From Solar Sharer and virtual power plants to dynamic tariffs and other supposedly innovative new energy products, we’re witnessing electricity retailers “gaming” the system, and consumers are getting “screwed”, according to energy market specialist Tim Ryan.
Australia’s rooftop solar boom has cut wholesale power prices to virtually zero in the middle of the day, and millions of households now have solar, batteries, EVs or smart appliances capable of responding to those cheap prices.
But Tim Ryan told the SwitchedOn podcast the benefits are being intercepted before they reach consumers: “there’s an encouragement to the retailers to play a shell game to basically steal our money.”
And he says regulators have allowed retailers to remain firmly wedged between households and the cheaper, more flexible electricity system that new technology now makes possible.
The result, Ryan argues, is that some of the innovations supposedly designed to help consumers are instead being structured to preserve retailer profits.
