2023 Policy Priorities - Energy
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SACOME Climate Change and Energy Policy Principles SACOME’s Energy Policy 2022 and Climate Change Policy 2021 set out a number of policy priorities on behalf of SACOME member companies. Both documents should be read in parallel, recognising that these policy areas are interlinked, and complement SACOME’s energy advocacy calls. |
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Energy is an area of vital importance to the resources sector, with energy affordability and reliability having a direct impact on business viability, new project development and investment. The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) in its State of the Energy Market 2022 report observes that: Australia’s energy markets are undergoing a profound transformation. The National Electricity Market (NEM) is moving from a centralised system of large fossil fuel (coal and gas) generation toward an array of smaller scale, widely dispersed wind and solar generators, grid scale batteries and demand response[i]. South Australia is at the forefront of this energy transformation. To date, South Australia’s energy transition has been disorderly, and industry faces a costly and uncertain future. This has been exacerbated in 2022 by government intervention in the gas market. Price caps are a poorly conceived policy response that serve to disincentivise exploration, investment, and new supply, and have created a floor as well as a ceiling, which will result in higher contracted gas prices and increased costs to consumers. Businesses, which already pay the costs of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s market interventions, should be alarmed at the complete lack of consultation that led to these price caps and the absence of enduring policy thinking by way of an Energy Transition Roadmap. Given the scale and complexity of the energy transition, SACOME calls for initiatives that will assist in stabilising the South Australian energy grid and reduce market interventions in a manner consistent with Net Zero ambitions. [i] Australian Energy Regulator State of the Energy Market 2022 Report, p.6
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Energy Transition Roadmap SACOME calls on the State Government to urgently develop an Energy Transition Roadmap that considers the impact of energy policy areas across the whole of the South Australian economy. To ensure the commerciality of large-scale industry, greater coordination between energy, climate and industry policy from governments and policy makers is urgently required. SACOME has consistently called for the development of an Energy Transition Roadmap with industry input. Further information here |
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Carbon Abatement Technologies SACOME calls on the State Government to implement policies that incentivise the development of carbon abatement technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Further information here |
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