Page 1120 - Week 03 - Thursday, 26 February 2009
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way and needs to be done in a way that will not be pre-empted or pressured by moves to simply open up the feed-in tariff scheme to a broader range of participants in a short period of time.
Let us do the work, let us do the analysis, let us understand the impacts, positive and negative, and if there are impacts that are negative let us make sure we can work out how to ameliorate those if we believe there is still a broader public interest in expanding the scheme in certain ways or choose to limit the scheme in other ways that nevertheless go above the existing threshold, but still perhaps do not go fully into the scale of very large-scale generation. Personally, I think the opportunity is there to explore medium scale generation. That is something which is worthy of further and detailed consideration, and that is the point of the stage 2 process.
The government will be giving further and detailed consideration to the issues of annual or total scheme targets and the likely range of additional financial imposts on households, as I have mentioned. For all these reasons the government is proposing at this stage a cap of 30 kilowatts on generation capacity. The original open-ended liability of 75 per cent of the premium price for any facility above 30 kilowatts represents an unlimited risk that could not be ignored, but conversely could not at this time be fully addressed. This work will be undertaken over the coming months.
Installations of 10 kilowatts, more than enough to power the largest ACT residence, remain eligible for the full 100 per cent premium price with installations of between 10 kilowatts and 30 kilowatts eligible for 80 per cent of the premium price. Notwithstanding this interim 30 kilowatt cap, the ACT scheme remains the most generous scheme in the country.
The government is also proposing the exclusion from the scheme of most commonwealth and ACT government agencies, again based on equity considerations. It is unreasonable to expect that agencies that are funded by the public should, in using these public moneys, accrue further benefit at the community’s expense. It was not the intention of the government, nor I suspect that of the Assembly, to allow double dipping.
I believe, however, that schools and other educational institutions should be an exception to this exclusion. Climate change and sustainability issues will endure well into our future. They will impact on the form of our city, the direction of our economy and the lifestyles of all Canberrans. It is appropriate therefore that the institutions that shape the attitudes and values of our young people are also examples to them of the role that renewable technologies will need to play in their lives. Whether in day-to-day use or as the basis of applied research, these technologies will serve to reinforce the measures of sustainability that colour so much of our future.
The amendments strictly define which educational organisations retain eligibility to access the premium price. The use of the transitional franchise tariff in the act, as both the interim premium base multiplier and the default normal cost of electricity, has been an issue of much discussion with industry and local and national regulators. The TFT is by definition transitional and is now not expected to exist for more than two to four years under current national electricity market reforms. In the context of a 20-year program, this use poses several operational problems.
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