Power bills price plan
ELECTRICITY bills will fall by up to $115 a year over the 2020-2030 period under the Turnbull Government’s new energy plan, which drops renewable energy subsidies and certificates.
The National Energy Guarantee was carried through the Liberal party room yesterday but will require agreement from the states at a COAG meeting to make it a reality.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said energy companies would have to guarantee the reliability of their energy supplies and guarantee their energy sources would enable Australia to meet emissions targets.
Under pressure from conservatives, including Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz, the Government abandoned a Clean Energy Target advocated by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel. Mr Turnbull said the policy formulated by the Energy Security Board would bring about cheaper and more reliable power through coal, gas, hydro, solar, batteries, wind and pumped hydro.
Opposition climate change and energy spokesman Mark Butler said thousands of jobs in the renewable energy sector were at risk if growth was restricted to 4.5 per cent over 30 years.
The plan will contain a reliability guarantee for each state, prescribing a “right level of dispatchable energy”.
This comes as Tasmania recovers from last year’s $180 million energy crisis when a Basslink outage coincided with low inflows into Hydro dams to prompt industrial power rationing. Senator Abetz said the policy was a step in the right direction that would help pensioners and families with cost of living pressures.
State Energy Minister Guy Barnett said Tasmania’s baseload Hydro power would become even more important under the policy.
“We will want to see detail on how the Federal Government’s announcement today will lower energy prices and promote energy security and reliability specifically for Tasmania,” he said.
But energy analyst Marc White said the new policy would have an impact on any renewable projects planned to be built after 2020, because of the question mark over renewable energy subsidies.
Hydro Tasmania chief executive Steve Davy said its vision for Tasmania to become the “battery of the nation” via pumped hydro schemes would remain important under the new energy plan.
“About 80 per cent of Australia’s power comes from coal-fired stations that will eventually close. Under any policy settings, Australia is going to need substantial energy development with low emissions,” he said.
Aurora Energy CEO Rebecca Kardos said Tasmania was well positioned to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy generation with the help of a recently confirmed 150MW wind farm at Cattle Hill.