Closing coal plants will not be enough to meet Victoria’s emissions targets: report says

Space heating accounts for nearly two-thirds of household gas use in Victoria, water heating accounts for about a third and cooking accounts for just 4 per cent of total household use, according to research by Infrastructure Victoria.

Last year, the state government released a gas substitution roadmap that included plans to eliminate regulations requiring gas hookups in new homes and introduce incentives for the introduction of gas appliances into retirement.

However, La Nauze said the plan failed to provide the incentives needed to spur enough households to replace their gas appliances with efficient electric ones.

“Right now, households are being hit with massive shutdown fees for getting off the gas and it needs to stop,” he said.

There are new gas projects being proposed for Victoria. Viva Energy, owner of the Geelong oil refinery and Australia’s Shell and Liberty petrol stations, is awaiting environmental approval for its plan to expand a pier at the refinery site and park a floating super-cooled liquefied natural gas vessel and turn it back into steam for Victorian ones houses and shops.

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The project has faced opposition from environmentalists and some community members who argue it is too close to housing and schools and fear it will hurt Australia’s climate ambitions by expanding fossil fuel use.

A similar AGL floating terminal project at Crib Point was rejected by the government because it would have unacceptable environmental impacts.

The Australian energy market operator has warned of changes in its expectations for available electricity supply in the coming years in Victoria, South Australia, NSW and Queensland, fueling urgent need for new power generation assets – whether gas or renewable – and other key infrastructure.

Samantha McCulloch, chief executive of the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA), said Victoria needs more gas, not less.

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“Victoria in particular urgently needs to build a new gas supply to meet demand and ensure its energy security as it faces severe shortages and energy consequences as early as 2023 for 2 million households and 70,000 businesses already paying an additional $2 per gigajoule if gas needs to be transported from Queensland,” McCulloch said.

The Victorian Government did not respond to a request for comment before the deadline.

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