Page 710 - Week 02 - Thursday, 12 February 2009
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As the scheme will be funded by a spreading of costs across all ACT electricity accounts, the government has been most concerned with ensuring that the scheme does not impose an unreasonable financial impost on the community. As the scheme will also impact financially for at least 20 years, it is vitally important that the right decisions are taken at the beginning of the process.
Accordingly, I am proposing to introduce the ACT electricity feed-in tariff scheme in two stages. Stage 1 is aimed at supporting ACT households and small businesses and applies to generation facilities of no more than 30 kilowatts capacity. It is intended that this scheme will commence on 1 March this year. Stage 2 will examine how larger businesses may in the future participate in the scheme. More detailed consideration still needs to be given to the financial impact on ACT consumers of allowing access by larger generators and the desirability of introducing a whole-of-scheme or annual augmentation limit to control these impacts. Further examination of the appropriate premium price percentage to apply to different scales of generation also needs to be completed.
In addition, uncertainty regarding the potential impact of as yet unannounced initiatives, such as the ACT and commonwealth renewable energy targets, means that the government cannot prudently include larger generation within the first stage. I will be announcing details of the second stage in June this year.
I will now outline the features of the proposed first stage before moving on to flag the amendments contained in the bill. The scheme will pay a premium price for every unit of renewable energy produced from solar or wind technologies. This alone will make it the most generous scheme in the country. Other jurisdictions only pay for any excess units after deducting for on-site use. Other technologies may be added in the future.
The scheme will be open to all ACT electricity account holders, with the exception of most commonwealth and ACT government agencies. As a general rule, the government did not think it appropriate that organisations that are already funded by the public should receive further benefit. However, all schools and other educational institutions, whether government or not, will be eligible for the scheme. The government believes that the installation of renewable technologies in schools will serve as a daily reinforcement to young people of the principles of sustainability that form the basis of so much of today’s curriculum and, indeed, their future lifestyles.
The original act did not include a scheme cap. Concerns have been expressed that there were no effective limits to what scale of renewable generation would be eligible for the premium benefit, nor on the resultant liability of ACT electricity account holders. Accordingly, for stage 1, the government is proposing a cap of 30-kilowatt capacity. I propose that this cap will change when stage 2, providing for larger scale generation, commences later this year.
The cost of the scheme will be spread across ACT electricity users on the basis of volume of use. So larger users of electricity will pay more and lower users pay less. I am mindful, however, that income and energy use are not always correlated and that even this approach to equity will be a burden for some households. The government
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