Coronavirus has left many Tasmanians facing electricity bill shock. What can you do?
Author: ABC News Date Posted:4 September 2020
Many Tasmanians are receiving power bills that are much higher than they were last winter.
The State Opposition said it was hearing stories from "all corners of Tasmania" of families receiving bills for thousands of dollars.
For many, the reasons why are a combination of more time spent at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic and state-owned electricity company TasNetworks' decision to estimate electricity usage during April and May, also because of coronavirus.
How have these factors led to higher bills?
It is no surprise that households would receive higher bills during the COVID-19 pandemic: people who would not normally heat their homes during the day found themselves working from home, and people were also home in the evenings more often.
The pandemic also led to TasNetworks suspending reading electricity meters in April and May. Bills for that period were estimated and based on a household's, or small business's, average usage from the same time last year.
People were spending more time at home from late March, when coronavirus restrictions came into effect, so their usage was generally much higher than it was during the same period last year.
Chief executive of Tasmania's electricity retailer Aurora Energy Rebecca Kardos said those factors meant many estimated bills were under-estimated. The additional usage is being added to bills for the current billing period.
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