This Thursday the NSW Parliament will debate the Public Accounts Committee’s report on Polygeneration in New South Wales.
“The current regulatory environment is complicated and confusing. The PAC has therefore recommended measures to simplify processes and provide support for polygeneration as an alternative clean energy source”, said Committee Chair Jonathan O’Dea.
However, the PAC said that polygeneration should not be inappropriately subsidised, as was the disastrous Solar Bonus Scheme. Nor should it attract discounted access fees for occasional use of the distribution network. The PAC rejected a discounting proposal from the City of Sydney, which would have been at the expense of energy consumers in regional areas and Western Sydney.
The Chair stated that the City of Sydney’s pursuit of polygeneration precincts had involved reckless expenditure of many millions of dollars, based on numerous incorrect or uncertain assumptions such as reduced network access fees for limited use.
The NSW PAC heard from many leading industry players before making its 20 recommendations, primarily involving regulatory and network integration changes. These changes would enable businesses to access more information about polygeneration, make connection to the network grid easier and simplify retail licensing arrangements for smaller polygeneration operations considering selling excess energy back into the grid.
“The Government should ensure that NSW’s regulatory environment is conducive to the potential implementation of sensible polygeneration capacity, especially for new, large commercial developments”, Mr O’Dea concluded.
The NSW PAC also noted a potential conflict of interest associated with the NSW Government owning and receiving dividends from the “poles and wires”, while also influencing policy on polygeneration operations and access arrangements.
Full details of the Report and the Committee’s recommendations are available on the Committee’s website at: http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/publicaccounts.
