Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, , 2:34:28 to 2:39:03
Officials discuss the current legal status of plug-in solar resources in Australia and the development of necessary safety standards.
Topics: Renewable energy, Electricity grid
Speakers: Brad Archer, Dean Smith, Speaker 13, Unknown Speaker, Hon Sarah Henderson
go to Senator Senator Smith.
>> Thank you very much. I just want to turn to the most recent uh Australian energy ministers meeting and can you provide me with an update in regards to um plugin
Uh, Senator Brad Archer, head of, uh, electricity division. Uh so the topic of plug-in solar uh was discussed at uh the recent energy and climate change ministerial council meeting on the uh 11th of September. Uh basically it's the case at the moment that uh plug-in consumer energy resource resources uh are not legal uh in Australia. uh and that is because um we don't have electrical safety standards uh currently that would allow them to be safely connected uh into uh people's houses. Uh and so what happened at the uh September ECMC meeting uh was we saw that ministers agreed that officials uh should come back uh with advice on a way forward uh in terms of how we could have standards put in place uh in Australia with a view to uh those devices uh becoming legalized and and available to consumers to be used. Uh and that advice uh is to come back uh this year. I've
seen reported a 1 July 2027 date. What does that date refer to?
>> Yeah, I'm I'm not familiar with that.
>> It was in a solar citizens bulletin of
>> I'm not familiar with that,
>> but in regards to plug-in solar, um, states are expected to come back to the energy ministers council by the end of
this year. Uh so so officials so Commonwealth officials working with with state and territory officials will come back with with further advice uh to to ministers on uh on the way forward
it's only in regards to the legality uh and the the prohibition that currently exists that's being explored. Well, that
that's the main focus of the the work initially, Senator, uh is is clearly that the question of legality needs to be addressed if these devices are to be uh safely used uh in Australia. There are potentially a range of other issues that are relevant to the takeup uh of these devices uh that are you know likely to warrant uh some attention uh in in terms of um you know other potential barriers that consumers may face. Uh and again we will you know be seeking to identify what those barriers might be uh and identifying whether there are any uh actions governments could be pursuing uh to alleviate them.
>> So a barrier of course would be cost. Is the Commonwealth thinking about using the smallcale renewable energy scheme as a way of overcoming consumer cost barriers or cost hesitations? Uh,
Senator, the work is is at such an early stage that it's sort of premature to to sort of speak about what particular policy options uh might be deployed. Again, we're still going through the process of identifying those uh those potential barriers.
>> So, costs and consumer incentives were not discussed at the energy ministers
>> Uh, not my recollection that they were. Uh Senator again as I've indicated so the the main uh focus has been around the question of uh the legality of the devices and how uh we may put in place safety standards to address that.
>> I think if you this Senator my recollection of the discussion at ECMC was an observation from ministers that there is progress being made in the UK and New Zealand and we should look to see if there's something we should do here.
>> Do they use uh incentive schemes?
>> I'm I'm not aware of that. So
>> perhaps on notice you could
>> Yes, Senator.
>> Uh let us know. So consumer incentive schemes not being canvased at the
>> Not actively at the moment. Senator, have they been ruled out? >> Mr. Archer said it's at a very early stage. They haven't been ruled out