The Greens plan to Slash Power Bills & Take the Power Back
Everyone should be able to keep their home warm in winter and cool in summer without dreading their next power bill. But right now people’s power bills are out of control.
That’s because Labor and Liberal governments handed much of our public power infrastructure to price-goughing private corporations who use it to create shareholder profits at your expense.
The people of NSW should share in the savings created by renewables. We need to get private profits out of this essential public service.
It’s time to take our power back.
With your support, The Greens will:
- Create PowerNSW, a publicly owned energy company, cutting out corporate profits to slash energy bills by up to 35%. We will also restore public ownership of the grid..
- Power every household with cheap and abundant renewable energy, by bulk purchasing energy on behalf of all NSW households.
- Make homes cheaper to heat and cool with grants and interest free loans to get off gas, and install energy efficiency upgrades, solar and batteries.
- Give renters a fairer deal by introducing minimum energy efficiency standards for rental homes and installing solar on all social housing.
Slashing energy prices with publicly-owned assets
As we transition to 100% renewable energy, we must learn from the past mistakes of privatisation and ensure our energy assets are kept in public. The Greens will immediately stop all new coal and gas projects – including Santos’ Narrabri gas and Hunter gas pipeline projects – and phase out the use of coal and gas for energy.
- Regulate power station pollution. In NSW, coal-fired power stations have been allowed to pollute at levels far exceeding those permitted in most other countries. We will require power station owners to invest in pollution-reduction technologies that are standard elsewhere in the world and to take responsibility for the waste those stations produce. We will also introduce a load-based licensing scheme that reflects the true cost of emissions on the environment and public health.
- Nationalise existing fossil fuel power generation that can’t be brought up to new standards. If the private sector can’t comply with the new pollution standards or pay the increased licensing fees, the Greens will act to ensure that coal-fired power stations are brought back into public ownership. We must end the days of big polluters getting off scot-free while harming our environment and public health.
- Take back ownership of the grid. The NSW Government has a 49.6% stake in Ausgrid, which operates the Sydney, Central Coast and Hunter Valley energy network. The Greens will ensure that the NSW Government takes a majority stake in Ausgrid and other network owners across the state, while ensuring new transmission infrastructure is majority publicly owned, to bring energy assets back under government control.
- Establish PowerNSW. PowerNSW will offer electricity prices without the excess charges or inflated margins demanded by the major energy companies. PowerNSW will provide the cheapest and greenest electricity possible – 100 per cent reliable, renewable and affordable. By cutting out profit-making intermediaries, PowerNSW will help to slash electricity bills.
Affordable renewable energy for every household
As we navigate a Just Transition for the energy generation industry, we must also ensure we are supporting a Just Transition for energy consumers.
As household solar, batteries and other energy efficiency technologies continue to spread, we must ensure the benefits don’t exclude people already financially insecure. Currently, those with the most means are able to make the capital investment required to reduce their exposure to the energy market, or remove themselves entirely, which will provide long-term financial benefits.
Failure to support financially insecure people, including people who own apartments rather than standalone homes, and renters, will risk further entrenching economic inequality, with less financially secure people stuck paying increasing electricity prices from power companies seeking to extract the final drops of profit from their ageing power generator assets, while the more financially comfortable are able to insulate themselves from the energy market, resulting in energy poverty layered on top of existing economic divisions.
Get off gas and electrify everything
Gas is a fossil fuel and one of the leading causes of the climate crisis. Burning gas isn’t just contributing to the climate crisis, it’s also expensive, polluting and unhealthy. Research shows gas stoves are linked to around 12% of childhood asthma in Australia. We need to get it out of our homes.
Around 1.5 million homes and businesses in NSW are connected to gas, and more are still being added every year.
Study after study, and common sense, have shown that the best way to reduce the climate impact of households is for them to go all-electric. There are industrial sectors that, for the time being, will continue to use energy from burning fossil gas while new technologies and techniques are developed. But the technology is available to get fossil fuels out of our homes right now.
The Greens have a plan to get homes off gas, with Get Off Gas rebates and zero-interest loans available to all households.
For households with solar panels on the roof, switching to electric heaters, cooking appliances and hot water systems could save a further $800 on bills every year.
We will:
- Help households replace gas cooking and heating with electricity. Get Off Gas rebates and zero-interest loans will help households replace old and polluting gas heating and hot water appliances with energy-efficient electric ones.
- Ban new residential gas connections.
- Require solar panels and efficiency upgrades on all social and community housing. We will retrofit existing social housing to meet National Construction Code and BASIX requirements for thermal comfort and energy efficiency.
- Establish a solar panel grants and loans scheme, including zero-interest loans to help households install solar.
- Require solar panels on all new builds, including new commercial, residential and government buildings.
- Electrify everything, suburb by suburb. We will fund community electrification pilots, building on projects like Electrify 2515, with a plan to roll out electrification statewide.
Energy efficiency measures to reduce power bills
Energy bills are just one of the many stressors households struggle with when they find themselves experiencing hardship.
Investment in residential solar is an easy and obvious way to immediately lower energy bills and reduce household carbon emissions. However, this should not be taken in isolation - there are a range of other immediately actionable measures households can take to reduce their energy consumption and thereby lower power bills. Installing efficient lighting and appliances and insulating buildings to improve thermal efficiency can also reduce household bills. These immediate benefits complement the emissions reduction and job creation opportunities attributed to the installation of these efficiency upgrades.
By supporting households to reduce their need for energy, we can reduce the load on the network and reduce total energy demand, bringing down commercial energy prices.
Although there are many measures households can use to reduce energy consumption, they can be expensive and many people lack the up-front cash to pay for them. This means that those with less money are the ones most likely to end up in energy poverty. Government has a responsibility to step in to help.
We will:
- Require landlords to meet minimum energy efficiency standards. All rental properties will have to meet minimum standards, including adequate insulation, draught proofing and double glazing. Retrofitting will also be required whenever a tenanted property is sold, a new tenancy agreement is signed or a major renovation is undertaken.
- Provide interest-free loans for landlords to comply with minimum energy efficiency standards.Loans would be offered to non-commercial landlords, subject to eligibility criteria and safeguards to ensure there is no financial impact on low-income tenants.
- Provide interest-free loans for owner-occupiers to make energy-efficient home upgrades, such as insulation and double glazing.