On 22 December 1995 council entered into an agreement to pay Energex (The South East Queensland Electricity Corporation) $7,816,000 to deliver reticulated power to properties on Russell Island with a current building approval and that were not in drainage problem areas (this covers nearly, if not all, existing residential lots). This was to be at no cost to council or residents and covered the period up to 31 December 2050. The contract relates only to the provision of reticulated power on Russell Island.
Energex took the money from council and seems to have complied with the conditions of the contract for a while. But now they want to charge again! To add insult to injury, because of land amalgamations and previous rounds of ‘buy backs’ and land swaps by council there are less properties to be connected than there were in 1995.
The double charge is a so called ‘planning or assessment’ fee, that coincidentally reflects the cost of putting in new poles to deliver reticulated power. Energex have been forcing residents to pay this to have reticulated power installed that is accessible to their property. Even more bizarrely, this has escalated to Energex demanding residents have insurance in place to cover the potential damage to poles. These poles are owned by Energex and installed by Energex and are located on council owned and maintained footpaths.
It would seem that in developing their Pricing Proposal to the Australian Energy Regulator (AER). Energex have failed to adjust for the 1995 service agreement. It is now a situation of the computer says ‘NO’, and Energex says pay up or no power.
Some have argued that the planning or assessment fee is an issue between the resident applying for the power connection and Energex, not a council issue. I am aware of many instances of residents trying to negotiate with Energex, all to no avail.
However, I believe it is a contract issue between council and Energex. We paid ratepayer money to Energex for the future delivery of reticulated power supply, an amount that was based on a forecast number of residential lots in 1995.
At my instigation, council legal officers have been negotiating with Energex and Energex is waiving these fees on a case-by-case basis at the request of residents. This is not good enough!
Energex should not be charging these fees and should be refunding fees that have been charged to residents. I have asked council to pursue this matter and will continue to do so. I have also raised this matter with Rebecca Young MP, she is also advocating on this matter with Energex.
This matters to all Redlands residents because it is your money that Energex took for the delivery of services it is now refusing to provide.
In the interim, a number of Russell Island residents have already emailed me copies of invoices and receipts for assessment or connection fees for the delivery of reticulated power supply to their lots. We are discussing these on a case-by-case basis with Energex.
If you have been charged and have an invoice or receipt please email me on shane.rendalls@redland.qld.gov.au and we will add yours to the list of claims.
A copy of the agreement with Energex is attached.
To be clear, what we are talking about are the poles that run power down the street, not the smaller private poles installed on private property.