Page 1920 - Week 05 - Thursday, 3 May 2012
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$45 per annum can be saved by purchasing a high-efficiency refrigerator. It is as simple as that. A landlord who installs insulation in a rental property can increase the star rating of their house while generating savings for the tenant of around $500 per annum, increasing value for tenants as well as potential rental earnings.
A homeowner who replaces an inefficient resistive electric heater with a mounted split-system reverse-cycle heater could be up for savings of around $280 per annum, while improving comfort and increasing the house’s resale value. A further annual saving of around $450 could be made by replacing electrical storage hot water with a gas-boosted solar system.
Due to the 25 per cent priority household target incorporated in the legislation, low income households may be provided with additional incentives to participate. Suppliers may need to employ specific tactics to engage these groups and overcome up-front cost barriers such as high-discount products or long-term on-bill financing. I note that there is also an opportunity for complementary programs funded by tier 2 contributions to target areas of the community that continue to face barriers to energy efficiency. These programs will be developed based on ongoing assessments of the scheme’s performance and identified areas of the community most in need.
These technologies, the technologies that will underpin our transformation to a low-carbon, energy efficient economy, are rapidly evolving. In the area of lighting, for example, it has only been in the last decade that we have seen our community change from incandescent to compact fluorescent lamps, with savings of over 80 per cent. Over the next decade we may see a second transition to LEDs.
The benefit of a market-based scheme such as the one proposed is that we, as legislators, do not need to make these technology calls ourselves. We provide an impartial, outcomes-based incentives framework based on targets for energy savings. The community will determine the range of measures it pursues. This means outcomes are necessarily the lowest cost and the highest value.
This flexibility responsiveness demands a robust but equally flexible legislative framework. In this context, I draw members’ attention to the following features of the legislation that will underpin its success. A range of eligible measures under the scheme is set by the minister by notifiable instrument to allow for activities demonstrated in other jurisdictions to be rapidly adopted for the benefit of the territory. A provision will be included for electricity suppliers to apply to the scheme administrator to have novel, project-based initiatives accredited. This may support wide-scale deployment of technologies or behaviour change projects to be incorporated over time.
The energy savings contribution rate is set by disallowable instrument. This will allow the Assembly to respond rapidly to technology or other market changes to adjust contributions for tier 2 suppliers so as to offset any potential competition effects. The energy savings targets set for the scheme as a whole are based on this expected amount of greenhouse gas savings achievable. A target of seven per cent applies in 2013, 13 per cent in 2014 and 14 per cent in 2015. These targets, while fixed to provide certainty for participating suppliers, can be adjusted in response to unforeseen challenges or opportunities that may emerge.
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