Page 863 - Week 03 - Thursday, 2 April 2020
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Mr Rattenbury: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) The ACT Government has not announced or made a commitment to ‘gasless suburbs’. As part of the ACT Climate Change Strategy 2019-2025 (the Strategy), the Government committed to amending planning regulations to remove the mandatory installation of reticulated gas in new suburbs. This does not prevent its installation should customers continue to value the service.
Action 4.5 of the Strategy commits the Government to developing a plan for achieving zero emissions from natural gas use by 2045. This action is due by 2024.
In developing its position on the future of natural gas, the ACT Government recognised the inconsistency of ongoing natural gas use with achievement of emission reduction targets. The Government also assessed a number of factors affecting the ability to move away from natural gas use including:
• The mandatory requirement for new developments to be connected to natural gas, was relatively new, introduced into the Territory Plan on 5 July 2013 (Variation 306), and that removal of this mandatory requirement will make the ACT consistent with all other Australian jurisdictions.
• The resilience of the ACT electricity network to support an increased proportion of stationary energy consumption, noting Australian Energy Regulator analysis that the ACT’s electricity network utilisation is currently low and has very low average outage levels and frequency per year.
• The past experience of the electricity network accommodating over the past decade the installation of 21,000 solar PV systems and 1000 battery systems, and a population increase of around 20 per cent, with minimal negative effects.
• The economics of household energy consumer choices. This includes analysis by the Commonwealth’s Equipment Energy Efficiency (E3) Program, modelling for the Ginninderry project, and Alternative Technology Association analysis indicating that all-electric options can be significantly lower cost than mixed gas and electric over product lifecycles.
Consultation supporting the development of the Strategy was conducted in 2017 and 2018. Almost 60 individual engagement events together with social media reached over 65,000 people. Suggestions received were overwhelmingly positive, demonstrating a high level of public support for action to reduce emissions. The engagement report is available at: www.act.gov.au/climatechangestrategyreport.
(2 and 4)
The Government commissioned energy demand modelling as part of the consultation process for the Strategy. This is available online at: https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/hdp.au.prod.app.act-yoursay.files/4415/1305/1355/Stationary_Energy_Modelling_Report.pdf.
(3 and 9)
Natural gas is used mostly for space heating in the ACT. This means that demand is subject to seasonal variation peaking in in winter. Electricity demand in the ACT is subject to peaks in both summer and winter. The summer peak reflects the use of electricity for air conditioning.
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