Leyburn based farmers Ronnie and Nick Adamson are seeking compensation for all Queenslanders who they say copped surging power bills.
The two farmers have accused two Queensland government-owned electricity generators of price gouging as part of a class action lawsuit which started in Brisbane’s Federal Court on Monday.
The Adamsons are owners of Stillwater Pastoral Company and agreed to lead the lawsuit against Stanwell Corporation and CS Energy in 2021 when they learnt about the factors driving up their electricity prices.
“Electricity prices can break a business; they are ridiculously high,” Nick said.
“When we learnt that the system was being gamed to drive up those prices, like spiking the price from $70 to $13,000, we felt like we had to do something, for everyone.”
Both companies are alleged to have artificially inflated the wholesale price of electricity sold to retailers in an industry practice known as “gaming the system”.
The lawsuit is being led by national law firm Piper Alderman who will allege the companies’ actions added significantly to power prices paid by Queensland-based electricity consumers and businesses between 2013 and 2019. Stanwell and CS Energy have both rejected the claims.
Every Queensland resident and business owner who paid a power bill during that six year period will be compensated through the lawsuit if successful.
“We are determined to see that all Queenslanders who copped exorbitant power bills while the generators were gaming the system get some compensation,” Nick said.
Piper Alderman partner Greg Whyte claimed “dramatic price spikes” in wholesale power prices for Queenslanders could not be justified.
“Price spikes like this can’t be explained away by unexpected demand, or by system faults which can occur,” Mr Whyte said.
“These price spikes were both contrived and massive, moving prices from an average cost of, say $70, to the price ceiling of say $13,000, in a five minute period,” he said.
“The unacceptable practices slowed when the state government intervened by issuing a directive to Stanwell Corporation to ‘undertake strategies to place downward pressure on wholesale prices’ in the words of the directive, but by then the damage had been done.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Stanwell labelled the allegations “false” and “clearly opportunistic”.
“We will continue to vigorously defend against it in court, but we expect this will be a long and costly process,” the statement read.
CS Energy similarly rejected the claims in a statement, saying it will be “strongly defending” the lawsuit.
