Risk hydrogen target will impose costs on WA consumers

The peak body for electricity retailers and generators, the Australian Energy Council, has raised concerns over the WA Government’s renewable hydrogen target believing it will impose unnecessary costs on WA electricity consumers.

The AEC’s WA Policy Manager, Graham Pearson, said “The WA Government’s one percent target will not decarbonise the grid and will only increase costs to generators, retailers and consumers.

“One of our main objections to the Renewable Hydrogen Target is that the electricity sector and consumers are being used to subsidise the hydrogen sector and artificially stimulate demand.

“The cost of producing hydrogen to decarbonise the electricity grid is expected to be prohibitive for the next few decades without exorbitant subsidies, while retrofitting existing plant to use hydrogen would be neither quick nor low cost. And guess where those costs will ultimately land – on power bills.

“We all want hydrogen to succeed, but it is some way off and needs to get over a number of significant technical hurdles to be economically viable.

“There are other ways to support development of the technology. Industries such as steel makers are heavy carbon emitters, able to easily replace natural gas with renewable hydrogen, and are far better placed to support the establishment of the hydrogen sector,” Mr Pearson said.