State Cabinet has cleared the way for caravan parks in the State's North and Goldfields districts to have access to domestic electricity rates for their tenants.
Fuel and Energy Minister Geoff Gallop said today that this would represent a saving of up to six cents per unit of energy consumed by caravan parks in the North and Goldfields.
Centres north of the 26th parallel are eligible for the domestic tariffs, plus the Shires of Meekatharra, Wiluna, Cue, Yalgoo, Mt Magnet, Sandstone, Leonora, Laverton, Menzies, Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie/Boulder and Dundas.
SECWA's regional personnel will be receiving details of this decision over the next few days so that they can respond to inquiries from caravan park operators.
"The Government is aware of the necessity of caravan park residency in the North and the Goldfields where, primarily as a result of air-conditioning, energy consumption is high," Dr Gallop said.
"To address this problem, the Government has decided to provide caravan parks in these regions with access to domestic electricity tariffs. Eligible caravan park tenants will also be able to claim for applicable rebates, such as seniors and dependent child concessions.
"The onus rests with the caravan park operator to approach SECWA regarding metering at domestic rates. Whilst parks have the option of remaining on commercial rates, or considering time of use tariffs, it is expected that the domestic tariff will be more attractive in these regions."
The Minister said SECWA would install a single master domestic meter and apply domestic tariffs to caravan parks for the standard $22 connection fee. Caravan parks will be required to isolate shop and office facilities as they will continue to be billed at commercial energy rates.
The domestic tariff includes a supply charge of 22.54 cents per day and a charge of 12.29 cents per unit consumed. The supply charge, which represents the fixed costs of supplying power, will be levied against each powered site in the caravan park.
"The applicable rebates will be credited to the caravan park account with the intention of them being passed on to eligible caravan park residents," Dr Gallop said.
"It will continue to be the responsibility of the park manager to divide the total energy bill amongst the residents. This arrangement is similar to that which applies in numerous blocks of flats.
"New caravan parks will be required to install individual site meters within long stay areas to ensure that residents are supplied with energy at domestic rates.
"The Government is also examining the problems faced by caravan park residents elsewhere in the State. It will address these issues when legislation for caravan park residency is passed.
"The changes being applied in the North and the Goldfields are a response to the very high energy consumption that is required in these areas and they will be monitored to assess their effectiveness."
