EnergyAustralia supplies electricity and gas to more than 2.6 million residential and business customer accounts in Australia.
Energy underpins lifestyle, jobs and economic development. We all want reliable energy, produced and distributed cost-effectively, so we can enjoy a good quality of life.
All electricity retailers, EnergyAustralia among them, buy electricity through the NEM, a central pool which aggregates and distributes power produced from a range of sources, including coal- and gas-fired power stations, wind farms and hydroelectric plants.
Electricity can’t be stored in large quantities, yet. It means that over the course of an average day, homes and business have their demand met by a mix of both fossil fuels and renewables.
While renewable technology is advancing, at present coal-fired power stations are the community’s cheapest source of energy. On average it costs a little more than 2 cents to produce one kilowatt hour of energy using brown coal in the Latrobe Valley.
In contrast, it costs more than 8 cents to produce one kilowatt hour of energy from a new wind farm.
To put that in context, switching from coal to wind would add about $300 a year, or 15 per cent, to the average household electricity bill.
Not everybody can afford that. However, people have the choice of signing up to GreenPower to ensure their power comes from renewable sources.
In 2007, we were the first energy business in Australia to commit to reducing our emissions because we believe that’s the right thing to do. We are still committed to that goal.
While we want to reduce our emissions as fast as possible, we’re mindful of our customers. Cleaner forms of energy are expensive, take time to plan and build, and can lead to higher household bills if we aren’t thoughtful.
We’re planning ahead to ensure the transition to a new generation does not affect reliability of supply or cause financial hardship to people who are struggling to pay their bills.
By 2050, we expect to produce 60 per cent less emissions than we do now.
Here’s and infographic to detail what we’re doing to reduce our emissions.