Cheaper energy for households through improved access to rooftop solar, battery storage and efficient electrical appliances topped the agenda for energy and climate ministers in Melbourne on Friday, at a meeting focused on the federal Labor Party’s consumer energy roadmap.
Ministers also agreed on a national statement of intent on regional and remote electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and accelerating minimum energy performance standards for heat pump water heating systems “as a high priority”, due to the increasing use of the efficient electric alternative to gas water heating.
The Energy and Climate Change Cabinet meeting saw the release of Australia’s first National Consumer Energy Roadmap and Implementation Plan, which sets out consumer-focused reforms to improve and democratise clean energy technologies.
The reforms set out in the Carbon Roadmap aim to support consumers to increase exports from rooftop solar systems, take advantage of new opportunities such as charging electric vehicles to the grid, and get paid for participating in programs that benefit the electricity system and manage energy use to save bills and pay off solar and electricity assets sooner.
“The plan is a first step toward enabling billions of dollars in savings and benefits, as well as new consumer protections and grid reforms… and commitment to a national regulatory framework for CER standards,” a statement from the meeting said.
“The Ministers recognised the importance of community engagement in achieving the Roadmap objectives and the need to support consumers’ energy literacy so that consumers can make the most of the approved energy reductions.”
On this front, heat pump water heating systems were given high priority, with ministers recognising “the urgent need for objective performance standards for this fast-growing technology”.
As Alan Peers said He argued According to SwitchedOn from Renew Economy, without effective efficiency standards for heat pumps, homeowners must rely on unfriendly, unavailable, and incomplete methods to compare the efficiency of heat pump hot water systems.
This lack of industry-wide standards is a failure of government, says Beers, especially in light of the many state and federal schemes that encourage the use of hot water from heat pumps.
To address this problem, ministers in Feridat agreed to support the simultaneous consideration of standards by officials, and to accelerate the process of ministerial decision-making to advance these standards as quickly as possible.
“States and territories have agreed to nominate people to join a small virtual task force to help advance aspects of this work in parallel,” the statement said.
Ministers also agreed that, given the urgency of these reforms, they would seek opportunities to bring the standards into force earlier than the usual 12 months after the final standard is approved.
“This will be supported by continued engagement with industry through the development of standards. Ministers noted that, through these actions combined, it is expected that standards will be developed at least one year earlier than they would otherwise have been.”
In the spirit of keeping up with technology, ministers also agreed a national statement of intent on regional and remote electric vehicle charging infrastructure, to ensure electric vehicle drivers outside Australia’s major cities have reliable charging, where practical.
“This is a crucial step in rolling out the charging infrastructure to enable long-distance electric vehicle travel or inter-hub travel,” the statement said.
“The rollout of this charging infrastructure will be guided by the National Public Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Map, which will be ready by late 2024. Ministers also agreed updates to the minimum operating standards for government-supported public electric vehicle charging infrastructure.”
Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, who hosted the talks and is keen to connect the country’s first offshore wind project to the grid, told the Australian Associated Press that proven technologies would cut emissions and provide cheap, reliable power.
“What we will not stand for is Peter Dutton’s fantasy of building expensive and toxic nuclear reactors in Gippsland,” D’Ambrosio said.
“Peter Dutton and (Victorian Opposition Leader) John Pessotto must make it clear where they plan to dispose of toxic waste in Victoria.”
With some reporting from AAP
