NSW expands energy efficiency scheme to cut gas bills 13 October 2015
The energy efficiency industry today congratulated the NSW Government for a major expansion of its world-leading Energy Savings Scheme.
The Energy Savings Scheme is a NSW program that provides an incentive for homes and businesses to purchase and install energy efficient products. Eligible energy efficiency activities generate certificates based on how much gas or electricity they save.
The NSW Government announced changes today to significantly expand the scheme. The scheme has provided an incentive to save electricity, and will now also provide an incentive to save gas. This change is critical to help homes and businesses deal with the recent increase in Australian gas prices.
The Energy Savings Scheme has already saved homes and businesses millions of dollars off their energy bills, but with the changes that are made today it’s expected that the scheme will save homes and businesses a total of $8.2 billion off their energy bills.
“The Energy Efficiency Council welcomes the announcement today by Anthony Roberts, NSW Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy, and Mark Speakman, NSW Minister for Environment, to expand the Energy Savings Scheme. These changes will lower bills for homes and businesses while creating more jobs in energy efficiency,” said Luke Menzel, CEO for the Energy Efficiency Council.
The NSW government has extended the scheme to 2025, providing more certainty to industry. The government also ramped up the target by 70 per cent, increasing the target from 5 per cent to 7 per cent in 2016 and progressively to 8.5 per cent by 2019.
“Expanding the scheme will create jobs in NSW and help homes and businesses save energy. The scheme makes it cheaper for homes to cut drafts and install efficient lights, hot water systems and appliances”, said Luke Menzel.