Page 2363 - Week 06 - Thursday, 10 May 2012
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of the Liberal opposition, who seem not to have read the regulatory impact statement or listened to their Victorian ministerial counterpart who only last week told me that their energy efficiency obligation scheme puts downward pressure on residential electricity prices. They do so by reducing overall demand. That means lower costs for the generation, transmission and distribution network, which of course accounts for more than 70 per cent of electricity prices.
This is very much a Labor scheme, intentionally crafted and directed to benefit the most disadvantaged people on lower incomes. It has been designed so that we get the best result, through allowing marketing decisions to be made by those businesses best able to do so.
MS PORTER: Supplementary question, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Porter.
MS PORTER: Minister, can you advise the Assembly what are the benefits of increased energy efficiency to the broader ACT community?
MR CORBELL: Again, I thank Ms Porter for the question. The advantages of the scheme and the broader benefits of increased energy efficiency are very much around first of all reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions make a significant contribution towards meeting our overall emissions reductions targets. This scheme alone delivers three-quarters of a million tonnes worth of abatement over a two-year period, a very significant contribution in the operation of the scheme.
The biggest opportunities when it comes to greenhouse gas abatement are, of course, in energy efficiency and energy conservation. That is why this scheme is such an important step. Energy efficiency reduces demand and therefore lowers costs. As I mentioned in my earlier answer, ACT households get a range of benefits from this scheme, but the greater the reduction in overall demand, the lower the cost to everyone. If we reduce demand, everybody wins, whether they participate in the scheme or not, because it reduces demand on the network, it reduces demand for augmentation, it reduces demand for that augmentation to be met through increases in power prices.
Of course, another advantage to the wider community is that it helps to start the transition from a model that sees utilities making their profit from selling more and more energy to a model that has them selling energy services, which means that the energy becomes an input cost. So their incentive is to reduce that cost by providing goods and services which use less energy, not more. Experience in Victoria and South Australia tells us that residents will take to the scheme with enthusiasm. We look forward to its uptake here in the ACT.
MR COE: Supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Coe.
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