With the best renewable energy resources in the world, Australia should be a global leader in the fight against global heating. Instead we are helping to trigger a climate catastrophe. But the market is overtaking the fossils. TEC has worked for years to encourage the growth of a solar and wind friendly energy supply system. We’ve campaigned hard to popularise energy conservation. And we’ve lobbied doggedly to reform the National Electricity Market (NEM), which is still mainly fuelled by coal power.

Change to Renewable Energy Is Happening!

As well as a recent boom in large-scale wind and solar farms and batteries, there is a revolution happening in local energy, with some states having over one third of households with rooftop solar. Add in household and community batteries, solar gardens for people who can’t have their own rooftop solar, new ways to share and trade local energy (virtual power plants and peer to peer energy trading), and we are seeing the emergence of a people powered two-way grid to replace the old centralised, one-way grid.

How we are moving Australia towards Renewable Energy

TEC is at the forefront of the local energy revolution. Some of our current projects include:

Autonomous Energy Resilience

TEC has published a new report on autonomous energy resilience. With funding from Energy Consumers Australia, TEC engaged Dr Glenn Platt, former head of the CSIRO Energy Centre. His brief was to advise on what households, small businesses and communities can do themselves to improve their energy resilience—independent of networks, regulators and governments—in the context of more frequent, intense, prolonged and destructive weather events such as heatwaves, severe storms, floods and bushfires. Read the full report here, and download an easy one-pager here. 

Local energy tariffs

Other Projects

• Democratising the energy grid - our new report (June 2021)
• Energy supply resilience in the face of climate change.
• A study into the viability of community scale batteries.
• A change to the energy market rules that would create a market for reductions in peak demand.
• Another rule change that would allow the real costs and benefits of solar and battery exports to the grid to be reflected in network tariffs.
• Advocacy for networks to invest in technologies like microgrids that would create greater resilience in the face of the increasing frequency, intensity, and length of severe weather events caused by climate change.

Learn more about the home solar and batteries rule change by watching our webinar.

In all of these projects and others, we work closely with other organisations such as Renew and Solar Citizens. We sit on numerous Network Customer Councils, advocating on behalf of people like you. We are always mindful of the need to include and protect people and groups who don't have the resources or the time to be an active part of the energy transition.

Much of this work is behind the scenes, with regulators, governments, experts and other stakeholders, but we are always open to your input and feedback. Your support and donations are also important.

Moving Australia towards Renewable Energy: Successes

• We invented Australia’s independent green power ratings system. In collaboration with Greenpeace, created three iterations of the Green Electricity Guide in 2018. In 2022, the fourth edition of the Green Electricity Guide was launched. 
• We have initiated four key changes to the National Electricity Rules – that's three more than any other consumer or environment group.
• Australia’s first community energy retailer, Enova Energy was created from a grant auspiced by TEC. Enova Energy currently tops the list of the Green Electricity Guide.
• We were commissioned by the NSW government to produce a consumers guide to home battery systems.
• We convened the North Coast Energy Forum to 2016, and were a founding member of the Coalition for Community Energy.
• In 2015 TEC intervened in a Federal Court case to prevent SA Power Networks introducing a tariff that would have discriminated against solar owners.

TEC greatly appreciates the ongoing support of Energy Consumers Australia and its energy market reform work.

What You Can Do To Make The Switch!

• Support our rule change proposals to the Australian Energy Market Commission.
• For tips and analysis of the energy market as it is now and how you can move to a more sustainable energy supplier, check out the Green Electricity Guide.
• Check out our report Energy Supply Resilience in the face of Climate Change.
• Read our Report: Networks + Batteries - What's Best For Consumers?
• Read our submission to the Finkel Energy Security review.
• Check out our Battery Boom Bulletin Board.