With yet another recent rise in Western Australian domestic energy prices, a group of Murdoch researchers have joined forces with local community housing providers to find solutions to a potential energy poverty crisis in Western Australia.

At the invitation of Senior Lecturer in Energy Studies and Renewable Energy Engineering Dr Tania Urmee, a group of representatives from housing authorities convened at Murdoch University to share ideas that may assist residents of community housing who were facing domestic energy poverty.

Domestic energy poverty refers to a situation where a household does not have access or cannot afford to have the basic energy or energy services to achieve day to day living requirements.

“At the recent budget, we saw cost to householders increase significantly. One of the key components of this was an increase in energy prices,” Dr Urmee said.

“The Western Australian government is moving toward ‘cost reflectivity’ where the government is beginning to step back from subsidising Synergy and Horizon Power and this is creating price hikes for all electricity users.

“The impact of this is particularly worse for low income earners who are community housing tenants.”

Representatives from Access Housing, Anglicare, the WA Department of Housing, Foundation Housing, Indigo Junction, St Patrick’s Community Support Centre, Pinakarri Community, Shelter WA and St Vincent De Paul attended last week’s discussion and workshop on ‘Addressing Energy Poverty in Community and Social Housing’ hosted by Dr Jonathan Whale and Dr Urmee.

Dr Urmee shared outcomes of previous research with the group, which indicated that the average Australian household spent $40.92 each week on domestic energy use, however community housing residents used more energy than other Australians in cooling and heating their homes, which led to higher energy bills.

“This is due to a range of factors. Many of these properties are older and not very energy or water efficient and a lack of funding prevents the installation of more energy efficient light globes,” Dr Urmee said.

“In addition, tenants have a low understanding or awareness of electricity use, and it is difficult to monitor how much energy tenants in certain dwellings are using.”

Dr Urmee said a diverse range of households were now at risk, with many having to make the difficult choice between paying their energy bills, or buying enough food to eat.

“Electricity prices are hitting the roof, gas prices have become unaffordable and efforts to provide access to affordable, reliable and clean energy are failing – this is what we refer to as the energy ‘trilemma’,” Dr Urmee said.

As a first step to devising some possible solutions to these issues, the three main topics of energy pricing and policy; tenants’ energy use and energy efficiency buildings; and potential areas of research into community and social housing were discussed in groups by those in attendance

“According to a 2017 study conducted by the CSIRO: A portfolio of measures can result in lower energy bills, deliver a more secure and reliable electricity supply, while taking strong action on reducing emissions from the energy sector and that is what we have come together to deliver,” Dr Urmee said.

Outcomes of the discussion will be used to inform research projects in partnership with the community and social housing providers which will be used to develop and inform briefings for advocating policy changes to governments.

Murdoch Masters student Vahid Farahi, a mechanical engineer by trade with a background in designing air conditioning and heating systems, plans to research methods for reducing energy costs to these consumers through improvements in energy efficiency of housing. 

“From my point of view, those buildings are not realistically energy efficient, so there is a potential job to make them as energy efficient as possible,” Mr Farahi said.

“What I could offer is to enhance factors contributing to reduced electricity consumption while providing them with the desired indoor temperature.”

Meanwhile, student Darryl Fitzgerald has commenced research into a ‘low-cost, multi-parameter energy monitor’ and analysing its energy use profiles for developing energy management strategies for occupants.

“Energy monitoring as a practice has not been developed and consistent frameworks and methodology is yet to be established. As such previous research into energy use monitoring to improve energy efficiency in residential buildings has not delivered the promised gains,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“The aim of this research is to design and develop a low-cost multi-parameter energy monitor which will be used in community and social housing as well as normal residential housing to gather and profile energy use data.

“Good long-term energy monitoring allows accurate feedback to be provided to residents and can be used as a means of motivation and education so as to establish energy-efficient occupant behaviour.”