Sweeping changes planned for Canberra's electricity market could save 70,000 of the city's households up to $300 each on their annual electricity bills, according to the ACT government.
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The scheme will force power companies to offer to replace their customers' old appliances, such as hot water heaters, air conditioners and space heaters, either for free or at a subsidised rate.
Electricity retailers would also have to either subsidise or pay for efficiency upgrades to homes, including insulation and draught reduction work.
Low income earners would be able to apply for free upgrades to their old and inefficient appliances and to insulate their homes.
Middle income households would have their new appliances and energy efficiency upgrades heavily subsidised by electricity retailers through low interest loans or payback deals.
The government expects electricity retailers to pay for the costs of the household work and new appliances, with a mandated 25 per cent of homes to benefit falling into the low-income bracket.
Environment Minister Simon Corbell said the Energy Efficiency (Cost of Living) Improvement Bill 2012 would make it a licence requirement for any power company doing business in Canberra to take part in the scheme.
The Minister told The Canberra Times that the territory's dominant power market player ActewAGL was enthusiastic about the idea, which is already up and running in Victoria and South Australia.
Power companies would be left with the option of trying to recover the costs of the scheme through an application to the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission to increase electricity prices.
Despite this, the government said half the city's electricity consumers could still be hundreds of dollars better off each year under the proposed laws.
The bill will be tabled in the Legislative Assembly next week and, if passed, would become law on January 1 next year. The minister said he expected the ''market-based strategy,'' to save about 750,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2016.
Mr Corbell denied yesterday that he was indulging in election year populism, saying he had been working on the legislation since 2009, after seeing similar schemes in operation in Europe.
''The new laws will require electricity retailers to deliver, free or subsidised, energy efficiency services to Canberra household so that they can cut their cost of living and to cut their greenhouse gas emissions,'' the minister said.
Mr Corbell said ActewAGL would also be required to promote the new scheme.
''We undertook consultation with industry last year and overwhelmingly there is support for this, because it recognises that it is the most efficient way to deliver this service, because it's a market-based scheme and because they have the customer base,'' he said.
''Now they'll be required to promote these services to their customers and to provide them with services that cut their energy bills through either free services or subsidised services.''
The government also said the scheme would be open to all electricity consumers, regardless of income.
''This will be open to all Canberra households, regardless of income; 25 per cent of the households assisted must be low-income, but the remaining 75 per cent can be anybody,'' Mr Corbell said. ''So any electricity consumer will be able to put up their hand and say, 'I want some help with energy efficiency' and the retailer will have to provide it.''
Mr Corbell said he ''expected'' the other parties in the assembly to support his bill.
