On 15 March 2018, the QLD State Development, Natural Resources and Agricultural Industry Development Committee (‘Committee‘) published its report on the Electricity and Other Legislation (Batteries and Premium Feed-in Tariff) Amendment Bill 2018 (‘Bill‘).
The Committee has recommended that the Bill be passed.
By Connor James, Compliance Quarter.
What the Bill Seeks to Do
As noted in our previous post on 15 February, the Electricity and Other Legislation (Batteries and Premium Feed-in Tariff) Amendment Bill 2018 was introduced to the Queensland Parliament by the Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy. The Bill seeks to make three key changes to the regulation of the sale of electricity in Queensland.
These are:
- Removal of the Non-reversion Policy for Small Customers;
- Amendments to the Solar Bonus Scheme (SBS); and
- Embedded Network Consistency in Queensland.
For more on this see our previous updates at:
- https://www.compliancequarter.com.au/the-qld-electricity-and-other-legislation-batteries-and-premium-feed-in-tariff-amendment-bill-2018/; and
- https://www.compliancequarter.com.au/embedded-network-managers-queensland-whats-deal/
The History of the Bill
As noted on the QLD Parliament website ‘ 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 55th 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).’
What Happens Now
The Bill will be back before parliament soon and can be expected to be passed. Businesses operating in this area should take action now to ensure that they can comply with the changes.
