Page 1250 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 11 April 2018
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One of the greatest distributed rooftop spaces that the ACT government owns is Housing ACT properties, and the potential of using this untapped space for greater solar PV and battery storage, as in Jay Weatherill’s plan, could not only benefit the grid here in the ACT but provide real savings for low income tenants. This is important because, as a Labor member, I am concerned that, as we transition to renewable energy, it is equitable and inclusive.
The ACT government does have a role in this regard. A recent joint report released by the Climate Institute and the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Empowering disadvantaged households to access affordable, clean energy, revealed that disadvantaged people are the first affected by rising electricity prices. The report states that without significant regulation the future energy market could create a two-tiered system that favours those that can access and afford resources such as solar panels while vulnerable people get left behind. They note:
Whether housing is rented or owned determines the scope of actions available to reduce energy costs, as tenants may have neither the ability nor the incentive to invest in options such as energy efficient appliances or distributive energy like solar and batteries.
Residents in public housing, for example, are tenants, and, combined with limited financial resources, options for renewable and efficient energy sources are limited. The report recommends that federal and state governments work cooperatively to fund ongoing programs for disadvantaged and low income households, as well as to support upgrades to public and community housing stock to best practice energy efficiency standards. We are doing that. Through our existing solar for low income households program, we are offering assistance to households in need by helping them to bring down their energy costs, with estimated savings of $300 to $900 a year. But we now have an opportunity, through this motion, to ensure that more of our most vulnerable residents share in the benefits of battery storage as part of an expanded virtual power plant.
The ACT government has taken a nation-leading role in supporting renewable energy, and we must continue this work. The expansion of the small-scale virtual power plant trial into a larger project could take our nation-leading project to a whole new level, enabling our nation-leading companies in Canberra, such as Reposit Power, to prove their model on a greater scale and sell the benefits to the world. At the consumer level, a virtual power plant also has a range of benefits. Not only can solar power be stored, when the sun is shining, for later use but systems like Reposit enable off-peak energy to be stored in batteries when energy is cheap, further reducing use in peak times and passing on savings to the consumer.
Real-time energy monitoring apps can also help consumers to better understand their energy use across the day so that they can make informed decisions to reduce their electricity use at certain times, invest in more energy efficient appliances and employ the use of smart devices and timers to control use. Just over the weekend I installed a few new wi-fi sockets to make sure that my appliances are turned off during the middle of the night and during the day when I am at work, because we know that this can contribute to 10 per cent of energy costs.
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