Public ownership of power assets key to smooth shift to renewables, Queensland energy minister says

Government also able to offset impact of higher energy prices globally following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mick de Brenni says

Retaining control of its electricity assets has given Queensland an edge over other regions in coordinating and funding the race to decarbonise the economy, Mick de Brenni, the state’s energy minister, says.

Queensland last month unveiled a $62bn plan to rid its power grid of coal by 2036, replacing the generation with 25 gigawatts of large-scale wind and solar farms, new transmission lines and two giant pumped hydro plants for storage.

With its dominant ownership position of electricity generation and distribution assets, the government has been able to offset the impact of higher energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Rebates of $175 per household will this year total $385m “that would otherwise have gone to overseas shareholders”, de Brenni said.

“We should expect there to be some continued elevation of wholesale electricity prices, that’s likely to flow through to retail bills,” he said, adding Queensland could shield households “in a way that no other state on the east coast can”.

De Brenni said public ownership of the energy system allowed the state to ensure new large-scale generation, transmission, and storage infrastructure could be built in time, potentially ahead of when ordinary market signals would allow.

“Because Queenslanders chose to keep energy assets in public hands, we have unprecedented control to guide the transformation of our energy system,” he said.

“We’re going to deploy those natural advantages that Queensland has to make sure that at all times the lights stay on and power remains affordable.”

The introduction in June of three new tiers for mining royalties to bolster state coffers has also helped pay for the energy transition, de Brenni said.

NSW, which has a similar mix of coal for domestic use and export in its economy, has so far resisted lifting its royalty rates to collect a higher share of the record profits being garnered by miners. Queensland’s resources sector, which complained it wasn’t consulted on the changes, has estimated the impost would collect an extra $15bn this financial year alone.

“Queenslanders have a right to be rewarded when their resources are attracting incredibly high profits on global markets,” de Brenni said.

“We’ve been able to utilise some of those coal royalties in terms of supporting our transition to renewable energy. So high coal royalties in Queensland equal cleaner energy in Queensland.”

Despite criticism from miners, “citizens the world over want to see more investment by governments into the transition,” de Brenni said. “… Citizens would welcome the deployment of those returns to addressing climate change.”

The transformation of the energy sector won’t come cheap and will likely add costs to power bills across Australia in the near term to pay for new capacity and transmission. Eventually, however, the near zero cost of generating renewable energy should bring down power prices, analysts say.

Queensland has been the clean energy laggard among Australian states, with just under 20% of electricity generated last year sourced from renewables. Nationally, the average was almost one-third.

Bruce Mountain, head of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, said Queensland’s ownership of electricity assets would ease coordination issues, although the state’s vested interest might explain why its transition away from fossil fuels lagged most other states to date.

“Fossil fuel resources are horribly undertaxed in Australia,” Mountain said. “The Queensland government’s policy to tax a ‘bad’ to fund a ‘good’ is excellent policy that other states should emulate.”

Mountain did, however, query the government’s plan for pumped hydro, which includes spending $270m to advance the Borumba and Pioneer-Burdekin sites to supply as much as 7 gigawatts of storage. Pioneer-Burdekin alone would be 5GW, or 2.5 times the size of Snowy Hydro’s 2.0 project, and the largest in the world.

“I think there is a reason that pumped hydro gets so little attention internationally,” he said. “To the government’s credit it is funding proper studies and no doubt Queenslanders will be seeking a good reason if [it] does commit huge capital” to the projects.

cover photo: Queensland households will receive rebates of $175 at a cost of $385m ‘that would otherwise have gone to overseas shareholders’, energy minister Mick de Brenni says. Photograph: Russell Freeman/AAP