APGA Chief Executive, Cheryl Cartwright, said privately owned transmission infrastructure which delivers natural gas to households saves on customer energy bills, with gas costing less than half the price of electricity.
At the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook 2016 conference, Ms Cartwright said Australian households consume almost equal amounts of gas and electricity, but the cost of gas per energy unit (petajoule) is considerably lower.
“This is partly due to the relatively low cost of transporting natural gas through our large network of safe and reliable transmission pipelines,” Ms Cartwright said.
“Using natural gas in the home has two great advantages: the direct consumption of gas in the home is one of the best ways to reduce carbon emissions to around a quarter of those from coal-fired electricity from the grid.
“As well, households that switch to natural gas or switch more appliances to natural gas will lower their energy bills.”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics publication Energy Account Australia reports that in 2013-14 households used 205 petajoules (PJ) of natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at a cost of $6.2billion.
For the same period, households used 216PJ of electricity at a cost of $16.1billion.
“That shows gas costs less than half of the price of electricity,” Ms Cartwright said.
Transmission costs outlined recently by the Australian Energy Regulator in its State of the Energy Market 2015 report, show that natural gas transmission costs represent 3-8 per cent (average 5.5 per cent) of the delivery price to retail customers while electricity transmission costs represent 5-12 (average 8.5 per cent) per cent of delivered price to retail customers.
Ms Cartwright said, “Based on the average transmission costs, natural gas is more cost efficient, with the transmission component of the gas bill for all households in Australia in 2013-14 amounting to $340million, while the cost for electricity transmission to households was four times higher at $1.37billion.
“Australia’s carbon emissions could be substantially reduced by switching to natural gas. We have the infrastructure in place. It’s reliable and safe and it costs less than electricity for retail customers.
“Our message to Australia is do your bit to reduce the nation’s carbon emissions and save money at the same time by using natural gas appliances in your home.
“If you already have natural gas, make the most of your connection by using gas for as many appliances as possible.”
