Clean energy investor group adds muscle to push for energy market reforms

Clean energy investors will ramp up their advocacy efforts for better clean energy policies, with the Clean Energy Investor Group making a number of strategic appointments tasked with increasing engagement with governments and key market regulators.

The Clean Energy Investor Group represents a range of Australian investors engaged in the development of clean energy projects, managing a combined $9 billion worth of assets across 49 investments. The group will engage former ACT deputy chief minister and energy minister Simon Corbell as the group’s new permanent chairperson and will be tasked with building a stronger investor voice calling for effective government policies to support increased investment in the clean energy sector.

“The Clean Energy Investor Group’s vision is for a strong, investable National Electricity Market where competitive institutional investment plays a central role in delivering the significant capital needed to achieve Australia’s clean energy transition at the lowest cost to consumers and taxpayers,” Corbell said.

“Now is the time for investors to have a unified and permanent voice which delivers the advocacy needed to shape the detail of future energy market reform and governance. This will be vital in ensuring Australia is able to continue to attract the significant amount of competitively priced capital needed to facilitate the clean energy transition. This will be the role CEIG aims to fulfil under my leadership.”

Corbell oversaw the design of the ACT government’s 100 per cent renewable energy policy, and the innovative reserve auctions program that secured agreements with project developers to supply the nation’s capital with renewable electricity. Corbell went on to serve as the Victorian government’s renewable energy advocate and currently serves as the chief advisor with Energy Estate.

The Clean Energy Investor Group will seek to position itself as the leading advocacy voice on behalf of the clean energy sector, engaged with governments, market bodies and the broader energy sector.

The group said that it was important that investors increased their engagement in policy design and regulatory reform, given some of the challenges currently facing the clean energy sector, including issues impacting energy markets as a whole.

The Clean Energy Investor Group was actively engaged in a recent review of marginal loss factor methodologies undertaken by the Australian Energy Market Commission after wild swings in the loss factors slashed revenues for a number of wind and solar projects.

The investor group said that regulatory changes were needed to maintain investor confidence in the sector, otherwise investors would either be enforced re-assess their involvement in projects vulnerable to revenue losses or exit the market altogether.

The group said it would also form a dedicated policy team, to support the group’s engagement with governments and regulatory bodies, which will be lead by former Victorian treasury official Marilyne Crestias, who oversaw the development of the Victorian Renewable Energy Auction Scheme.

The Clean Energy Investor Group’s membership includes BayWa, John Laing, Lighthouse Infrastructure, Macquarie Capital, RWE Renewables and Windlab, and manages around 5,000MW of renewable energy capacity.