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Speaker 1: Well, as we've heard, Northern Territory households are set to

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Speaker 1: benefit from what's been described as the biggest electricity discount

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Speaker 1: ever offered in the Northern Territory, as Rimfire Energy launches

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Speaker 1: a new residential offer that's designed to drive competition and

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Speaker 1: to try and help families to save amidst a cost

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Speaker 1: of living crunch. Now, Rimfire Energy is going to give

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Speaker 1: customers ten percent off their electricity bills for the first

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Speaker 1: six months, followed by two point five percent off every

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Speaker 1: bill after that, plus a sixteen point five cent solar

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Speaker 1: feed in tariff and zero transfer fee. Now, Rimfire Energy's

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Speaker 1: managing director, Michael Allen joins me on the show. Good morning, Michael,

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Speaker 1: Morning Caty. Good to have you on the show. Now, Michael,

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Speaker 1: this new residential offer is being called the biggest electricity

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Speaker 1: discount ever in the territory. First off, can you talk

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Speaker 1: us through exactly what customers will get and how it

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Speaker 1: all works.

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Speaker 2: Certainly, Katy. When customers transfer over to rimfore Energy for

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Speaker 2: the first six months, we're offering a ten percent discount

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Speaker 2: off their electricity tariff. That's a pay on time discount.

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Speaker 2: We're also offering if you've got a solar system of

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Speaker 2: sixteen and a half cent solar feeding tariff, and that

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Speaker 2: tariff is nearly double the tariff otherwise on offer in

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Speaker 2: the market. Now once the six months introductory period is over,

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Speaker 2: will drop back to a two and a half percent discount,

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Speaker 2: and then that continues on and a solo feeding tariff

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Speaker 2: again a market leading tariff's flat point one sense.

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Speaker 1: Michael, I know that Rimfire's obviously been in the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory for many years, but what's driving the move into

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Speaker 1: the residential market.

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Speaker 2: Probably the next stage of our approach of delivering savings

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Speaker 2: in the Northern Territory cading. We started a little over

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Speaker 2: ten years ago focusing on the larger commercial and industrial market.

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Speaker 2: We then, once the regulations and rules allowed, moved into

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Speaker 2: the regulated space of the small to medium enterprise market.

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Speaker 2: We've now got about a quarter of those markets across

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Speaker 2: I guess across the grids in the Northern Territory of Darwin, Catherine,

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Speaker 2: Tenant Creek and Alice Springs. Now we do have residential

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Speaker 2: customers already numbering in the thousands, but really need to,

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Speaker 2: I think, focus on delivering these deep discounts to the

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Speaker 2: residential customers in the Northern.

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Speaker 1: Territory, Like, how have you found that sort of transition

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Speaker 1: obviously going from the you know, the larger commercial to

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Speaker 1: moving into the residential phase. And what's the take up

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Speaker 1: being I guess from locals you sort of touched on it,

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Speaker 1: but has it been quite a you know, quite a

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Speaker 1: popular sort of thing for people to come across the

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Speaker 1: rim fire.

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Speaker 2: We certainly have gone through a process. We had to,

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Speaker 2: you know, from the start, tell people you know who

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Speaker 2: we are and what we're doing. Given that there has

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Speaker 2: been I guess not so much competition in the electricity

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Speaker 2: market to date in the Northern Territory. We're really the

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Speaker 2: first one to make this sort of penetration into the market.

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Speaker 2: I think we're the retailer apart from the encumbent to

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Speaker 2: have sorry, we're the first retailer to have customers in

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs, Tenant Creek and also in the Darwin Catherine area. Ye.

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Speaker 1: And it's interesting, I suppose because in other states, like

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Speaker 1: it's quite a normal thing to have, you know, a

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Speaker 1: competitive market, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Oh? It is, and you know, we're very keen to

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Speaker 2: bring that competition to the to the Northern Territory. It's

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Speaker 2: it's not unusual for residential customers particularly to be I

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Speaker 2: guess comparing what's on offer with the different retailers, particularly

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Speaker 2: on the East Coast and Australia, and we're very keen

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Speaker 2: to bring those sorts of savings here, Michael.

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Speaker 1: In terms of that solar feed in tariff the sixteen

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Speaker 1: point five cent offer that rim Fire of like, how

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Speaker 1: significant is that for households with rooftop solar and you know,

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Speaker 1: I guess comparatively to some of the changes that we've

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Speaker 1: seen in this space over the last year or so.

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Speaker 2: Yes, well it's double what's otherwise out there or nearly double, Katie,

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Speaker 2: So quite a significant benefit where customers can earn significantly

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Speaker 2: more for every killer what our of electricity that they

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Speaker 2: export to the grid.

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Speaker 1: Now, I know that Rimfire Group also developed one of

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Speaker 1: the territory's largest privately built solar arrays. It's the ten

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Speaker 1: megawatt facility at Bachelor. It generates enough clean power for

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Speaker 1: about eighteen hundred homes. How is that tracking and do

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Speaker 1: you think there's greater capacity for solar across the Northern Territory?

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Speaker 2: Yes, Katie. We developed two utility scale power stations. One

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Speaker 2: was the ten megawatt solar power plant you mentioned at Bachelor.

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Speaker 2: The other was a twelve and a half megawatt gasfide

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Speaker 2: power station at wish Art. Now those those power stations

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Speaker 2: developed by room Fire and contracted directly with our retailer

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Speaker 2: will allow us to, in addition to the savings we've

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Speaker 2: already achieved at the retail level, in the future be

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Speaker 2: able to offer I guess, deep discounting such as we're

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Speaker 2: doing here with this ten percent offer, and hopefully more

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Speaker 2: going forward. As for more generation, Cody, we think, yes,

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Speaker 2: there is work to be done in I guess stabilizing

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Speaker 2: the grid and keeping keeping everything operating, but we think

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Speaker 2: there's definitely more room for private generation, and I guess

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Speaker 2: I just underscore the importance of that generation being able

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Speaker 2: to access the grid firstly, but then be able to

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Speaker 2: contract directly with our retailer so we can pass on

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Speaker 2: those savings to the customer. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Right, So do you reckon that the changes that the

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Speaker 1: government announced, Like, I don't know whether you've had much

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Speaker 1: of a look at it, but obviously the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: government announcing some changes last week to the way in

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Speaker 1: which you know, things sort of work. I suppose you know,

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Speaker 1: across our essential services, and that legislation being introduced to parliament.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon that will make much of a difference

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Speaker 1: and enable you know, competitors like yourself to be able

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Speaker 1: to operate in the market in the Northern Territory more effectively.

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Speaker 2: That's a quite involved question, Katie, Let me start. Let

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Speaker 2: me start with the first part. Yes, that's a subject

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Speaker 2: very close to my own heart. I've spent a lot

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Speaker 2: of time looking at that. There are some changes that

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Speaker 2: have come in brought in by the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 2: to date that we believe are really good. As an example,

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Speaker 2: there's the MSATS enabling project, which allows us to change

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Speaker 2: customers over in a matter of days as opposed to

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Speaker 2: what usually took around a month or more, and that

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Speaker 2: allows us to have this sort of I guess deep

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Speaker 2: discounting offer to residential customers in the territory. There are

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Speaker 2: other changes I think we're looking at, I guess an

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Speaker 2: independent market operator, which we think is a very important

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Speaker 2: thing and a very good change we do have. I

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Speaker 2: guess there are I guess some other changes being considered

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Speaker 2: that we would think perhaps we need to look at

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Speaker 2: carefully to make sure that they do deliver the lower

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Speaker 2: prices and a stable efficient grid for the Northern territory well.

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Speaker 1: Rim Fire Energies Managing Director Michael Allen really good to

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Speaker 1: catch up with you this morning. I really appreciate your time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie great, Thank you you

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Speaker 1: Too, Thanks so much,