Dr Alan Finkel set to unveil plan for Australia’s electricity as political fight over power heats up
AUSTRALIA’S chief scientist is set to deliver Malcolm Turnbull a plan to save our electricity while easing pressure on power prices and cutting carbon emissions.
AUSTRALIA’S chief scientist is set to deliver Malcolm Turnbull and state and territory leaders a blueprint for keeping the lights on while easing pressure on power prices and cutting carbon emissions.
Dr Alan Finkel briefed energy ministers in a national teleconference on Thursday before handing his final report on reform of the electricity market to the Council of Australian Governments in Hobart on Friday.
AAP understands the key recommendation is a “clean energy target” which would mandate a proportion of power each year come from generators below a set pollution threshold.
Dr Finkel is not expected to recommend a specific figure for the target, but will leave it to the government to work out.
A clean energy target, he will argue, would be enough to meet Australia’s Paris climate agreement commitments and should be phased in from 2019 or 2020, when the existing renewable energy target would expire.
Coal-fired power station operators will need to give three years’ notice before closure to ensure ongoing electricity reliability and workers can find others jobs.
However, while coal will continue to meet the electricity needs of many businesses and households, Dr Finkel does not expect any of Australia’s coal plants will undergo major refurbishment in coming years before their retirement. He argues in the report market incentives will be needed to replace coal-fired power with a combination of other technologies, such as gas, solar, batteries and pumped hydro.
He is not wedded to any particular technology so long as it meets the new target.
The report is understood to canvass five models including an emissions intensity scheme and business-as-usual.
Dr Finkel found the business-as-usual model would be the most expensive option for industry and consumers, while the EIS had a marginally higher cost than a clean energy target.
Labor leader Bill Shorten has written to Mr Turnbull promising an open mind on a new national climate policy.
“I extended an olive branch, because Australians want more from their political leaders than just the ongoing fighting and division over climate change,” Mr Shorten told reporters.
The opposition would not get hung up on the name of a scheme as long as it sent a price signal on emissions, he said.
“We are prepared to work with Mr Turnbull to put a price signal on emissions, not to keep pretending we can keep reinvesting in coal-fired power stations,” he said.
Moments later, he was back on the attack, telling Mr Turnbull he had been a “sell-out on climate change” and urging him to stare down conservative colleagues including his predecessor Tony Abbott.
The need for bipartisan support of any policy was underlined by more than a dozen business and industry stakeholders releasing a joint statement warning against rash knee-jerk rejection to Dr Finkel’s review.
“Without reform we will endure higher prices, reduced security, lost investment opportunity, and stubbornly high emissions,” the broad cross-section of business, environment and energy groups said.
“The consequences of failure are too significant to allow this opportunity to pass.”
BLUESCOPE STEEL WEIGHS IN
Steel giant BlueScope is urging all political parties to get behind a low emissions target, understood to be one of the key recommendations of a major energy security report to be presented to the Prime Minister tomorrow.
BlueScope chief executive Paul O’Malley has told The Australian the government is on the cusp of finally addressing affordability, reliability and security in energy.
“We need reliable and secure baseload power,” Mr O’Malley said.
“We are technology agnostic … but there are problems with renewable technologies … they don’t provide baseload power. The other fundamental issue is affordability, in both gas energy and power.
“The detail needs to be sorted out … (but) the government is on the cusp of a transformational policy.
“The lens through which this has been viewed has ignored the fact we need reliable, affordable and secure baseload. For the first time in 10 years we are finally addressing all three.”
The sign of support from industry will help Prime Minister Turnbull push for energy policy changes as he faces opposition from within the Coalition to any measures that could increase power costs or threaten coal-fired power stations.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott warns the federal government will make a big mistake if it adopts a low emissions target that makes it hard to build new coal-fired power stations, arguing the Liberals need to be the party of cheap power.
Opposition energy spokesman Mark Butler says Mr Turnbull needs to be honest about the fact a low emissions target will be a version of carbon pricing which provides a boost to renewable energy.
“It’s an oxymoron to have a low emissions target scheme that provides a boost to coal-fired power, so if that’s the condition of Tony Abbott’s support, it’s not going to be able to come off,” Mr Butler told ABC radio.
The Australian reports new rules will be imposed on wind farms and solar power generators in the wake of the report.
Operators would have to install their own battery or pumped-hydro systems which would cut in if their primary energy supply failed.
But the new rules would add to the start up cost of new projects, which could be passed on to customers.
Originally published as Dr Alan Finkel set to unveil plan for Australia’s electricity as political fight over power heats up