Wholesale Power Prices

This graph is from the wholesale electricity market site. It shows what the average wholesale price has been for the last five years, by month. So it smooths out the spikes that last for a day or two.

As you can see most of 2016 and 2016 it was around $50/MWh. This is around a third of the retail price. Sometimes would spike higher to over $100.

Since mid 2018 it has consistently been over $100 except for a few months in early 2020. And in 2021 it has increased month on month to hit $250. Some daily spikes have been at $500.

So wholesale prices in 2021 are well above retail prices. So guess what that means? It is totally inevitable retail prices will soon increase, and potentially quite massively.

And this will be as a consequence of government policy. MBIE explicitly warned the Government this may happen. The Government will try and find someone else to blame such as electricity retailers or generators. Or maybe even landlords if they can make that stick. But we will know better.