Households, small business pay for switch to green energy

West Australian
Saturday 2/5/2009 Page: 4

WA household and small business power bills could jump at least 10% over the next decade to pay for a national plan to generate 20% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020, according to Office of Energy figures. But power-intensive big business will be largely exempt from the charges because of the global financial crisis and their role in the separate emissions trading scheme, due to start next year.

Under the renewable energy target, announced after the Council of Australian Governments meeting on Thursday, WA households could be slugged in order to fund the $1 billion - plus required to improve the State's infrastructure to make the scheme viable. The spending would be needed to join new windfarms and other renewable energy sources such as solar to the existing power grid.

The increase would be on top of a previously announced 26% lift in power bills from July, which is designed to bring the price of electricity in line with its true cost. Energy Minister Peter Collier said yesterday that some of the renewable energy target's costs may be offset by deep cuts to an existing $6 billion proposal by Western Power to upgrade its network.

"I think it's inevitable that the initial submission from Western Power will not be met," he said. Mr Collier said that while Western Power's proposal was currently before the industry watchdog, it was likely the economic slowdown would generate cost savings in the submission which could be spent elsewhere. Western Power chief Doug Aberle warned of risks to the reliability of the electricity supply if its proposal was rejected. About 4% of the State's electricity supply was currently from renewable sources, mainly wind.

Synergy Energy corporate affairs chief Andrew Gaspar said that 20% was an ambitious target which would need to be met by a mix of renewable energy types to ensure a reliable electricity supply because wind was an intermittent source. Sustainable Energy Association chief Ray Wills said new ways of producing power, such as solar panels, would reduce the need for expensive networks.