The Victorian Government has announced its intentions to establish a Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission (VCEC) inquiry into determining the most appropriate regulatory framework that will encourage households and businesses to deliver renewable and low emissions energy into the grid, known as distributed power generation.

 

The inquiry will conduct an investigation into the design of the state’s electricity feed-in tariffs and regulatory barriers to distributed power generation.

 

"Existing feed-in tariffs have successfully encouraged many Victorians to feed solar and other renewable power back into the grid," State Energy and Resources Minister Michael O'Brien said.

 

"The inquiry will assess existing tariff arrangements and also investigate how the Coalition Government can reduce regulatory and commercial barriers that stop business and industry generating their own power," Mr O'Brien said.

 

The terms of reference for the inquiry have been released today and require VCEC to:

  • consider how efficient and effective feed-in tariffs are as a greenhouse gas reduction program;
  • provide a recommendation as to whether feed-in tariffs should be continued, changed or phased out; and
  • identify barriers to a network of distributed renewable and low emission generation in Victoria, including co-generation and tri-generation.


The outcomes of the VCEC inquiry will not be applied retrospectively to any customers on existing feed-in tariffs. VCEC will be consulting with industry, the community and other stakeholders and is required to provide a final report in six months time. For more information go to www.vcec.vic.gov.au