Why is electricity so dear there is not enough retailers in the market.
The criteria of becoming a retailer is, any business or individual can apply to become an electricity retailer
When you apply you find out that is not the case. You are asked if you have employees in the hundreds.
What is your management structure and a full financial statement for the past several years.
It costs $8,000 to apply. Non refundable.
The ESC vic is the first contact: An archaic piece of wood called Phillips is the boss man.
It is not necessary to have employees in the hundreds, there are billing companies out there that do billing on a massive scale. The Deal is $1 / customer / month and they handle all meter readings, reporting facilities, and monthly or quarterly billings by post or electronically.
A retailer has to market and buy product from the National Energy market, register new customers to the billers site. Paying of GST and power infrastructure each quarter.
The whole process of retailing was never altered from days of old when we had one retailer.
That is why the only take up of retailing is confined to multinational players.

Yes South Australian's are basking in the cheap power privatization has brought.

The author is in fantasy land, a fully private electricity network would so be screwing all Australians for as much as they can get. the government would have to step in and give relief to low income earners and help fund or underwrite new power stations because we can't get scale in Australia.

Well, Cobber, SA would be doing much better if government subsidies for massive, unnecessary solar and wind weren't driving up the price of power and knocking perfectly viable coal fired power stations such as Port Augusta out of business. We can also blame government antipathy to coal as a long term investment.

As for power companies screwing all Australians, shall we put governments in the angelic category? Governments are free to demand unsustainable dividends (and they do) from their power assets thereby robbing them of funds for maintenance and improvements. The answer in every case to companies screwing people is competition, something governments don't like happening to their assets.

I have plenty more economics 101 for lefties if you like.

Port Augusta is fast becoming unviable because their coal supply has dried up at Leigh Creek.

Electricity assets in government hands once again would enable the old aging polluting examples to be decommissioned without fuss or subsidies and replaced with very large scale modern solar thermal, which costs no more to roll out than similar size coal fired projects and latest technology inclusion make them very suitable for peak load operations.

At least that is the experience of a private california power company that has built and is operating one in their desert, where the land was cheap enough and the fuel both costless and more plentiful, than the coastal variety.

For the benefit of those who want the world to think that this is just green wishful thinking? we are talking about a privately built and operating power plant! ANd I"m a small L liberal and former business man with a very powerful social conscience.

Given rollout costs for this already operational example and the lastest similarly sized new coal project, the only cost difference has to be in the price of fuel.

Nothing whatsoever for the solar thermal project and annual exponentially rising millions for the coal fired example!

After that we have the option of cheaper than coal thorium for defense bases and or various industries that would be completely resuscitated by cheap (half price) power and energy dependant automation.

Moreover, locally made and consumed biogas could cut domestic power bills by up to 75%! Always providing we eliminate debt laden,tax avoiding, rapacious private players from the essential service market!

Even as I type these lines, thousands are being replaced in china by space age automation!

Typically we like gormless sheep only ever follow, never ever lead and invariably put too many eggs in the one basket!

When we with our vast resources could lead the world, but only if we were intelligently lead and kept all those (not helping) moribund wannabes and hasbeens out of the way!

All privatisation has done here in Victoria has been the replacement of engineers and maintenance workers with sales people.

We also have the highest churn rate in Australia.

Privatisation ruins utilities, increases prices, reduces essential maintenance, and kneecaps fairness.