The consumer watchdog will examine claims by the Greens that three major power companies — AGL, Origin and TRUenergy — are using their market clout to frustrate the roll-out of competing wind and solar projects.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has written to Greens deputy leader Christine Milne to confirm it will consider her claims that the three electricity retailers may be refusing to enter into power purchase agreements to sell electricity generated by renewable energy competitors.
The claims came as the Business Council of Australia said the nation’s long-term energy strategy had become too heavily dictated by climate change policy and relied too much on an assumption that the rest of the world would take firm action on climate change.
The council, which is the peak body for CEOs of leading companies, said in its submission to the government’s draft energy white paper that there was now ‘‘an opportunity for a rebalance’’.
Senator Milne wrote to the ACCC last month saying that some renewable energy companies had privately expressed concern that AGL, Origin and TRUenergy might be withholding power purchase agreements ‘‘to frustrate the roll-out of competing renewable energy projects’’, particularly wind farms. She asked the watchdog to investigate the claims.
The three companies are the only large ‘‘gentailers’’ — they generate electricity as well as selling it on the retail market.
‘‘Just like the Coles and Woolworths duopoly,’’ Senator Milne said, ‘‘I am very concerned that big power companies can potentially abuse their power to not only block the roll-out of renewable energy and energy efficiency, but also drive up power prices to increase their own profit margins.’’
In a letter to Senator Milne, obtained by The Age, the office of ACCC chairman Rod Sims said the issue was being assessed.
Power retailers must get a proportion of their electricity from renewable sources under the nation’s renewable energy target of 20 per cent by 2020. The three power firms said yesterday they were meeting this obligation by investing in renewable energy projects, striking power purchase agreements and buying renewable energy certificates — a form of subsidy for investors in renewable schemes. A spokeswoman for AGL said the company ‘‘continues to be a strong supporter of the renewable energy target and has invested over $3 billion on renewable assets over the last five years’’.
An Origin spokeswoman said the Australian energy market was ‘‘one of the most competitive and effective in the world’’.
The business council, meanwhile, said in its submission that ‘‘a key deficiency’’ in the draft paper was its lack of alternative climate change policy scenarios to that of Treasury’s modelling of the Gillard government’s carbon price.
‘‘Alternative international climate change scenarios and their impact on Australia should be modelled,’’ it said.
The four-yearly reviews proposed by the draft paper should ‘‘include modelling reflecting actual progress in international climate change negotiations’’.
The council also urged the government not to rule out nuclear energy as a major source of future power.
