Hi Acorn
$1.7b energy hit to fund green schemes
Victoria’s Environment Department says those who receive new appliances — some of which will require a customer contribution — stand to collectively save $3.1 billion over a decade.
But homes and businesses that miss out will effectively cross-subsidise the winners because the bill is shared among all electricity and gas users.
Victorian Council of Social Service chief executive Emma King said it would be “perverse” if struggling families paid for upgrades in wealthy homes, and called for no-interest loans or discounts.
“Upgrading energy efficiency and saving money on electricity bills would be a welcome relief for low-income households, yet many are unable to participate,” she said.
“The new range of activities are expensive and risk excluding low-income households … since upfront costs are a major barrier to participating.”
A department cost-benefit analysis of five options for the scheme says households with upgrades may save $123 a year under its preferred $1.7 billion model.
Non-participants will pay up to $67 more in the final year of the scheme — but the department says they could eventually benefit due to network upgrades being avoided and energy price reductions.But retailers have warned non-participants should expect to pay up to $100 a year.
One energy expert said figures used in the departmental analysis were “magical” because they calculated benefits up to the year 2050, by which time participants will supposedly save $1913.The analysis said an extra $16.9 million could be spent on retrofitting low-income homes and more aggressive programs were needed to properly tackle climate change.
“The increased cost of the program may mean that it drives more significant and expensive upgrades than it has previously — and these deeper retrofits are very much needed,” the paper says.Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the program made “a lot of sense” as it improved energy efficiency to lower bills while cutting emissions.
“Since 2010, Victorian Energy Upgrades have helped more than 1.8 million households and 110,000 businesses save more than $3 billion on their energy bills,” she said
.The scheme’s targets are to be finalised by April.
[email protected]I have access to some News Corp web sites
We live retired on the Mornington Peninsula
As well as solar/gas hot water
we have a solar PV array with a Fronius rectifier
supplying the home and surplus to grid.
I think there is 10 panels
They are 16 years old and maybe not as efficient as
2020 models, but often we pay little or reduced power bills.
Of course we have LED lighting, and upgraded it.
Some family are vision impaired
so the house can be pretty bright.
The point of the article was that everybody, even the poorest had to contribute to the money
pool so those with spare cash could upgrade appliances.
There was no suggestion that reducing the overall power consumption
was not beneficial.
