Power price project

By Tony Scott,
April 14,2021

Dorset Council is teaming with the North-East Chamber of Commerce to promote a project for local businesses to get cheaper power prices.

Businesses thoughout the region will be canvassed to see if they want to be part of the program.

The concept is to form an electricity buying group to have Tasmanian Energy Brokers bargain with energy retailers for the best deal.

Aurora Energy has been joined by Shell Energy Australia and Melbourne-based First Energy in the Tasmanian market.

The energy broking firm’s Senior Advisor, Marc White, said it has already achieved savings of more than $2million for Tasmanian private schools, local government and agri-businesses.

“We’ve worked with operations like dairies and irrigators to get to savings of 20 per cent or more on their power bills.”

He said the savings were delivered through converting from a regulated tarrif to a negotiated contract.

Tasmanian Energy Brokers is a subsidiary of the longer established Goanna Energy Consulting which has been working on behalf of industrial scale energy users like mines and manufacturing plants for more than 13 years.

“We saw a need to extend some of the savings we could achieve for heavy users to smaller scale businesses.”

Mr White said the North-East buying group should be attractive to any operator with a annual electricity spend of more than $5000.

Dorset Council is already part of a buying group through the Local Government Association of Tasmania for supply of power for street lighting.

But Mayor Greg Howard said depending on what sort of deal can be worked the council could leave the Association group and throw its lot in with the North-East group.

“There are plenty of businesses that have electricity as a one of their bigger expenses.”

“Scottsdale Pork, the Branxholm mill even most of the hotels should take a look at it,” he said.

The President of the Chamber of Commerce, Cynthia Summers, said all members and non-member businesses would be invited to consider the option of joining the group.

“The more we’ve got behind it the more likely we are to achieve the savings,” she said.

Mr White said there would be no obligation on those joining the buying group to accept any contract they may be offered.

But the more on board the more serious the group would be taken by retailers.

Contracts would be offered on an individual basis for one to four years and members would have until May 3 to opt in.