Daylight robbery

So, not only have NSW electricity consumers been obliged to pay for the creation of an expensive electricity generation system, they paid for the creation of a system that was significantly in excess of the state's real needs and now must pay to maintain it.

The fact is that electricity demand in NSW has dropped by more than 10% since its peak level of demand in 2008. Regardless of the reasons for this significant drop in demand, the industry, supported and encouraged by government, continued to pursue its mission to create a huge and unnecessary power generation capability in this state, even while demand was collapsing, which consumers not only paid for, but now have to pay even more to maintain.

And, of course, the more prices go up, the more demand will collapse as consumers are ultimately forced to cut their power usage, give up other essentials of life, such as food, or look for cheaper alternatives.

A vicious circle, compounded by the fact that today's neo-liberal politicians from both sides of the divide are no longer interested in running boring public services, that cost more and more to run, and are a constant source of voter dissatisfaction and criticism. Surely smarter to flog these assets off to a friendly "suit" & let them worry about the customers, leaving politicians to enjoy the kind of rewarding and stress free existence that they think they deserve.

Of course, the only problem with this strategy is that to persuade the "suit" that he/she should buy the asset, it must first be made attractive, meaning that the "suit" has to believe that he/she will make a motza by doing so.

The best way to do that, of course, is to pump-up the tyres of the enterprise as much as possible, demonstrating the real profit potential of owning a monopolistic money printing machine, that the desperate citizenry just can't do without!!

Of course, with demand falling, you have to pump-up those tyres more and more, with us lucky consumers providing the pump.

And so it is that NSW consumers have bravely endured the hardship of paying billons of dollars for an electricity generation system that they didn't need. Not only that, those same lucky consumers get to pay even more to maintain the monster that has been created, as well contributing to the excessive profits that politicians hope will eventually attract the interest of private sector investors, who will then buy this licence to print money & then charge us even more.

3.

In the circumstances, it would surely be unsurprising if the citizens of NSW formed the view that successive NSW governments have perpetrated a colossal fraud on the citizens of this state; that they have been running what amounts to be an extortion racket by dint of their monopoly control over an essential service.

To further underscore the unconscionable greed that has become the dominant feature of this sector of the Australian economy, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) recently released (Strategic Priorities for Energy Market Development 2012/3), calling for households who have invested in solar power generation systems to be charged an additional 'penalty tariff', to compensate electricity retailers for their alleged loss of revenue!!

The latest AEMC proposals are akin to asking consumers to pay compensation to oil companies for using less fuel, because the consumer has decided to take public transport or ride a push bike to work, rather than driving their car.