The transition to a net zero economy requires rapid, structural shifts across Australia’s energy and transport systems.
Because transport is one of Australia’s fastest-growing sources of emissions, fast-tracking the electrification of transport is vital to meeting national climate targets.
Submission summary
Climateworks Centre supports the premise behind the Commonwealth’s Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI) grant program.
Deploying public charging markets under Commonwealth grants enables critical emissions reductions while supporting the electrification of transport in a way that provides systemic value.
The development of EVCI needs to occur in the most effective way for the electricity system and economic transition.
Evaluating how these pilot projects perform, and what they reveal about effective rule design, can deliver long-term value to consumers.
Capturing these insights will lower overall system costs, optimise network asset utilisation, and smooth the integration of Consumer Energy Resources (CER).
Importantly, the empirical data generated by this pilot directly intersects with the Australian Energy Market Commission’s (AEMC) current Electricity Network Regulation Review (Package 1).
Capitalising on this alignment requires a formal mechanism to funnel insights from these grant-funded trials directly into regulatory reviews, ensuring immediate empirical data informs the long-term regulatory boundaries of network businesses.
Establishing a robust evaluation framework with transparent reporting milestones, success metrics and formal review points will ensure these pilots achieve maximum utility.
Publishing these findings provides the AEMC with the evidence base required to design enduring arrangements for EVCI and broader CER integration.
Furthermore, data generated by the program can contribute directly to Integrated System Plan (ISP) assumptions regarding transport electrification demand, managed charging behaviour and low-voltage network utilisation.
Summary of recommendations
Climateworks recommends the program and relevant regulators:
- Unlock investment: Utilise the grant program to explore deployment barriers and resolve investment uncertainty in public charging markets.
- Quantify grid benefits: Use the program to estimate emissions reductions from grid-integration co-benefits and learn about non-network alternatives to network augmentation.
- Establish evidence-based market design: Establish formal evidence for enduring market design and align cost recovery with standard regulatory determination processes.
- Streamline network integration: Enact time-limited rule modifications to streamline connection classifications, support conditional cost socialisation and structure Distribution Network Service Provider (DNSP) residual cost recovery through established regulatory mechanisms.
- Foster competitive markets: Design for end-of-life asset replacement to encourage market development, defining DNSP roles as a provider of last resort in competitive markets except in uncommercial regional blackspots.
More detail can be found in our submission [PDF 0.3mb].