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RIS says benefits of mandatory resource efficiency plans outweighs costs

A program that will require about 280 Victorian facilities to develop plans to better manage energy, water and waste is likely to deliver a net economic benefit of about $65.4 million over 10 years, says a regulatory impact statement for the proposal.

Under the scheme, sites that use more than 100 terajoules of energy a year or 120 megalitres of water will be required to prepare environment and resource efficiency plans (EREPs). The plans, based on a site audit and payback analysis, must include a prioritised set of actions to improve site management of energy, water and waste.

Sites will need to register with EPA Victoria by March and lodge their first EREP by the end of 2008. They will need to report progress annually to the EPA.

Sites facing obligations under the EREP scheme are likely to have annual energy bills of several hundred thousand dollars a year or water bills of about $60,000 a year, the RIS notes.

Over 10 years, the scheme is likely to save more than 5,000 terajoules of energy, 40,500 megalitres of water and 285,000 tonnes of industrial waste, it estimates.

Prepared by the Allen Consulting Group, the RIS notes Australia's energy efficiency performance has been "relatively poor" over the past few decades and lags many other OECD countries.

Successor to greenhouse program

EREP will be the successor to the EPA's Industry Greenhouse Program (IGP) which began in 2002.

An EPA assessment of the IGP scheme released two days ago estimates it will be delivering total energy cost savings of $38.2 million a year to participating companies by the end of 2007. It will also be delivering 1.23 million tonnes of CO2e abatement annually, it says.

"The program achieved energy reductions equivalent to one year's growth in electricity demand and three years' growth in natural gas demand for all of Victoria," the assessment says.

A survey of IGP participants found 65% of respondents regarded the program's requirement to develop an energy use and emissions inventory as valuable or very valuable, with only 24% describing it as not valuable.

The assessment, which includes case studies, notes that when a consultant quoted one large company $250,000 for an energy audit, the company baulked and successfully used an internal team at a total cost of only $20,000.

Environment And Resource Efficiency Plans Regulations 2007 – Regulatory Impact Statement (EPA Victoria, September 21, 2007)

Delivering Business Benefits From Energy Efficiency: The Achievements Of EPA's Industry Greenhouse Program (EPA Victoria, September 18, 2007)

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