Electricity Generation

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:32): My question is for the Minister for Energy. What is the duration of the lease period in the contract being entered into with APR Energy for the nine diesel generators?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:32): The lease period, I understand, has a period of over two summers. Of course, we can exercise our options to purchase that sooner. We are obviously looking at what the best options are for the state and we will be in discussions with AEMO. Indeed, I am meeting the AEMO Board later on tonight to have a discussion about how best to integrate the battery and the long-term generation so that we have our permanent supply available and not two sets of generators, that were going to be temporary diesel generators, as the opposition were talking about.

They even contemplated some sort of ship or barge coming into the port of Adelaide, and how wrong they all were. I sense they are a little bit disappointed that we've got a permanent solution at a temporary site rather than a temporary solution. But, as those negotiations go ahead, we will reveal more to the parliament. Importantly, on the advice of AEMO, because of our investments and because of Our Energy Plan, our reliability ratings for this summer are very, very good indeed.

The SPEAKER: Supplementary, member for Stuart.