The Parliament of South Australia has recently enacted legislation to change the feed-in tariff scheme. The new scheme has been introduced via the Electricity (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2011, which was proclaimed on 28 July 2011.
The new scheme changes the feed-in tariff that can be earned by future customers that install eligible solar photo-voltaic (PV) generators. The feed in tariff (currently 44c per kKWh) will be phased out for new customers over the next two years. However, all customers with eligible PV generators will be entitled to an additional amount, which is to be determined by the Essential Services Commission. The amount determined by the Commission is to reflect the fair and reasonable value to a retailer of electricity fed into the network, and all retailers selling electricity to customers eligible to receive the feed-in tariff would be required to pay the amount.
The proposed timetable for the Determination is as follows:
|
Timetable |
Action By |
|
Release Issues Paper |
26 August 2011 |
|
1st round stakeholder submissions due |
23 September 2011 |
|
Release Draft Report |
7 November 2011 |
|
2nd round stakeholder submissions due |
9 December 2011 |
|
Release Final Report |
late January 2012 |
The Commission is eager to engage with interested parties at an early stage in this review, to obtain feedback on the key issues that should be considered by the Commission in making its determination.
Submissions are sought by 23 September 2011.
Publications
The Commission has released its Draft Price Determination to apply from 27 January 2012 – 30 June 2014.
The Commission’s draft decision is to set the feed-in tariff premium as follows:
Feed-in Tariff Premium (nominal cents per kWh and GST exclusive)*
|
2011-12 |
2012-13 |
2013-14 |
|
Applicable from
27 January 2012
to 30 June 2012
|
Applicable from
1 July 2012
to 30 June 2013
|
Applicable from
1 July 2013
to 30 June 2014
|
|
7.1 |
9.0 |
9.9 |
* As discussed in the Statement of Reasons, in determining the prescribed amount, the Commission has considered both a carbon and a no carbon scenario. In light of the fact that the Australian Government’s Clean Energy Bill has not passed through the Senate at the time of publication, for the purposes of the Commission’s Draft Determination, the above figures represent a no carbon situation. If this position has changed by the time the Commission releases its Final Decision in January 2012, the above figures will be adjusted to reflect the inclusion of a carbon price.
The Commission has called for submissions to the Draft Price Determination by 7th December 2011.
The Draft Price Determination and consultant report is available below.
Publications
The Commission has released its Final Price Determination for the solar Feed-in Tariff (FiT) Premium to apply from 27 January 2012 – 30 June 2014.
The FiT Premium, which is credited on solar customers’ electricity bills when they generate more electricity than they use, reflects the fair and reasonable value of fed-in electricity to electricity retailers.
The Commission’s Final Determination is to set the FiT Premium as follows:
Feed-in Tariff Premium (nominal cents per kWh and GST exclusive)
|
2011-12 |
2012-13 |
2013-14 |
|
27 Jan 2012 to 30 June 2012 |
1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013 |
1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014 |
|
7.1c/kWh |
9.8c/kWh |
11.2c/kWh |
All electricity retailers are required to provide at least this minimum FiT Premium to solar customers but may choose to credit a higher amount.
Solar customers are entitled to receive both the FiT Premium from electricity retailers and an additional credit from the electricity distributor, ETSA Utilities. Under the feed-in legislation, ETSA Utilities must pay eligible solar customers 44c/kWh of fed-in electricity (for those that connected, or obtained ETSA Utilities' approval to connect, the PV unit prior to 1 October 2011). From 1 October 2011, those solar customers that connected, or received approval to connect, the PV unit will receive a credit from ETSA Utilities of 16c/kWh.
The current distributor funded FiT scheme provides generous subsidies to existing customers with solar PV, particularly those who are eligible for the 44c/kWh amount. While the Commission supports the decision to phase out the distributor funded scheme for new customers, it notes that the scheme may cost all South Australian energy customers around $90m per annum, which adds around $65 to the average annual household energy bill.
Under the amended legislation, those receiving 44c/kWh also get the FiT premium determined by the Commission, which results in a total FiT amount of 51.1c/kWh from 27 January 2012. This will increase to about 53c/kWh from 1 July 2012. The total FiT amount is over 7 times the current value of wholesale electricity produced by the systems, and over 4 times the value of electricity being generated by wind farms (approximately 11c/kWh) .
The Final Price Determination, consultant report and fact sheet are available below.
Publications
