Greens welcome improved feed-in tariff arrangements

The Tasmanian Greens today welcomed the announcement of a new Feed-in-Tariff policy for Tasmania, saying it is an improvement on the original proposal and adopts key elements of the Greens’ proposed model.

Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said the new model will now specify it only applies to renewable energy as defined by the Renewable Energy Target Scheme, and provide for the Regulator to consider a sliding scale for tariffs in different circumstances as well as social, environmental and economic impacts.

“The Greens pushed for a public consultation process following the release of Labor’s original proposal, and we are delighted to see it has resulted in a refined and improved model,” Mr McKim said.

“This announcement provides certainty to those households and small businesses who have invested in renewable generation, as well as for the many small businesses who install small scale renewables.”

“A five year guarantee of existing feed-in tariff rates for current users is a much fairer outcome compared to what was previously proposed.”

“As defined by the Renewable Energy Target Scheme, only renewable energy connected to the grid will qualify for feed-in tariffs under this proposal, which is important to continue Tasmania’s transition to a low carbon economy.”

“The Greens are pleased that the Regulator can now take into account social, environmental and economic factors when determining the price of power for solar customers. This could lead to greater equity for customers within the pricing structure.”

“The Greens’ innovative ‘sliding-scale’ for feed in tariffs has also been included for consideration by the Regulator, who will now be able to assess the potential for setting different feed-in-tariff arrangements based on the nature of the generation technology as well as the grid location.”

“This would allow for a more sophisticated approach to setting feed-in tariffs which could encourage more embedded generation in areas of supply constraint, therefore avoiding the need for expensive transmission system upgrades in the future.”

“The Greens are also pleased that people wanting to install solar systems in the future would now be allowed to off-set all energy costs including hot water and heating.”

“The Greens still stand by the feed-in tariff model we released in April this year, however it clearly will not receive the support of either Labor or Liberal on the floor of the House, and given key components of our proposal are included in this latest model we will be supporting the legislation through the House of Assembly.”

“The Greens were the first of any of the three Parties in the parliament to detail a carefully considered, sophisticated and innovative feed-in-tariff policy position for a post FRC environment,” said Mr McKim.

The Greens negotiated in November last year a commitment from the Minister that as part of the electricity sector reforms there would be transitional arrangements for Aurora Energy’s existing customers who currently receive the net feed in tariff as offered by Aurora, and for the Electricity Reform Oversight Committee to examine the issue of feed-in-tariffs in a post-reform FRC environment, by the 1st of July this year.
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader Sunday, 18 August 2013