Building Electrification Regulatory Impact Statement & Renewable Gas Directions Paper

The Committee for Greater Shepparton (C4GS) welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the Victorian Government's Building Electrification – Regulatory Impact Statement, and the Victorian Government’s Renewable Gas Directions Paper.

Both documents put forward policy directions and pathways that will fundamentally reshape Victoria’s energy sector. They will also reshape the confidence and competitiveness of industries and businesses that currently rely on gas and electricity supply and networks, and drive the Victorian economy.

As noted, Victoria has approximately 60% of all of Australia’s gas infrastructure and is the only state where residential and business gas use (approximately 70% of total gas use) exceeds use by industrial and commercial users.

However, the Victoria-wide data is not true in all locations. In the LGAs of Greater Shepparton, Campaspe and Moira a total of 32 industrial customers located in seven discrete clusters account for 70% of the region’s gas use – a total of 4.4 PJ and 8% of the state’s industrial customer use.

Around 60% of the region’s manufacturing is food and groceries (of which more than half is dairy) that already aggregate and create large volumes of year-round organic waste that feeds into existing behind-the-meter bioenergy plants, local wastewater treatment plants (including Victoria’s 2nd largest) and creates waste management challenges for industry.

This underscores the more complex challenges for Victoria, and the need for a statewide framework to guide energy transition. It also highlights the importance of medium and long-term certainty for gas supply, demand and prices, and the opportunity for regional initiatives and investment to benefit the entire state’s transition.

C4GS members continue to report unacceptable levels of electricity network flicks and outages – that undermines the ability and confidence to invest in electrification.

However, the impacts of increased electrification, automation and distributed generation are not sometime in the future – they are upon us and will continue to grow in our region.

At the same time C4GS members are exploring cost-effective electrification solutions such as thermal process heat storage (graphite batteries) that can displace current gas use and move large portions of industrial demand to low demand periods and hence offset the traditional assumptions for grid augmentation and expansion.

Northern Victoria’s clusters or ‘postcode’ opportunities underscore the role regional renewable energy value adding and manufacturing precincts (RE-VAMPs) can play in:

• securing the future for regional manufacturing, and our region's more than $5.5 billion contribution to the Victorian and national economy and exports,

• the opportunities for smarter, targeted and importantly co-designed and consolidated investment in gas and electricity generation, networks and users, and

• more ambitious targets and timelines for renewable gas and electrification with stronger community acceptance and improved industry confidence.

Recommendations

C4GS is calling for the Victorian Government to:

1. Prioritise policy and supply certainty - especially for gas and industrial gas users.

2. Target electricity network investment to level the playing field for regional energy users.

3. Leverage REVAMPs to fast track, optimize and consolidate local energy generation for local use across the zones and/or in clusters and precincts within the zone.

4. Map and invest in the learning legacy from day one.

C4GS believes our member footprint across the LGAs of Campaspe, Moira and Greater Shepparton is ideally placed with established manufacturing and industry networks, forums and trusted relationships to pilot this path in partnership with industry, governments, training sector and our community.

C4GS welcomes the opportunity to discuss our submission and to expand on the ideas and recommendations we have presented.