At the federal level, a review of the Renewable Energy Target by the Abbott government meant renewable generators had to stall their projects because they weren’t sure whether subsidies would still be available to them.

Indecision has also led to problems with baseload power as plants shut down – Energy Australia, which runs the Mount Piper plant at Lithgow, ruled out expanding because its expectation was to move towards renewables.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had to threaten using government export powers on gas suppliers to make them sell more gas domestically to guarantee supply. 

Meanwhile at the state level, sales of the generators and most recently the poles and wires have left the market to private enterprise.

Private enterprise might be more flexible than government and it might be able to cut overheads, but unfortunately it has not missed the consumer.

So what we have is vulnerable people facing electricity price rises of 60 per cent in the past 10 years, and 23 per cent since July 1. 

For those like Dan Fock who can afford $30,000-worth of solar panels and batteries to offset that increase, it will carry savings in the long term.

But what about lower-income households who can’t?

Shopping around regularly for the best deal is a must and it is possible to cut back on usage, to a point. 

Certain appliances suck power even when they’re not in use and they can be switched off at the power point. 

Heating can also be run for shorter periods, but it’s not acceptable in today’s society for the vulnerable to go to bed at 7.30pm because they can’t afford to heat the house – sadly, this is reality for some. 

Tuesday marked a decision to abandon the clean energy target and while it’s designed to guarantee supply, we would question the additional volatility this could place on the renewables market.

We will never know whether we could have had an extra 50,000 homes-worth of electricity in the grid by now if the Flyers Creek wind farm near Blayney hadn’t been held up. 

But we do know prices are at a critical point and this latest move needs to deliver.