Aussie households can expect to pay $77 less for electricity in 2024 as cheaper renewable energy works to lower wholesale costs for providers.
A new report by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) predicts by June 2024, prices are likely to be under 26 cents per kilowatt-hour — their lowest point since 2017 and six per cent less than today's price.
The report cites lower wholesale costs and reduced environmental costs to wholesalers will see savings passed on to the consumer.
READ MORE: Three guilty of hunting down and killing Black jogger in US
"This illustrates how integrating renewables in a smart way makes it possible to have both lower emissions and lower costs for consumers," AEMC chair Anna Collyer.
"We can now see far enough into the future to be confident that power prices paid by consumers will continue to trend downwards over the next three years, despite the staged exit of Liddell power station in 2022 and 2023, one of the biggest coal-fired generators in the national electricity market.
"But while wholesale costs and environmental costs are trending lower, we are starting to see increases in the cost of network investments, and this is likely to accelerate over the next decade as more network investment is required to connect dispersed new generation to the grid."
READ MORE: France's warning of Australia's 'trust crisis' over submarines
A full breakdown of how your national electricity market jurisdiction is expected to fare can be seen below.
The report predicts wholesale costs will fall by about $92 between now and the 2023/24 financial year, directly impacting the bill that lands in the letterboxes of households.
Wholesale costs represent about 35 per cent of the representative customer's bill across the national energy market.
READ MORE: WA dad charged with murder of daughter 16 years after assault
Despite the long-term good news, Ms Collyer said there may be some short-term pain as prices are expected to increase by around $20 a year in the next financial year as the coal-powered Liddell Power Station closes.
"While we have just under 2500MW of generation expected to exit the grid over the next three years, there are almost 5500MW of committed new large-scale generation and storage projects coming online over the same time period," Ms Collyer said.
"This is in addition to 4130 MW of new rooftop solar PV capacity, which will also influence prices by lowering demand and through exports."
AEMC Expected electricity price moves by jurisdiction:
|
Jurisdiction: |
Electricity price change between FY20/21 and FY 23/24: |
Annual average change: |
|
South East Queensland |
Down $126 (or 10 per cent) |
Annual drop of 3.6 per cent |
|
South Australia |
Down $35 (or 2 per cent) |
Annual drop of 0.7 per cent |
|
Victoria |
Down $99 (or 8 per cent) |
Annual drop of 2.6 per cent |
|
New South Wales |
Down $50 (or 4 per cent) |
Annual drop of 1.3 per cent |
|
Australian Capital Territory |
Up $77 (or 4 per cent) |
Annual rise of 1.3 per cent |
|
Tasmania |
Down $125 (or 6 per cent) |
Annual drop of 2.1 per cent |
