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Committee's report

The committee tabled its report on 15 March 2018. The Bill was passed with amendments by the Queensland Parliament on 20 September 2018.

About the Bill

On 15 February 2018 the Hon Dr Anthony Lynham, Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy introduced the Electricity and Other Legislation (Batteries and Premium Feed-in Tariff) Amendment Bill 2018 into the Queensland Parliament.  The Bill was referred to the State Development, Natural Resources and Agricultural Industry Development Committee for detailed consideration.  

The explanatory notes provide that the purpose of the bill is to amend the Electricity Act 1994, the Energy and Water Ombudsman Act 2006 and the National Energy Retail Law (Queensland) Act 2014 to:

1. clarify when additional generation systems and electricity storage devices can be deployed in association with the Solar Bonus Scheme
2. enable the effective implementation of a new national regulatory framework for retail competition in embedded electricity networks which commenced on 1 December 2017
3. allow residential and small business customers in regional Queensland to have the option to return to Ergon Retail, if at a property that has switched to a private retailer.

It should be noted that the Electricity and Other Legislation (Batteries and Premium Feed-in Tariff) Amendment Bill 2017 was referred to the former Public Works and Utilities Committee prior to the dissolution of Parliament for the 2017 election.  That bill lapsed when the 55^th Parliament was dissolved.  The subject Bill is substantially the same as the previous bill, however there are some differences including the addition of a new purpose of the Bill (see point 3. above).

The committee may have regard to any evidence provided to the previous committee whilst considering the subject bill.  See former committee inquiry here.

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