[nl]

(I live in South Australia, and I've previously worked on electricity energy trading systems here)

This is a pretty good article, but misses a little context that maybe helpful to non-Australian readers.

1) Power bills in Australia have been rising rapidly over the last couple of years. The reactionary response has been to blame the new Carbon Tax, but the real causes are much more complex[1].

2) In South Australia at least it gets really, really hot. For example in February 2009 we had 6 Consecutive days over 40 °C (104 °F) and a maximum of 45.7 °C (114.3 °F)[2], and then in November 2009 we had 6 Consecutive days over 38 °C (~100 °F)[3]

These peak temperatures occur earlier in the day than the typical power spike (12pm-4pm instead of 5pm-7pm), and caused huge power spikes (from air conditioner usage), and this often causes power companies to have to shut off power (they have a policy of doing rolling blackouts when they don't have enough capacity).

This peak demand is much, much higher than the average peak demand shown on the linked article, and these are the peaks the power companies invest to meet. If these peaks are reduced by solar panel usage (which they should be, since the come during the best time for solar production) then it should reduce the requirements for larger power stations.

[1] http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/power-play-between-feder...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_2009_southeastern_Austral...

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_2009_southeastern_Australi...

[greendestiny]

As another South Australian I have to say this article makes me a little concerned about further price rises of mains power to make up for the shortfall. Although the long term benefits of Solar are amazing the short term situation for power infrastructure here could be a problem.

*Edit: I can see a flatter usage profile should probably mean cheaper power, but still I think there is some justifiable paranoia in worrying about power prices increasing in South Australia again.

[shirro]

Another South Australian. Power is just the next thing to be disrupted by technology changes.

I think we need smart meters and a more market driven approach to retail pricing. Peak electricity costs can go through the roof and people will respond by shifting their usage to alternatives or different times when there is less demand and prices are lower. Unfortunately there is no market transparency and we are paying for retail electricity without any real understanding of the underlying costs. We are paying ridiculously increasing amounts for electricity so we can build infrastructure to handle peaks that many would avoid if there were market pressures on consumers. Changes like rooftop PV and wind farms are only a part of the picture.

[nl]

Unfortunately, a more market driven approach to retail pricing is often very consumer-unfriendly because it means your bills will be very unpredictable.

Power prices vary dramatically during a day, and are often gamed by generators. Exposing retail customers to those swings directly is dangerous IMHO.

Having said that, there are many intermediate steps that help. For example, many power companies do partition prices by time of day, which makes a lot of sense[1].

In South Australia, ETSA is trialing "Direct load management", where they can shut off air conditioners for 30 minutes using smart meters when there is high demand, in return for much lower tariffs[2].

[1] http://www.savepower.nsw.gov.au/Portals/0/docs/news/Media071...

[2] http://www.etsautilities.com.au/centric/our_network/demand_m...

[Travis]

My energy provider (SDGE in Southern California, USA) takes a fairly straightforward tiered approach to energy cost. First, they take your house arrangement (sqft, year built, etc.) and compare to similar homes. This establishes a baseline energy usage for your house profile.

Using 0-100% of your "allocation" is one price. It's about 2x the cost to use 101-149%. 150-199% is an even higher rate. Etc.

Doesn't solve peak usage or distribution issues, but it's a (relatively) easy concept to understand. The detailed statements pretty clearly explain how much each "allocated unit" of energy costs.