On Tuesday 24 October, Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt and Energy Minister Mark Baily announced a new suite of measures to create electricity savings for Queenslanders under the Palaszczuk Government’s Affordable Energy Plan.
One of the initiatives announced will be the removal of Ergon’s non-reversion policy. The non-reversion policy prevented customers who transferred away from Ergon Retail from returning. The Government believes that removing this policy will give customers in regional Queensland more choice when selecting a retailer. Not only will regional customers be able to shop around, but they will now have the ability to test the water and return to Ergon Retail should they wish to do so. Coupled with this announcement, Ergon Retail are now offering ‘EasyPay Rewards’ whereby regional customers could earn discounts of up to $75 for residential households and $120 for small businesses every year.
Other initiatives under the Affordable Energy Plan included:
- Rebates of up to $300 to purchase an energy efficient fridge, washing machines or air conditioner, providing bill savings of up to $50 a year for an energy efficient washing machine or fridge or $135 a year for an air conditioner. Up to 100,000 Queensland households are expected to take up the offer.
- An Asset Ownership Dividend of $50 a year for every household bill over the next two years, starting from January 2018 and evident on bills from the second quarter of 2018.
- Another 4000 regional households can save up to $200 through the expansion of the Energy Savvy program.
- Support for primary producers by delivering an additional 200 energy audits to agricultural customers through an expanded Energy Savers Plus program in partnership with the Queensland Farmers’ Federation, as well as providing a 50% co-contribution (up to $20,000) to implement audit recommendations.
- Support for Queensland jobs and industry by providing energy audits for large customers including manufacturers, with a 50% co-contribution to implement recommendations (up to $250,000 per customer). This is expected to deliver savings of 10% to 40% for large industrial customers.
- No-interest loans to help those Queenslanders who don’t have access to the upfront capital required to invest in solar and battery technologies to help reduce their bills and be part of a clean energy future. Queenslanders will be able to apply from March 2018, with savings of up to $700 per year expected for those who take up solar.
The initiatives are planned to be available from 1 January 2018, with calls for applications for Ergon’s EasyPay Rewards open now.
