In Lady Windermere’s Fan, Oscar Wilde has Lord Darlington describe a cynic as a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.

Start-up power retailer Energy Locals has become the second market player in a week to hit out at the greed of some of Australia’s biggest fossil fuel generators, for their role in “deliberately” pushing up consumer electricity bills and generally manipulating the market.

The country’s main energy rule maker has once again delayed a decision on the so-called 5-minute rule – a critical change that could help reduce electricity prices and encourage new technologies such as battery storage – after facing intense new opposition from incumbent utilities fearful of losing their pricing power.

Even as Australian power prices continue to rise, and the costs of solar and battery storage continue to fall, it remains relatively rare for established, grid-connected households to cut the cord, so to speak, and leave their local electricity network.