AGL Archives - Northmore Gordon

AGL Energy fined $3 million for failing to offset its emissions levels

Northmore Gordon — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 06:19:38 +0000

Well known energy retailer, AGL Energy has been hit with a fine of $3 million for failing to offset their 2017 emission levels. The Victorian Essential Services Commission (ESC), announced AGL failed to meet its liability under the state’s energy efficiency regulations.

Every Victorian energy retailer has an obligation to purchase and surrender a set amount of Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificates (VEECs) which act as a carbon emissions offset project, if this figure is not met, they are issued with a fine. In this instance, AGL failed to surrender 64,033 Victorian energy efficiency certificates, which incurred $2,991,621 in penalties.

“AGL fully understood its responsibilities but failed to surrender the correct number of certificates – The legislation is very clear about retailers’ obligations and the consequences of failing to meet those obligations” said ESC’s Chairperson Dr Ron Ben-David.

The amount of certificates needed to be purchased by each retailer, is calculated in proportion to the volume of energy they sell to Victorian customers. Ben-David told Fairfax Media “It is extraordinary to think that AGL, the biggest retailer in the state, can’t even tell us how many customers it has” and that it was particularity disappointing “for a business that has been in the scheme for its entire life”.

This administrative blunder was explained by AGL’s head of wholesale markets, Richard Wrightson, as “an oversight” and said the company had apologised.

Unfortunately for AGL, the fine comes only a week after the ESC threatened to revoke AGL’s licence to sell gas and electricity in the state, unless they provided correct customer complaints information by the end of October. The ESC stated it was time for AGL “to get its house in order”. AGL have until the end of the month to get all the details submitted correctly before the begin the process of reviewing the electricity retailer’s licence to operate in Victoria.

For further details on AGL and all other news, read more here.

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Big Business Gets It, Why don’t the Liberals

Northmore Gordon — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 09:51:05 +0000

In the past five years, we’ve seen the banks backing away from funding in fossil fuel projects, financial regulators calling out risks, energy and mining companies reducing reliance on coal and oil, the state government doing their bit, yet our Federal Government continues to bow to a small number of highly pro-coal individuals.

Early this year Westpac joined the other banks in declining to provide finance to the Adani project. AGL have stated that they will not be building any new coal-fired power plants and AGL is planning to retire Liddell by 2022 as the ageing station costs more and more to maintain and renewables are cheaper, and the other energy companies are all investing in renewables. Early this year APRA board member Geoff Summerhayes warned the finance industry that climate change risks are foreseeable, material and actionable now and directors have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to consider and manage these risks. The latest piece of news is that BHP has triggered the early departure of the Minerals Council of Australia CEO due to his ongoing pro-coal lobbying. BHP Billiton has had teams working on mitigating their portfolio against climate change for over 15 years, they are under no illusions. Mike Henry, BHP Australian Minning boss, said BHP was a strong supporter of the Finkel Review of energy and the Clean Energy Target, which is being held up by pro-coal forces in the federal government. We now have QLD, NSW, VIC, and SA, and the ACT all committed to zero emissions by 2050 (TAS is almost already there), they are helping to fill the gap left by the federal government.

The science of climate change is absolutely irrefutable, and renewable sources of power are lower cost, the state government are doing their bit, but business needs certainty at the national level. Australian energy prices have been driven sky high, through a lack of regulatory certainty and through a continued investment in centralised generation when the reality is the future will a highly decentralised system of generation and consumption.

The miners, the banks, the energy companies, financial regulators, the state governments and the public all get it. Why doesn’t the federal government?

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AGL kicks off the age of large solar

Northmore Gordon — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 03:45:08 +0000

In 2020, the last year of Australia’s Renewable Energy Target, more large-scale solar capacity will be brought online than wind capacity, according to the latest forecasts from analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The news, which comes as Australia’s largest solar project gets the go-ahead, shakes up the thinking that wind will be the only utility-scale renewables focus through to the end of the decade.

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