UQ, Energy Users Aust ask what sparks farmers' electricity use habits

For farmers with multiple meter boxes and usage patterns, the challenge to understand and choose the most efficient and practical energy contract can often become too complex to waste time bothering.

Farm enterprises, particularly in the broadacre irrigation and horticultural cropping and packing sectors, can typically have 10 to 25 different metering points servicing irrigation pumps, machinery sheds, cool rooms and domestic accommodation, each potentially putting quite different load pressures on the power grid at different times of the day or year.

Solar panels and farm consolidation trends areas have added extra power facilities and factors to keep track of.

To get a better understanding of just how hard it is for farmers to manage their bills in the complex and crafty energy market, a study is soon to begin across Queensland and NSW.

A key focus of inquiry will be finding out how farmers select their electricity tariffs amid a range of retail market options; who they trust for advice, and whether they feel better or worse off with the services offered to them these days.

Queensland Farmers Federation, whose membership largely reflects the concerns of horticulture, cane, cotton and intensive livestock producers, has been active in trying to simplify farmers' power costs and get fairer deals from the marketplace.

"The whole energy network's supply demands and costs are complicated, but we should expect the market to offer more flexibility for farmers, as it tends to do for manufacturers," said QFF energy project manager Andrew Chamberlain.

"We want farmers to have the best opportunities to be competitive operators so they can employ workers and provide a sustainable economic base in their communities and the wider economy."

QFF will work with the University of Queensland study, which has been further aided by $74,000 in funding from the independent body Energy Consumers Australia, the body established six years ago to articulate consumer priorities and concerns across the energy supply market.

ECA is itself funded by a small federally-legislated tariff on power bills.

The UQ study hopes to identify ways to cut farm energy costs by first gauging farmers' understanding of electricity tariffs and then helping governments and the power industry understand the tools and information these particular consumers need to make informed decisions.

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"We need to build the evidence base for these small business consumers," said ECA chief executive Lynne Gallagher.

"We know today's farmers are no strangers to weighing up complex information, whether it's weather or soil hydrology or a host of other considerations to help them maximise yields or to farm smarter with the best available information.

"But information about energy tariffs and the impact they can have on farming has not often been presented in ways which take into account how farmers use energy or which speak to their experience.

"We're confident this project will help farmers make decisions around how and when they use energy that allow them to be more efficient and, ultimately, save them money."

Ms Gallagher said industry and policy makers also needed a better understanding of the social and economic impacts felt by farmers and other small business owners when designing tariffs.

UQ electrical engineering and information technology senior lecturer Archie Chapman said it was important for energy retailers and farmer representative groups to understand how the current maze of tariff options influenced farmers' behavior, including their enthusiasm to expand their operation or make efficiency upgrades.

"Tariff structures set by energy retailers can be fairly blunt instruments which don't necessarily reflect the way farmers use electricity," Dr Chapman said.

He also noted electricity companies often tended to be less competitive in providing tariffs to fit farm usage patterns, especially if consumers lacked the energy market literacy or time required to work out the best deal.

Lack of real price and service competition was more likely to thrive in these complex marketplaces.

QFF's Mr Chamberlain said specialist businesses could help farmers devise energy plans, and industry bodies such as Cotton Australia and QFF had a solid base of general experience, but individual farms had varied power needs which often required a lot of time and constant reviewing to capture an appropriate deal.

"You can check out the Energy Made Easy website to do price comparisons, or telephone the retailers themselves, but settling on the best tariff can turn into a very long phone call if you've got 30 pumps, or your farm has a mix of pump usage requirements, plus workshops, and shearing shed only used occasionally," he said.

Simply comparing prices did not necessarily tell the full story, either.

Cheaper tariffs may come with operational costs like power supplies being cut at times when the network was experiencing high demand peaks.

The UQ survey will seek responses from a cross section of Essential Energy, Energex and Ergon Energy farm consumers, reporting its results in the first half of 2022.

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