Electricity Pricing Review – beware of increases to fixed network charges

The clean energy advocacy organisation will submit its concerns to the Review which closes on Friday 13 February.

Solar Citizens CEO Heidi Lee Douglas says:

“Solar Citizens is concerned that the AEMC’s recommendation to increase fixed network charges is a move in the wrong direction. [1]

“Adopting this recommendation would punish most energy users by raising fixed charges. The biggest losers will be 1) solar and battery owners and 2) those who consume the lowest amount of energy – including energy-efficient households, single person households, apartment residents, and people doing their best to keep their energy bills low because of cost of living pressures.

Ms Douglas says, “The AEMC states it’s about sharing the costs more fairly among energy consumers, but we are concerned that higher fixed charges will burden households with low grid consumption while providing the most benefit to the poles and wires companies.

“This price change proposal is a move in the wrong direction and counter to other government initiatives like the Solar Sharer Offer and the federal home battery rebate, which encourage the use of cheaper renewable power in our homes. Higher fixed charges would instead discourage people from trying to reduce their energy use, and from installing solar panels or batteries.”

“What’s missing is data from the AEMC on how raising fixed charges will impact households and energy consumers as a whole. In fact independent modelling by Green Energy Markets shows that raising fixed charges would have dire consequences for most consumers’ energy bills.”

Tristan Edis, Director Analysis and Advisory at Green Energy Markets has calculated the impacts of this change and found:

“A household that already owns a solar and battery system (8kW solar, 20kWh battery) would see their electricity bill increase by around $400 to $700 per annum as a result of the AEMC proposal. It will severely undermine the financial benefit for households adopting solar and batteries and likely lead to large decline in adoption rates.”

“It is also very bad for low income households given they tend to consume less electricity than the average. I estimate low income households will be between around $100 to $200 per annum worse off.”

Solar Citizens CEO Heidi Lee Douglas continues:

“Electricity price rises are already hurting so many Australian households, they will feel even more pain if they have to cop a further electricity price rise that they can’t do anything to avoid”.

“In effect high fixed charges would flatten the electricity price signal. When your bill barely changes no matter how much energy you save or generate, why change your behaviour or invest thousands in solar and batteries to use less electricity from the grid?

“There is a real risk that higher fixed network charges will result in business-as-usual spending on poles and wires instead of requiring network service providers to adapt to a system with rapidly growing consumer energy resources like rooftop solar, home batteries and electric vehicles.

“This is old fashioned, monopolistic thinking where the big companies are protected at the expense of individuals and consumers, who on mass are now contributing 14.2% to powering Australia’s energy system through their home solar – twice as much as in 2020,[2].

“We need rules that support this distributed energy system  to keep growing, not that undermine it”.

“The truth is that Australia’s energy system has irrevocably changed already – households have invested over $25 billion of their own money in rooftop solar with over 4.2 million installations nationwide [3], and more than 1000 people a day are installing a home battery. [4]

“Yet the AEMC’s fixed network charge proposal treats these solar and battery owners not as partners in the clean energy transition, but as a problem to be managed.

“If we want people to keep investing — in solar, batteries, electric vehicles, and energy efficiency upgrades — we need pricing that recognises the value they create.”

“The evidence from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) shows that there are billions of dollars in savings in accelerating the uptake and coordination of Distributed Energy Resources like rooftop solar, batteries and EV’s. [5]

“Increasing fixed charges will only discourage uptake of consumer energy resources and limit their potential to deliver on bill savings and benefits to the energy system as a whole.”

Download Solar Citizens DRAFT SUBMISSION to the Electricity Pricing Review

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[1] Draft Pricing Review (2025) AEMC, pg 36-38

Recommendation 5: “Amend the rules to focus network tariff design on efficiency, supporting a lowest-cost grid and a fairer sharing of costs among consumers.”

Under this recommendation the AEMC expects “the fixed charge will recover more of each network’s revenue requirement than it does today” and that “dynamic charges will be zero most of the time.”

[2]  Rooftop Solar & Storage Report July-December 2025, Clean Energy Council February 2026

[3] According to the Clean Energy Regulator’s installation data (as reported by the Clean Energy Council), Australia now has over 4.2 million rooftop solar systems installed with a total capacity of around 26.8 GW. Applying typical industry cost figures suggests that Australian households and small businesses have invested well over $25 billion of private capital in these systems — showcasing the scale of grassroots commitment to clean energy.

[4] 200,000 bill-busting batteries installed in just 6 months, Media Release, Chris Bowen 17/1/26

[5] 2026 Draft Integrated System Plan (2025) AEMO

The take-up and use of CER by consumers, combined with efficient distribution network support, makes grid-scale investment more efficient. In total, the assumed levels of CER coordination, particularly from coordination of EVs, would reduce total system costs by $7.2 billion. Extending current policies that support energy efficiency, as assumed, is estimated to provide $12 billion in cost savings.

About Solar Citizens

Solar Citizens is an independent, community-based organisation that champions a democratic, people-powered energy system that cuts bills, reduces emissions, and makes Australia a global leader in the clean-energy transition. Our website is https://www.solarcitizens.org.au/