"Last year the ACT Labor Government introduced the Electricity Feed-in (Renewable Energy Premium) Act… I am announcing a series of amendments to the Act to clarify its operation and allow it to commence for households and commercial buildings on March 1 this year," Corbell says.

The scheme will pay for each unit of renewable electricity produced, rather than the excess remaining after the producer's own consumption has been deducted.

Generators of renewable energy will be paid AUD cents 50.05/kWh exclusive of Goods and Services Tax (GST). This is 3.88 times the calculated normal cost of electricity, says Crobell.

The ACT Labor Government has decided to introduce the FiT scheme in two stages.

Stage 1 will allow householders and commercial building owners with renewable energy generation of up to 30 kW capacity to be eligible for the tariff. The average size installation for a household is around 1.5 kW. At 30 kW large commercial buildings such as shopping centres, office complexes and warehouses will also be eligible.

Stage 2 will allow for the introduction of the tariff for larger scale generation. There are a range of issues that will need to be considered before Stage 2 can commence. The financial impact on ACT electricity consumers, the appropriate premium price percentage to apply to different scales of generation and the possible introduction of whole of scheme or annual augmentation limits all need to be considered.

According to Corbell, the details of Stage 2 will be announced in June with 1 July as the starting date.

At the moment, the proposed scheme is focused on solar and wind technologies, but it can be expanded to include new technologies as they emerge.