BILLIONS WASTED ON ENERGY GRID

Tuesday, 21 September 2010 15:34

The key to lower electricity prices is energy efficiency and demand management, not building more expensive poles and wires, Total Environment Centre (TEC) said today in response to fresh alarm about price hikes.

“Electricity prices are going up because the Federal and State governments are intent on building a bigger electricity network,” said Jeff Angel, Executive Director of TEC. “Yet ten percent of the electricity grid is only used for 1% of the year – when there is unusually high demand.”

 “Politicians see that Australians are using more and more energy each year, but instead of trying to make our energy use more efficient, they simply make the electricity network bigger and help big polluting generators make more money.

 “Peak demand, not baseload, is driving expensive and inefficient network expansion simply to service spikes that occur very infrequently. Demand management can avoid or defer the need for this infrastructure, saving consumers money and reducing pollution,” Mr. Angel said.

 Federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson plans to spend $100 Billion dollars over the next decade, partly to maintain but mostly to expand the energy system.

“We are wasting over a billion dollars a year on expanding the grid. If we spend this money on energy efficiency and demand management instead it will keep energy prices lower and save jobs, money, and the environment. Demand management is a proven way to avoid or defer the need for infrastructure expansion, saving consumers money and reducing pollution.”

 TEC’s new report Demand Management and Energy Policy Development: A Case Study of NSW clearly illustrates the cost-effectiveness of demand management using the industry’s own data. Reducing demand is at least half the cost of building new infrastructure, the report shows.

 “Of the $42 billion plus electricity network investment scheduled to date that Australians will pay for over the next five years, almost a third could be avoided by energy efficiency, cogeneration, distributed generation and reducing peak demand,” said Mr. Angel.

 Other reports show that energy efficiency can save $100 for every tonne of CO2 reduced by industry and $90 for every tonne reduced in buildings.[1] Energy efficiency could cut emissions by over 50 million tonnes a year by 2020.