HUGE rises in power prices are the latest blow to the financially embattled Mount Gambier Community Returned and Services League (RSL).
On the brink of closure only months ago, the RSL has managed to survive with the support of the generous Mount Gambier community.
However, with a massive rise in electricity prices meaning the organisation’s bill has tripled in just one month, general manager Sam Dwyer said it was time to take a serious look at how to save money.
“Adding $4000 to our electricity bill will make quite a significant difference,” he said.
“We are looking at lots of options, including solar, upgrading the lighting to LEDs, anything to reduce our power consumption a bit more efficiently in-house.”
But currently going through reports, Mr Dwyer said “you have to spend money to save money”.
“When you get to the nuts and bolts of things they don’t really seem to work out as well as they do on paper, so we are really looking at making sure every dollar we spend is cash flow positive,” he said.
“We are assessing whether or not the benefits outweigh the costs.
“Even swapping the lights is quite a big job for us, we have got 450 lights to change over and they are hard-wired in.”
Mr Dwyer said he was positive the RSL would be able to survive yet another set-back, but the toughest period would be the next 12 months.
“There will be a big spike in the first year, but it should go down in the second and third years because we have locked in our power rates for three years,” he said.
“Power prices are always going to go up, it’s just the nature of the beast.”
But falling victim to the price rise, Naracoorte’s Kincraig Hotel closed its doors permanently only last week, with electricity costs a key pressure prompting the decision.
“The power prices were definitely part of the problem, it was hard enough to pay the bills before this rise,” licensee Peter Symonds said.
“An increase of 123pc certainly didn’t help.
“We didn’t want to finish that way, but it was out of our hands.”
Thankful it has not come to that for the RSL, Mr Dwyer said it could be a lot worse.
“We will get through it as we always go, we have pushed through worse recently,” he said.
“We have to keep going, we have to survive.”
