It has finally happened! There has been talk for a while now about solar customers getting charged an extra fixed fee on their electricity bills and now Victorian power company, Simple Energy, has done just that. They have implemented an extra 14c per day charge for solar households.

Simple Energy is the retail arm of GDF Suez – the owner of the toxic Hazelwood power plant and coal mines. What makes it worse is that this charge has been gazetted since January but it was done quietly and is only coming to light now, almost 6 months later.

The charge adds an extra $51 to solar household’s electricity bills which non-solar households won’t pay.

CEO of the Australian Solar Council is outraged by the move. “They are not charging users who pile on demand during periods of peak demand (like air conditioner users), pushing power prices up for everyone,” he said in an emailed statement. “Instead they are targeting users who lower demand during peak periods, take the most expensive load off the grid, push wholesale prices down, and delay or remove the need for expensive network upgrades.”

“What makes things even worse is that Energy Minister Northe has teamed up with Simply Energy to endorse the solar charge claiming on Twitter that because ‘poles and wires cost money’ solar customers should pay more for them. It’s disgraceful,” says Solar Citizens National Director, Lindsay Souter. “We know what this charge is really designed to do. By allowing unfair and unreasonable charges to be slapped on Victorian solar users, the government is looking to help big energy retailers like Simply Energy discourage people from going solar and grab even more money along the way.”

Solar Citizens have started a petition to ask Premiere Napthine to change the Electricity Industry Act to make it a condition of a retail energy licence that no power offer can discriminate between those that have solar and those that don’t. They want to ask Premier Napthine and Minister North who they stand with – the big power companies, or the people?

At the time this article was published there was just short of 1400 signatures on the petition – Solar Citizens are aiming for 2500 signatures. Click here to sign the petition.