New polling of 1,421 Australians, released today by The Australia Institute’s Climate & Energy Program, shows voters would prefer to see governments increasing energy conservation rather than building new power stations.

A recent report by Dan Cass explains that demand response allows energy consumers to sell ‘negawatts’ of reduced demand into the National Electricity Market, to keep the grid stable and reduce price peaks.

“Respondents were asked which they thought was a better way to plan for peak demand events. Two-thirds (64%) supported demand response, while 28% supported building new grid infrastructure and power stations,” Australia Institute strategist, Dan Cass said.

“This polling shows the public understands demand response is cheaper and faster and are supportive of the technology.

“There’s a real eagerness from Australians to make money by generating, storing and trading electricity. What is needed are smart regulations that would unleash huge benefits to the stability, efficiency of the grid, and lower prices to boot.

“Four in five voters said they are interested in participating in demand response schemes,” said Mr Cass.

Voters were asked if they would be interested in turning specific appliances off or down for a half hour period, during a demand peak, in return for a payment.

●        85% of voters said they would be interested in turning down the heating temperature two degrees for half an hour

●        82% of voters said they would be interested in turning off appliances like televisions and computers for half an hour

●        77% of voters said they would be interested in turning the air conditioning off for half an hour

“Demand response can deliver security faster and cheaper than building new power stations and more efficiently than prolonging the life of aging plants like Liddell. Technology has overtaken ideology,” said Dan Cass.