News

News

Residential Energy Performance Summit wrap 22 November 2023


Australia's Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Jenny McAllister.

On Tuesday 21 November, the EEC brought subject matter experts, enthusiasts and industry and policy veterans together for a day of discussion and problem-solving around efficiency, electrification and Australia’s residential energy performance.

Reflecting on the topics canvassed and covered, the deep-dives given, the problems raised, solutions outlined and moments of inspiration sparked, it’s clear that while this was the first Residential Energy Performance Summit, it’s unlikely to be the last.

Following Wurundjeri elder Bill Nicholson’s warm Welcome to Country, EEC CEO Luke Menzel set the stage – or more accurately, pointed to the window of interest in home energy use in Australia that right now, is wide open.

As Federal Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Jenny McAllister said, homes are where climate action can be made real. Removed from overwhelming, abstract ideas of parts-per-million and kilowatt hours, home improvement has captured Australian hearts and minds, creating genuinely exciting opportunities to personalise climate action, merging people’s desire for safe, comfortable, resilient homes with change that creates benefits far beyond individual households.

 
Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland's Josephine Maguire delivering her keynote.

As we heard repeatedly across sessions throughout the day, these benefits will only be realised if decisions and action by government and industry can truly centre those householders and consumers.

Reinforcing this point was international guest Josephine Maguire. As National Coordinator of the Better Energy Homes program at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), Josephine has a key role in establishing the Irish residential energy performance upgrade ecosystem, one that’s widely recognised as world leading.

Josephine’s program is in the process of upgrading 40,000 homes this year, and as she says, their mantra is “energy efficiency first: insulate, insulate, insulate.”

Those upgrades can’t, of course, happen without householders taking the first step, and as Josephine outlined early in the day, the consumer journey is one that’s too easily broken. This can be as simple as people receiving clear advice on upgrading their homes, only to put it in a drawer for later. It was this insight that led in part to SEAI’s one-stop-shop approach, which was designed around five activities:

  • Activating the consumer;
  • Having skilled workers and the supply chain in place;
  • Accessible, appropriate financing and funding;
  • Structures and governance
  • Ongoing consumer engagement.


Victoria's Minister for Energy & Resources, Climate Action and the State Electricity Commission Lily D'Ambrosio in conversation with EEC CEO Luke Menzel.

Josephine’s discussion of the Irish engagement and communication experience brought insight that while householders might initially be attracted by potential bill savings, her team found that for householders who’ve completed their upgrades, “comfort becomes king,” savings become secondary, and the focus turns to how much more pleasant their home has become.

For all their success, some of Ireland’s problems are universal: there are currently 4,000 workers in Ireland’s retrofit industry – a number which must quadruple to meet their upgrade targets.

Many of the day’s contributors spoke of the importance of bringing together key strands of work:

  • Getting the right technologies and supply chains in place, and making sure those technologies are fit-for-purpose;
  • Getting qualified and skilled trades and professions in the market to deliver high-quality upgrades;
  • Unlocking finance – be it loans, grants, subsidies or energy efficiency schemes, with a particular focus on vulenerable and low-income households;
  • Making sure program governance has been carefully thought-through and designed to ensure systems are in place to protect consumers, taxpayers, workers and businesses; and
  • Engaging people with the benefits of improving energy performance – through ratings and disclosure, marketing, and building community awareness.

What the day also made clear was that at present, responsibility for these strands rests with many different players – some with industry, some with governments, some with the finance sector, some with industry assocations and non-profits. And that’s before states and territories are considered, an added layer of complexity which Ireland – not being a federation – doesn’t need to account for.


Conversations from the floor at the Residential Energy Performance Summit.

Communication Challenges:

  • How do we get people interested and engaged with improving energy performance in their homes? How do we impress the benefits on Australians with the required urgency?
  • How do we provide great advice to ensure consumers get the right upgrade for them, and how can trust be built into that advice?
  • How do we help transition householders from interest and excitement to action, and how do we support that at every step of the process?

As speakers such as Anna Skarbek and Gill Armstrong from Climateworks Centre, RMIT University’s Trivess Moore and Toby Cumming of Sustainability Victoria made clear, a growing body of research exists to guide consumers – and more is imminent.

This research is based on hundreds of interviews with Australians about their attitudes and the performance of their own homes, creating a clear evidence base, and clear recommendations that can be tailored for different stakeholders, or different focus areas.

Needless to say, with so much information existing in the market, fostering trust among consumers is key. Local governments can play a big role in encouraging uptake of residential upgrades, with speakers from City of Sydney to Merri-Bek Council in Melbourne discussing how they can leverage the regard that councils are held in by consumers to get in on the ground in ways that state and federal governments aren’t able to, and share resources across jurisdictions.

With his experience as chair of the Essential Services Commission, Dr Ron Ben-David gave a timely reminder that when talking about "consumers" and "householders", they are people, and don't behave as idealised economic actors. Dr Ben-David made the point that with consumers ill-equipped to deal with the increasing complexity of buying and managing their energy use, markets and regulators must start thinking better about how they should be involved in the market, and importantly, how they can be protected.

Following the interest in Dr Ben-David's presentation, the EEC has published it in full as a paper titled 'How energy efficiency could become the villain of the energy transition.'

Across the day the perspective of industry was invaluable. Leaders from organisations such as Green Energy Trading, Brighte and South Australia’s Mac Trade Services were able to speak to consumer pain points and which incentives drive uptake, but were also incredibly aware of the value of positive interactions for increasing word of mouth.

Never far from discussion was the need to prioritise low income and vulnerable households. As we heard from ACOSS’ Kellie Caught, low income households are more likely to deprive themselves of things, more likely to have energy debt, and of course more likely to be impacted by poor outcomes.

Of course, we’re barely scratching the surface here, and haven’t touched on insights into the role of performance ratings in creating trust; renters and split incentives; mandatory disclosure; the unrealised potential of strata on energy use in large buildings; innovative supply chain and finance models, and so much more.

 
EEC's Holly Taylor chairing a panel on consumer focus, alongside RMIT's Dr Trivess Moore,
Donna Luckman of Merri-bek Council, CEFC's Josh Heazlewood and Anne-Marie Porrier, NSW
Office of Energy and Climate Change.

To summarise the day, Luke extended Senator McAllister’s opening idea, saying that with people so invested in their homes, if we can get retrofits and energy upgrades working for them, we have the opportunity to turn australia into a nation of climate advocates.

As Luke said, the Summit was also a reminder to the sector that for all the issues with technology, policy mechanisms, workforce and more, “it's our job to solve for that in a way that makes the consumer journey as simple as possible.”

It's our job to do the hard work to make the journey simple and positive.

Skills and supply chains are hard!

Governance and risk management!

There's a huge amound of activity we can pick up and leverage, and a job for everybody – policymakers, industry, academics and NGOs – to work out how the puzzle fits together.

 

A huge thank you to our partners who made the day possible, the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water; the Victorian Government; the Clean Energy Finance Corporation; Green Energy Trading; Daikin Australia and RACE for 2030.

All Summit delegates will be sent access to the presentations from the day, and make sure you subscribe to our mailing list  to keep up to date with future EEC events.