Our review of the costs associated with delivering your electricity will result in an increase in the price we charge many of our customers. This price increase will take effect on 1 January 2020, and is in line with the decision by the Essential Services
Commission (ESC) to increase the price of the Victorian Default Offer (VDO) by an average of 7.8 per cent. Our average price increase will be approximately 8 per cent.
However, Momentum’s 1 January price increases will still see our non-VDO electricity customers priced, on average, 5-6 per cent below the VDO.
Why do electricity costs increase differently for different customers?
The reason electricity prices and the VDO may increase at different rates for different customers is based on a number of factors, including:
- the customer’s location on the network and the distance electricity is transported through the network; and
- the particular tariff that applies to each customer, such as time-of-use tariffs.
It is possible that some of our customers will see price increases that are more or less than the average increase in the VDO and in Momentum’s retail prices.
Why have we changed our time-of-use tariffs (that include peak, off-peak and shoulder)?
The ESC has introduced the VDO for time-of-use customers.
Momentum has made a decision to change all of its time-of-use price structures to achieve greater consistency with the VDO assumptions and tariff structures. These changes may result in some of our retail customers experiencing significant changes in
their annual bills if their usage profile is significantly different from the assumptions in the time-of-use VDO.
For example, one Momentum Energy time-of-use tariff had relatively high daily charges but very low off-peak rates. The VDO time-of-use tariff has a much lower daily charge, but higher off-peak rates. From 1 January 2020, Momentum will align its rates
with the VDO structure, which could mean significant increases for some customers, according to how and when they use their electricity.
Gas price increase
Momentum Energy’s gas customers will see an average price increase of 4.4 per cent.