PIAC made a submission to the Office of Energy and Climate Change’s (OECC) Energy Saving Scheme (ESS) Water heater consultation paper. In this submission we encourage OECC to expand this process or initiate consultation on wider reforms to better align the ESS with the NSW Government’s strategic responses to energy affordability, consumer energy resource (CER) integration, the flexibility of energy demand in NSW and the need to equitably electrify household energy demand.
PIAC does not support the inclusion of gas boosted solar water heaters. Any retention of gas connected appliances reduces the financial benefit to the household and the long-term emissions reductions impact of the intervention.
PIAC strongly disagrees with increasing co-payments for water heaters and rejects the reasoning that increased co-payments will improve consumer engagement. Instead, ‘high pressure sales tactics’ and addressing customer engagement would be better achieved through program design and targeting, and improved training and monitoring of participating providers.
