The country’s energy market rulemaker is backing a plan to raise household power bills to pay for the rollout of kerbside electric vehicle chargers in areas where it would not otherwise be financially desirable, saying the move will reduce range anxiety and encourage more drivers to ditch petrol cars.
The Australian Energy Market Commission, which sets the rules for the grid, has granted preliminary approval to put 14,000 chargers on power poles in areas underutilised by private operators. The proposal has been pushed for years by network businesses, which say it will subsidise EV charging on power poles in black spots around major cities.
It is strongly opposed by several major industry players including Tesla, EnergyAustralia and Engie, who argue it will weigh on family budgets without providing clear benefits, likening it to an “EV tax on electricity bills”.
But speaking ahead of The Australian Financial Review Energy and Climate Summit, AEMC chairwoman Anna Collyer said the scheme could create a “virtuous cycle” because the increased visibility of chargers would encourage greater uptake of EVs and ultimately lower emissions.
“Think about the range anxiety that people talk about if they’re going to drive in the countryside. They want to be confident that whatever route they choose, there’ll be a charger that they can charge up their car,” she said.
“The benefits that we can see is the virtuous cycle of more chargers leading to more EVs leading to more chargers leading to more EVs – and more EVs on the road means reducing emissions … one of our specific objectives.”
EV sales have soared since the start of a war between the United States and Iran shuttered the crucial Strait of Hormuz, sending the price of petrol and diesel skyrocketing. Despite the rapid uptake of electric cars, charging infrastructure has not rolled out across many parts of major cities.
Before the conflict, Australia ranked among the worst advanced economies in the world for charging infrastructure, with one charging point for every 40.5 EVs, according to the International Energy Agency.
The country’s fleet of EVs grew from 370,000 to 612,000 in the year to June, with the number of charging points reaching 11,602, according to the Electric Vehicle Council, implying a ratio of one charger for every 52.7 cars.
The AEMC has not yet given final sign off on the pole-mounted charger plan, which would allow networks to recover 70 per cent of costs from household bills, with the remaining 30 per cent covered by federal government grant.
Collyer said the trial was estimated to add just $1 per year to the typical household power bill, and private charging companies would have the right of first refusal for charging sites identified by the program.
The AEMC is also developing new rules for the energy requirements of large-scale data centres, on behalf of the government, which is scrambling to establish clear standards in time to capture the massive artificial-intelligence investment dollar.
The government arrived at a compromise deal with Queensland in August after the state refused to sign on the Commonwealth’s renewables-led approach, and Collyer said the AEMC rules would not apply to the state.
“[Queensland] will, through the Commonwealth program, have the ability to use their own generation instead of requiring new renewables if they can demonstrate that that’s a cheaper alternative,” she said.
“That’s not something that we’re running with, but we’re obviously interested because the two programs will need to work together.”
Collyer said the speed of growth had parallels with the emergence of solar in the 2000s and 2010s, and regulators needed to be nimble to keep up. “We need to be mindful of how to make good decisions without having full information because we’re always looking at an unknown future,” she said.
Extracted in full from: https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/energy-rulemaker-backs-ev-charger-tax-to-boost-switch-from-petrol-20261012-p61448
