australia: June 21, 2011

A recent report by the Energy Users Association of Australia (EUAA) has been slammed by Ausgrid Managing Director, George Maltabarrow.  Ausgrid is the new name for Energy Australia Networks and the EUAA represents the largest consumers of electricity in Australia. 

The report claims that electricity networks in NSW are more costly and less efficient than those in Victoria.  Maltabarrow describes the report as misleading citing that it is unfair to compare networks when NSW serves 700,000 more customers with the state’s population being spread out across an area three times the size of Victoria.  Additionally, Ausgrid electricity assets are past their expiry date and need to be replaced.  As a result, $14.4 billion is being spent in NSW on network upgrades compared to $4.7 billion in Victoria.

The EUAA has been invited by Ausgrid to meet to discuss the report with Maltabarrow adding that “the report has averaged a lot of data with external and environmental factors being ignored”.

Of course the report did little to alleviate the financial tension being experienced by NSW customers.  Beginning 1st of July this year electricity tariffs are due to rise by at least 15 percent.