The Australian Energy Council is celebrating the passage of a renewable energy bill in NSW but says a national and coordinated approach to energy policy is desperately needed.
NSW upper house MPs finally passed renewable electricity legislation on Wednesday evening after a marathon 30-hour parliamentary sitting in which almost 250 One Nation-proposed amendments were rejected.
Government upper house leader Damien Tudehope on Tuesday suspended the Legislative Council's midnight adjournment to work through the 249 amendments to the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Bill.
The amendments were put forward by One Nation's Mark Latham in an attempt to thwart the bill's passage, which was supported by the coalition government, Labor opposition and Greens.
The government says its 'Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap' will enable $32 billion in private sector investment in energy by 2030, bring 12 gigawatts of renewable energy and two gigawatts of storage online and reduce household annual power bills by an average of $130.
Australian Energy Council chief executive Sarah McNamara hailed the passage of the bill as the beginning of huge reform in NSW.
"We support the Roadmap's overall objectives of cleaner, cheaper power," she said in a statement on Thursday.
"Our member businesses are already driving, or supporting, the transition to lower emissions in the Australian energy sector."
But Ms McNamara said each jurisdiction's differing approach to energy policy was creating uncertainty for investors.
"We do remain concerned about (the bill's) impact on the functioning of an increasingly interconnected National Electricity Market and the complexity it will certainly add to investment decisions," she said.
A national and coordinated approach to energy policy was sorely needed, she said.
"The interconnected system is under pressure now more than ever to accommodate and manage jurisdictional priorities."
