activities in Australia:
What the Frack? Everything you need to know about coal seam gas
By Paddy ManningThe Powershop 1800 462 668 - Free call between 8am – 7pm Monday to Friday.
Just call them, transfer your account over and don't even bother contacting Origin Energy ever again......
Be free of them.
The people running Origin are doing everything that they can to fuck up the renewables.
Fucking up the renewable power generation and fucking up the people who buy it and fucking up the people who stick it on their homes, business's and farms.
Get your solar panels, battery banks and wind generators up - and while I do love Tony Abbot and his greedy sleazy unethical compatriots - I think what they are doing has some good features, but I kind of like the everyone can make their own power and the decentralised distribution method .
This bullshit about "Oh Abbott and his cronie$ fucking up the renewable schemes etc., so therefore it's fucked - that is all crap.
The solution is simple - just keep right on by passing the pricks, and keep right on closing your accounts with them.
Stop feeding them and they starve and die.
Fill your back yard up with solar panels and sell the power directly to the neighbours at 50% of the price that Origin charges, which is still 2 X as much as what Origin pays you when you sell it back to them....
If you can put up say 20Kw of panels - that is 5Kw for 4 houses.....
Here is a good place.
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/
You don't have to go out and buy a big 5000W system... you can build up and self install small 240W systems and if you want, then you can combine them.
See you can buy / install a 240W system (safely) without commercial licencing and testing etc... and that will do a chest freezer set up as a fridge.
Then you can get another 240W kit for your lighting, and ventilation.
Then you can use polypipe coils to heat your place in winter, your hot water and an evaporative cooler in the summer....
Another 240W unit will take care of that - and a laptop etc....
And if your renting - you can make the systems portable - like 240W of power for like say $800 - that is the panel, the charge controller, the batteries, the inverter and some wiring etc., for the next 30 years plus... paid off in 3 to 5 years...
And if your own your own home, you can build lots of 240W systems and when you have enough generation capacity - you can get them commercially installed into ONE big system - but 240W will start to cut chunks out of your power bills, and the more you install the lower the bills and the faster you can pay them off and the more you can spend on more 240W systems....
I am not saying this is THE system but if funds are tight, you can buy and build a small system that will run a small chest freezer, as a refrigerator - with a simple timer switch - and run it only in 15 minute increments every 2 hours etc... during the main part of the day...
It will charge up and keep a laptop running - and it will keep a small fan going, and a 10W 12V pump to run hot water inside from a coiled Poly pipe solar heater...
It's no wall wide plasma screen feeding demon with a 200 litre fridge and 10 lights on in 10 rooms power trip - but it's a good system for a very frugal grid free life...
And you can add to it.....
Some of the bits in this are pretty damned good and worth their asking price....
But you can get less efficient and way cheaper inverters for a lot less... And you can use things like cheap or used car batteries etc..... if your really struggling to get by.
And there is always Ebay etc., for the more basicer stuff....
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/Solar-Panel-200W-Monocrystalline-12V
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/Solar-Panel-200W-Monocrystalline
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/12v,24V-30Amps-Solar-Regulator
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/Batteries/AGM-BATTERY-105
http://www.lowenergydevelopments.com.au/Pure-Sine-Inverter-150W
But you can get some cabling, fuses, battery clips, battery box, etc., etc., etc., and for like $800 you can you can get a GOOD quality system that will supply enough to run a very frugal life style - if you use most of the power during the day light hours....
But in winter time when the sun is low and it's cloudy for days, that is where you go and buy a second panel and hook that up......
Come spring, summer, and autumn, you now have a 400+ watt system....
And if you go and spend $100 a month - or say $250 a month, on your cutsey solar system/s - your mains power consumption will drop - leaving you MORE cash to spend on the solar and the more solar you buy, the less mains power you need etc...
If your struggling to make ends meet - there is a middle way between ALL or NOTHING - the big payout or no solar power... and that is solar power in small steps....
You see, in selling off our national assets - the global bankers and their "privatised" corporations are fucking us in the arse, with everything they have got, in every way they can, until we shit blood.
And this can be your way of saying "Fuck Off" to the coal burning criminals with the outrageous power supply bills.
https://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/8/26/energy-markets/retailers-hardship-policies-failing-report
Victoria’s peak body for financial counsellors says energy retailers are failing low income and financially vulnerable customers struggling to pay their bills.
In its Rank the Energy Retailer report, based on a survey of over 100 financial counsellors, the Financial and Consumer Rights Council said the unrealistic payment plans and "less than acceptable" debt collection practices were unfair and exacerbating financial hardship.
The report said Victoria experiences over 40,000 electricity and gas disconnections annually; about 800 households per week.
"With energy prices continuing to rise, the alarming trend of disconnections in Victoria will continue unless immediate action is taken," the council said.
FCRC executive director Peter Gartlan said Financial counsellors were witnessing first-hand the failure of retailer hardship practices on a daily basis.
“What they are telling us is that poor internal processes and lack of staff training make it extremely difficult for customers and financial counsellors to access and communicate effectively with hardship teams," he said.
Overall, financial counsellors ranked Origin Energy as the current industry leader in handling customer financial hardship issues, followed by AGL then EnergyAustralia.
As with the ‘big three’, second and third tier energy retailers ranked poorly across all measures, FCRC said, with a small margin between best and worst performers.
Of the second tier retailers, Lumo Energy achieved the highest overall rating and Australian Power & Gas the lowest.
“It’s time for the State Government, regulator and energy retailers to commit to making the necessary changes that are urgently needed to improve hardship practices and better support those in financial difficulty,” Mr Gartlan said.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/tony-abbott-still-determined-to-kill-renewable-energy-target-31138
Tony Abbott still determined to kill renewable energy target
By Giles Parkinson on 18 August 2014
The Australian Financial Review, in a front page report, on Monday confirmed the worst fears of the renewable energy industry when it said that the panel had been “instructed” by Tony Abbott to look at ways for the scheme to be folded.
This is shocking news, because it will bring to an end a $20 billion industry, and cost thousands of jobs, and force household and business bills to soar. It was immediately branded as a “reckless” idea, and as “economic vandalism” by the Clean Energy Council.
But it should not be surprising news. The intent of the Abbott government towards renewables was made clear by its refusal – despite a statutory requirement to do so – to commission the Climate Change Authority to conduct the review.
Instead, it appointed a panel composed of climate skeptics, pro-nuclear advocates and fossil fuel lobbyists. The biggest beneficiaries of a decision to close the scheme to new entrants will be the fossil fuel generators, who according to new analysis released on Monday, will see their earnings boosted by up to $10 billion – the big three retailers, AGL Energy, Origin Energy and EnergyAustralia, being the biggest beneficiaries.
And such a decision will satisfy the right-wing ideologues and deep-lined antipathy to renewable energy within the Abbott government, and its determination to kill the remnants of the Labor/Greens “Clean Energy Future” package. The AFR also repeats what has long been suspected, that Environment Minister Greg Hunt – and Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane – have been effectively sidelined from the process, despite the issue crossing into their portfolios.
The PM’s office has had carriage of the project since the start, and his intentions have long been clear. The secretarial support has been housed within Abbott’s office – and within reach of his principal business advisors – including climate denier and renewables opponent Maurice Newman, and Abbott’s own energy advisor, former AGL executive Sarah McNamara.
The AFR suggests that Joe Hockey – who says he finds wind turbines “utterly offensive”, and another noted anti-renewables finance minister Mathias Cormann, are also having a large say in proceedings. Hunt, who has constantly vaunted his ability to influence the outcome, is said by the AFR to be “unhappy”.
But government insiders who have worked on the RET Review have told RenewEconomy that the intent of the review has always been to cut the current 41,000GWh target to a maximum of 25,000GWh (what might be called a “true” 20 per cent target), and possibly close it to new entrants altogether.
The tenor of the “consultations” also confirmed this view. The panel members, Dick Warburton and Shirley In’T Veld, the former head of coal generator Verve Energy, have made their climate skeptic views very clear. Economic rationalist Brian Fisher, who has done extensive modeling for parties opposed to the RET, has also not hidden his opposition to the mechanism.
There were glimmers of hope that the RET could be retained, particularly when the panel’s own modeling dismissed the two major arguments to drop the target – that the target could not be physically met, and that it would be costly to consumers. The ACIL Allen report said there would be no issue meeting the 41,000GWh target, if the policy intent was made clear and soon, and that even based on its own conservative inputs, consumers would be better off in the long term from having more renewables in the grid.
Instead, the new argument was based around a “transfer of wealth” from the generators to consumers. But even then, the report is believed to have favoured a “scaling back” of the target to 25,000GWh or 27,000GHW – a position said to be favoured by Hunt.
The irony is that even though the panel members appeared firmly opposed to the RET, they still recommended that it should be kept – even if scaled back. This, insiders say, was not good enough for Abbott’s hard core insiders, who insisted it must go.
The report by Jacobs, on behalf of The Climate Institute, Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF-Australia says that the biggest beneficiaries to dumping the RET would be the fossil fuel generators. The Jacobs report suggested $8 billion in additional profits to coal-fired generators out to 2030 and an extra $2 billion to gas generators.
AGL Energy – presuming it completes the purchase of Macquarie Generation’s 4.6GW of coal generators in NSW – would pocket an extra $2.7 billion, EnergyAustralia would an extra $2 billion boost and Origin Energy a $1 billion boost. All three companies have been active in their opposition to the RET, and to subsidies for small-scale solar in particular.
Although, the RET Review panel was not due to deliver its final report to Abbott’s office until later July, it was always going to “consult” with draft findings before that delivery. That is when the RET Review panel was instructed to “look more closely” – as the AFR puts it – on the option to close the target to any new entrants, and possibly to await the result of Australian Energy Market Operator estimates which showed no new capacity is needed on the eastern states grid for at least another 10 years. The fossil fuel generators, who are largely responsible for that excess capacity, fear that more renewables means more early closures for ageing coal plants.
Whether the Abbott government finally agrees with a scale backed target or an effective closure, any changes seem likely to be blocked in the Senate, where the Palmer United Party has promised to side with Labor and the Greens.
But it matters not. The large-scale renewable energy industry has already ground to a halt. No new projects have reached financial closure since the election of the Abbott government, and the Abbott government knows that even by doing nothing – apart from allowing continued uncertainty – no new projects will come to market.
Households will also be affected. Through rooftop solar, they have so far contributed more than $12 billion of the $18 billion invested in renewables over recent years, initially driven by generous feed in tariffs and then as a hedge against rising electricity prices once those tariffs were removed.
The government, though, can remove some of those remaining incentives that defray the upfront cost of the system, without needing legislative changes. Industry experts say that could cause the rooftop solar market to fall by one-third or even a half, with the loss of thousands of jobs.
Meanwhile, state governments – with huge vested interests in state-owned networks and generators – continue to act against renewables. The WA government is even canvassing importing coal from Indonesia rather than develop renewable energy projects at home, while in Queensland, businesses have been hit by a whopping $500-a-day service charge (essentially to read the meter) to dissuade them from installing solar.
The renewable energy industry – which possibly unwisely sought to negotiate a “compromise deal” with the big three utilities in 2013 – said a move to halt the target would be “devastating” to the industry.
“Such a move would be reckless, given the government’s own analysis shows slashing the RET would save no money on power bills, yet would devastate billions of dollars of investments made in good faith in renewable energy projects across the country,” acting CEO Kane Thornton said.
“Hundreds of Australian and international investors have built their businesses based on the strong bipartisanship of this policy which has existed in legislation since 2001.
“Tearing up this bipartisanship, and the policy itself, would show that the Australian energy sector is clearly not open for business – it would stop industry dead and smash investments that have already been made.”
Indeed, some international groups such as US solar developer Recurrent Energy have already packed up. Others, including Goldwind and Trina, have warned of the potential fallout, while Australian groups Pacific Hydro and Infigen Energy are directing their efforts overseas.
The Australian Solar Council echoed the CEC remarks. It is taking its “Save Solar” campaign to marginal electorates, with the first stop at the northern Brisbane seat of Petrie, held by the LNP’s Luke Howarth, in Thursday this week. The ability to make solar a potent political issue – many marginal electorates boast more than 20 per cent solar penetration – appears to be their last resort.
“Solar saves money, creates jobs and shifts votes. The Abbott Government is about to find out how much Australians love solar and the Renewable Energy Target,” CEO John Grimes said.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/8/18/policy-politics/agl-origin-and-energyaustralias-shame-self-interest
AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia’s 'shame' of self-interest
In any horse race, son, always back the horse called self-interest.
– NSW Premier Jack Lang advising a young Paul Keating
The big three energy retailers – AGL, Origin Energy and Energy Australia – as well as power retailer Simply Energy and its power generator owner, GDF Suez, are being targeted by a shame campaign from a combination of environmental advocacy groups because of their attempts to have the Renewable Energy Target reduced.
Greenpeace and the Total Environment Centre are taking a mass-market approach of communicating direct to the general public about who’s naughty and nice in the power sector in terms of their investment and lobbying position on renewable energy.
Meanwhile, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Climate Institute, and WWF have taken the more cerebral tack of commissioning economic analysis illustrating that it is self-interest, not concern for consumers, that lies behind power companies’ attacks on the RET.
Greenpeace’s Green Electricity Guide ranks all the Australian power retailers placing; Powershop number one in the nice category. They are active only in Victoria at present and owned by Meridian Energy, a major New Zealand utility and developer of Australian renewable energy projects such as Macarthur Wind Farm.
For those outside Victoria, the niche green energy specialist retailer Diamond Energy gets top billing (active in Queensland, NSW, South Australia as well as Victoria). For Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia there is no choice of power retailer.
Another retailer receiving high marks is Click Energy, which is highly focused on the solar market having nabbed Dominic Drenen, who used to head up Origin’s solar division when it was the largest solar retailer in the country.
In terms of who’s naughty, Simply Energy heads the list – owned by GDF Suez, which also owns Hazelwood and Loy Yang B brown coal fired power stations. Simply is then followed by EnergyAustralia and Origin.
AGL manages to separate itself several rungs down the naughty list yet, in the end, Greenpeace has chosen to lump it in with EnergyAustralia and Origin, labeling them as the 'Dirty Three' in the report it has released documenting these companies’ track record on renewable energy.
The intention of this work is clearly to encourage consumers with an environmental conscience to switch away from these retailers and towards those more focused on renewable energy. This is being done in conjunction with a campaign by GetUp!
Now, of course, these companies aren’t trying to kill-off the RET because they are evil nor because they possess some incredibly altruistic concern for the welfare of their customers. As Michael Corleone explained in the classic movie The Godfather, “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business” – in the end it all comes down to economics.
Energy market modelling by engineering firm Jacobs-SKM illustrates that the ‘Dirty Three’ plus Simply Energy’s GDF Suez would see a multi-billion pay-off if they can manage to persuade the government to reduce the large-scale RET from 41,000 gigawatt-hours of energy down to 27,000 GWh (what has been termed a 'real 20 per cent' renewable energy market share target).
This would increase their profits through reducing competition faced by the fossil fuel generators they own – thereby increasing power prices and, in several cases, also increasing sales volumes.
That chart below details the net present value of increased profits the major power companies would capture from either freezing the scheme (termed 'abolished') or reducing it to a 'real 20 per cent'. AGL is the biggest beneficiary to the tune of more than $2.5 billion once you take into account its acquisition of Macquarie Generation. Energy Australia gains around $2 billion, GDF Suez about $1.7 billion and Origin about $1.5 billion.
One of the main reasons behind this gain in profits is that power prices in the wholesale electricity market will rise. This then acts to offset savings households might gain from reduced subsidies to renewable energy. The chart below illustrates that with the exception of one year (2017), households are expected to pay slightly more overall per megawatt-hour of electricity as a result of cutting the target. This finding by Jacobs-SKM echoes findings from other well-known energy market analysts such as ROAM Consulting, Intelligent Energy Systems and ACIL-Allen.
Of course, the key consequence of reducing the RET will be increased power production and carbon emissions from fossil fuel generators. According to Jacobs-SKM an extra 154 million tonnes of CO2 will be emitted to 2030 if the scheme were scaled back to a real 20 per cent.
Using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s attempts to monetise the damage suffered by society from global warming, the Climate Institute estimates the power companies’ extra profits will leave a damage bill for everyone else of $14 billion out to 2040. A breakdown on which power stations will see the biggest increase in emissions, and their associated damage bill, is illustrated below with Origin’s Eraring power station topping the list.
However, with so much focus on electricity price effects, one suspects this vital component of the cost-benefit analysis of the RET may be missing from the final Warburton review.
Comments
Post a Comment