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Smart Energy Council Welcomes NSW Consumer Energy Strategy

September 16, 2024

The Smart Energy Council has commended the New South Wales Consumer Energy Roadmap released today by the NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe. 

This includes a $30 million program to help apartment residents install solar, $175 million for social housing energy upgrades, $200 million to support the rollout of EV charging stations, and $238.9 million to design and deliver the NSW Home Energy Saver program. 

More money and resources for consumer energy will see big dividends for NSW.  

The Smart Energy Council strongly welcomes the new targets set in the strategy and recognises they will be important guideposts for consumer energy in the state. They include:

  •   A target of 1 million households and small businesses having access to both a rooftop solar and battery system by 2035, rising to 1.5 million by 2050.
  •   A target of 3,400 megawatts (MW) of Virtual Power Plant (VPP) capacity in NSW by 2035 and 10,000 MW by 2050.

The Strategy’s strong focus on education is an important part of today’s announcement and will help consumers better understand how the transition will benefit them. The strategy will provide new materials and interactive web tools to help households and small businesses benefit from the energy transition, as well as funding for community outreach programs. 

These are all measures needed to speed up the transition in NSW and get consumer energy resources moving in the state, says Smart Energy Council Chief Executive John Grimes. 

“Consumer energy generated on rooftops is the cheapest power option for households and the NSW Strategy recognises this,” Mr Grimes said.

“Solar saves money and more investment in household energy generation is a win for hip pockets at a time when people need it the most.” 

“The NSW Consumer Energy Strategy is a good guide for consumer energy in the state.”

The strategy can be found on the Energy NSW website here:

https://www.energy.nsw.gov.au/nsw-plans-and-progress/government-strategies-and-frameworks/energy-strategy 

For interviews and more information, please contact Tim Lamacraft on 0488 972 192.

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