Residential electricity costs — Assessment of queensland electricity tariffs for solar households

Abstract

Climate change is likely to impact on already rising household electricity costs. A need exists to better understand current consumption and generation patterns and how they impact economically on a household's electricity bill in Queensland. This paper assesses the impact of the current residential household tariffs and how, depending on the electrical system configuration of the household - namely the existence of a PV system with or without a small battery unit - impacts which tariffs are financially optimal for a homeowner. This is conducted by applying the study to real data from a South East Queensland case study household and assessing the costs to the household under four scenarios with varying tariff and cost structures and energy system configurations.