The Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) has released a report on feed-in tariffs (FiT) in south-east Queensland for 2017-18.
For context, if solar panels produce more electricity than the owner’s home or business needs, the surplus electricity is exported (or ‘fed in’) to the electricity network. Feed-in tariffs are the prices that the retailers pay to solar customers for these exports. According to the Queensland Government, one in three Queensland households has a solar system and a new solar system is installed somewhere in Queensland every 15 minutes.
Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said QCA’s 2018 solar FiT report for south-east Queensland showed retailers were offering households and small business average FiTs over 50 per cent higher than the previous year.
“The growth in the solar market is now stimulating a wide range of FiTs from retailers, giving consumers the power to choose the FiT that best meets their needs,” Dr Lynham said, “however, I strongly encourage consumers and small business to do the research and shop around to find the best offer for their overall needs.”
“The QCA report is designed to help you with that research because it models different levels of use and solar FiTs to see how they might impact different types of customers,” the Minister said.
‘Solar feed-in tariff report 2017–18’ outlines that 16 retailers were offering average FiTs of 11 cents per kilowatt hour to households and 13 retailers an average 10.2 cents per kilowatt hour to small businesses.
QCA Chair Professor Flavio Menezes said these findings show that solar customers have a wide choice when it comes to electricity retail offers.
“The QCA’s analysis shows the best offer for a particular customer type varies according to the customer’s level of electricity imports (consumption) and exports of solar power to the electricity grid,” Professor Menezes explained.
He further cautioned customers to pay close attention to the supply and usage charges that discounts are based on when they compare discounts on various offers.
“Customers with a low export ratio would generally benefit from offers that included lower supply and usage charges, while customers with a high export ratio would generally benefit from offers that included higher feed-in tariffs,” Professor Menezes said.
The full report can be found here.
