The Gillard Government had recently released the Regulation
Impact Statements (RISs) for the extension of the EEO Program to new
development and expansion projects, and electricity and gas transmission and
distribution businesses.
The new developments RIS has shown clear net cost and energy saving
benefits and the Federal Government had confirmed that it is proceeding with New development and major expansion projects.
In its July 2011 Securing a
Clean Energy Future package, the Australian Government announced it would
extend the EEO Program to include new developments and expansion projects which
meet an energy use threshold when operational will be required to assess the
site from the initial design concept through to commercial operation.
A series of regulatory
changes have been proposed to modify the existing EEO Assessment Framework to
align with design stage processes. The proposed changes draw on feedback from
stakeholder consultations through 2011 and 2012 and a series of trials with
companies which assessed the application of the assessment and reporting
framework, and evaluated costs and benefits for the regulation impact
statement.
However, the Government will not proceed with the electricity and gas networks
extension. The
Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) for the extension of the EEO program to
electricity and gas transmission and distribution businesses.
Analysis shows the costs of expanding the program would
exceed the benefits and as a result the Federal Government will not proceed
with this extension. The networks pass
on the costs of losses to users, so there is no economic benefit (or drivers)
for them to reduce such costs.
Amendments to the EEO regulations have been made that
remove the expiry date of the current exemption of transmission and
distribution businesses.
