The road to hell is paved with good intentions. We all like to believe that we act in the common good, and most of us strive, most of the time, to do the right thing for our families and our community.
It is our good intentions, therefore, that have led many Australians to respond to the issues raised by environmental groups and economists when it comes to ensuring that we a have a safe and reliable electricity supply in our homes and businesses.
There are, as always, no ideal solutions to achieve this. But there are a series of trade-offs that steer us between minimising harm to our environments, ensuring baseload power, and being able to pay the bill.
One of the options that has been made available to many Australians is the use of solar panels on their homes to generate electricity that can be used at no added cost when the sun shines, as well as feeding some power back to the grid.
Over the years since this has been available there has been a shift to being “paid” less and less for the electricity being sent back to the grid. Now, we are being faced with a charge
for sending it back.
Whilst I understand that there are inevitable challenges that face government as we shift our power production toward renewables, what I can’t accept is that these challenges could not have been factored in at the
start of the process.
Incentivising Australians with subsidies to erect solar panels has had the result that was both hoped for and predictable: there are more solar panels generating more power than households need.
Now we are told that additional poles and wires are needed to manage the increase in power going back to the grid that is being generated.
I understand the principle that those who benefit from the cost offsets of solar electricity ought to be the ones who pay for this upgrade, rather than those who can’t afford, or have no ability to place solar panels; but surely more long-term planning could have avoided the situation that we now find ourselves in, whereby the goalposts have been moved on the very people who have taken up the challenge to do the right thing and invest in solar?
When will the government stop flying from one short-term decision to another and instead develop a plan for a fully integrated energy system that benefits all Australians in the transfer
away from a baseload system to a distributed system?
It isn’t fair to consumers, and it isn’t fair to the energy companies.
This chaotic approach has already seen the NSW government announce the two-year extension of the Eraring power station. We can expect more of these market-disrupting knee-jerk
fixes in the year ahead without a root-and-branch review and plan.
Australians are being punished for trying to do what they think is the right thing for the environment and their bank balance.
Solar industry groups have told me that the two-way tariff plan has already slowed the support for solar transitions, with fewer households taking up the solar option.
This will, in turn, reduce the investment and employment in this growth area and threaten the aim to make Australia a leading market for the renewable industry.
None of the solutions needed are exotic, or novel, they are fairly obvious: smart meters being rolled out to all households so that energy production and use can be balanced across the network as well as price fluctuations in energy production being applied in a timely manner.
For example, the price spike caused by the increased cost of gas following the Ukraine conflict has abated somewhat, but energy companies were slow to respond in reducing the price to consumers.
These issues are not complicated, they’re just difficult.
They require government to stop hiding behind politics and bring all of the parties to the table.
It is vital that Australians are not misled when trying to do the best thing for their households and their communities, the shift to a balanced system will involve trade-offs and sacrifices.
Government’s job is to ensure that these sacrifices are made with long-term stability in mind. That is not what we are currently getting.
Dai Le is the independent MP for Fowler
(This appeared in Daily Telegraph, Sydney)