In February the Queensland Productivity Commission released a draft report into electricity pricing and now they are in a period of community consultation.

Queensland Productivity Commission principal commissioner Kim Wood was in Mount Isa this week for informal sessions with electricity users to hear their concerns and talk about what the inquiry was doing.

Mr Wood said Queensland’s electricity prices had almost doubled in the past decade but average electricity prices were still among the lowest of the major states.

He said price increases were mostly driven by escalating network costs (82% of the total increase), although the costs of the Solar Bonus Scheme and Renewable Energy Target have also played a role.

Mr Wood noted that in regional areas the monopoly position held by Ergon was a concern and his commission has recommended to the government that they open it up to competition.

Local business owner Bill Gardner told Mr Wood that Ergon had local businesses “by the short and curlies” and he had seen his bills rise dramatically in recent years.

Mr Wood noted that users in regional areas were subsidised by a variable amount.

“Regional Queenslanders are already penalised for living far away from facilities like large hospitals and governments say electricity prices shouldn’t be another way they are disadvantaged,” Mr Wood said.

“If people in south-east Queensland don’t like that, well, Queensland wouldn’t survive without its regions.”

Mr Wood said the inquiry would not solve every problem but operators could make savings with more efficient operations and more transparent bidding processes.

He said the commission had received a range of views on solar tariffs from people who believed the subsidies were either too small or too large.

“There’s a range of views and no magic bullet,” he said.

Mr Wood said many people had complained about the fixed charges component of their bills.

The draft report said the historic ‘fixed and variable charging’ model was not equitable and did not support least-cost provision of network services.

“The growing penetration of airconditioning, solar PV and electric vehicles means tariff changes and advanced meters will be needed,” the report said.

The Productivity Commission will deliver its final report to the Queensland government on May 31.