Gillard says Australia can do more with less

• 11 years ago (2012-08-09)
• Junior Isles

North America 998

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Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard claims Australia can lower its investment in power generation without risking third-world style brownouts at times of peak demand.

The Prime Minister said there were ‘better ways’ for Australia to solve its peak power demand problem than ‘gold-plating’ it through maintaining or increasing power capacity, which might only be used one or two days a year, but did not specify her government’s preferred solution.

Gillard compared ‘over-investment’ in power to provide for peak demand to “…building a 10-lane freeway, where two of the lanes only get used one weekend a year."

"I think we can find better ways of meeting peak demand, keeping reliability but doing better on prices than we are now."

She also denied lower levels of investment would lead to brownouts, a drop in voltage in the electricity grid which causes lights to dim, common in some less economically developed countries.

Gillard hopes states can agree a solution to Australia’s power dilemmas that will increase grid reliability while also pushing down prices, without resorting to tougher regulations.

Australia’s government is still struggling to resolve the conflict between its energy and climate change policies, which have each been pushing in opposite directions and been in public prominence with the introduction of the new carbon tax.

In 2011, Energy Minister Martin Ferguson rejected calls from the government's chief climate change adviser Ross Garnaut for tougher electricity regulation and denied there was over-investment in the sector.

Malcolm Roberts, chief executive at Energy Networks Association, said cost pressures could be partly reduced by innovation in reducing peak demand, but that families might still see rising costs.

"Pressure on peak demand can be brought down by certain policy levers like retail price reform and regulatory changes but that won't fix everything. Rising costs are driven by more than one factor. There is the cost of borrowing money to invest in infrastructure and the cost of replacing aging assets,” said Roberts.

Chief executive of the Energy Supply Association Matthew Warren said introducing things like smart meters and other technology, allowing consumers to receive an incentive for using less power during peak periods, could be part of Australia’s solution