ACT Legislative Assembly: Canberra bubble shielded by energy price surge

Canberra may be bitterly cold and full of politicians, but the ACT’s renewable energy gambit may have paid off. Find out why

Across the country households are bracing themselves for rising gas and electricity prices.

This comes alongside cost of living expenses that have already begun to cripple family budgets.

Meanwhile the ACT has found itself in a bubble as the only state or territory in the country expecting to see energy prices go down.

On Monday ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury gleefully told reporters Canberrans could expect a 1.25 per cent decrease in their electricity bills.

Granted, it’s not a huge decrease but in a climate where NSW residents can expect energy prices to increase by a whopping eight to 18 per cent, this can save Canberrans hundreds of dollars compared to their neighbours.

But why is this the case in Canberra?

Renewable technology appears to have shielded Canberrans from rising energy costs. Picture: Ben Stansall / AFP

Mr Barr and Mr Rattenbury chalk up the territory’s hip pocket success to their 2012 renewable energy gambit.

“Clearly the future is electric,” Mr Rattenbury said.

Since 2012 the territory has entered into multiple contracts with interstate renewable energy generators, such as the Royalla solar farm in NSW and wind farms in SA, aiming for the ACT’s electricity to become 100 per cent renewable.

In 2020, only eight years after beginning this bold move, the territory announced its electricity was 100 per cent renewable.

Importantly, these contracts came with a fixed price.

This means that previously, when energy market has fallen elsewhere, the ACT was left with a bigger bill.

Yet the stable price of renewable energy has shielded Canberra from the whims of a market.

The Chief Minister conceded the ACT is a much smaller jurisdiction with less energy demands than other states, implying the move to renewables may have been easier for the nation’s capital than others.

“The ACT doesn’t have a lot of large energy users,” he said.

“The ANU Supercomputer I think is the biggest single energy user in the territory.

“We’re not operating aluminium smelters or that sort of thing so the markets are different.”

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the move to renewable electricity is an example of the ACT having “the foresight to get policy settings right”. Picture: Julia Kanapathippillai

But Mr Barr didn’t hold back in calling out naysayers.

“This is another example where the ACT had the foresight to get the policy settings right,” he said.

“A decade ago, these decisions were highly contentious.

“While now he’s soon-to-be a former senator, (then ACT) opposition leader Zed Seselja was highly critical of our decisions back then.

“I’ve got a sense there might be a little more agreement across the Assembly on the policy direction now.

“But when it mattered, when this was controversial, it was ACT Labor and ACT Greens who stepped forward to make these decisions and we’re seeing the benefits.”

So Canberra may be bitterly cold, full of politicians, and may lack the convenience of bigger Australian cities.

But at least you can keep the lights, and the heater, on.