The Hodgman Government continues to do all we can to keep power prices as low as possible.
We recognise that the ongoing volatility in the national electricity market has caused a significant increase in the national wholesale price of power over the course of this year.
While 99 per cent of customers in Tasmania have the benefit of regulated power prices and have therefore been protected from these increases, there are a number of larger businesses that are unregulated and have been exposed to price increases.
We recognise that we need to do everything we can as a Government to help reduce the impact of the price increases being experienced by these businesses.
That's why earlier this year the Government worked with Hydro Tasmania to reduce the wholesale contract price of power by around 20 per cent. In addition, in this years budget we included $20 million to be available for energy rebates for eligible business customers to further reduce the price impact.
Today I am pleased to announce that the Government has finalised the design of the energy rebate scheme. Under the scheme a further rebate of up to $15 per megawatt hour will be made available to eligible business customers. The rebate will apply retrospectively and apply to contracts entered into between 1 January 2017 and 30 June 2018. This means a further discount of up to 15 per cent against the wholesale contract price.
While we recognise that the market environment continues to be challenging for unregulated customers, this further intervention is great news for Tasmanian businesses and means they will have access to some of the lowest wholesale power prices currently on offer in the national market.
In addition the Tasmanian Government continues to work with our network business to reduce network costs. We are pleased to say that network costs have also reduced by around 20 per cent from 1 July this year.
Today's announcement is another example of the decisive action the Tasmanian Government has taken to insulate Tasmanians from the volatility in the national energy market. We are also undertaking a review of the wholesale pricing arrangements in Tasmania to ensure that in the future Tasmanian energy prices continue to be amongst the lowest in the country.
The Government is committed to making sure power prices for households and all businesses are as low as possible and we will continue to act to make that happen.