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Electricity cost pass-through trial
Background
Irrigation customers in the relevant tariff groups of selected schemes participated in a three-year ‘no one is worse off’ electricity cost pass-through trial from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2023.
During the trial, Sunwater’s actual, scheme-level electricity cost savings (if any) were passed through to irrigation customers at the end of the financial year through a credit applied to their bills. If Sunwater spent more on electricity than it recovered from customers, no debits were applied to customers’ bills.
The trial covered irrigation customers in the following water supply schemes and irrigation tariff groups:
| Water Supply Scheme | Tariff group |
| Barker Barambah | Redgate Relift – medium priority |
| Bundaberg | Channel or watercourse supplemented by a channel |
| Burdekin Haughton | Burdekin Channel Giru Groundwater Area Glady’s Lagoon – other than from natural yield |
| Lower Mary River | Lower Mary Channel |
| Mareeba-Dimbulah | Channel – Relift |
| Upper Condamine | North Branch – medium priority North Branch – Risk A |
Decision to extend the trial
Sunwater is currently part-way through the Rural irrigation price review 2025-2029 process being led by the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA). In response to QCA’s Draft Report (issued in July 2024), which included a recommendation regarding an electricity costs review event, Sunwater has chosen to extend the electricity cost pass-through trial for an additional two years (until 30 June 2025). Sunwater made this decision because it is more equitable to return electricity credits to individual customers through the pass-through mechanism than by lowering future prices and distributing the credits to all customers, some of whom might not have been eligible for the credits.
2023-24 Electricity cost pass-through outcomes
Sunwater is currently summarising the 2023-2024 Electricity cost pass-through outcomes for the six participating water supply schemes. Those outcomes will be posted below as they become available.
Frequently asked questions