Energy Storage Conference

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Will the minister update the house on the recent Energy Storage Conference hosted in Adelaide?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:46): Thank you very much to the member for Morphett—another important question on energy. It gives me the opportunity to share with the house how very successful the Energy Storage Conference was in Adelaide last week. In fact, I am told that attendance was up 45 per cent on the same conference held in Sydney last year. So here, already, in South Australia we are starting to get runs on the board with regard to energy policy.

It was a great opportunity for the Marshall Liberal government's energy policy to be explained to the people who had come from all over Australia to hear about our orderly transition towards renewable energy—not the disorderly transition that all South Australians had become used to under the previous Labor government, not the mess, the chaos, the blackouts or the high prices. They came to hear about how we are going to put all that behind us, how we are going to deliver more affordable, more reliable and more environmentally responsible electricity for South Australia.

We were able to share with people about our $100 million home storage program and about our $50 million grid storage program. We were able to explain how, unlike the previous government, we are not going to rush into renewable energy without storage. We are going to allow that energy to be harnessed so that when it's not windy, and it's not sunny, that energy can still be used and very importantly dispatched on demand when consumers want it.

That was one of the greatest failings of the last government, the Labor government: they forgot about consumers—they forgot all about consumers. They just didn't care about consumers. We are going to make electricity available when consumers want to use it, and part of our plan is to continue with the Tesla virtual power plant.

The previous government made some commitments. They committed a $2 million grant, they committed a $30 million loan for phases 1 and 2 of that program, and we will honour those commitments, as we said we would right after the election. Right after the election we made it very clear that any commitments that the previous government had entered into we would honour, and that's exactly what we are doing.

Let me just make one important point here: the Tesla virtual power plant program was not the previous government's policy—it was not their idea—it was Tesla's idea. Tesla actually came to the government with their suggestion. Tesla wanted to work with the South Australian government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: —on their proposal. Let me tell you, Mr Speaker: Tesla is loving working with the South Australian government at the moment. They think it is fantastic that we are getting on and doing that. They are pleased that their program is going to work in addition to our program announced before the election for another 40,000 home storage units across South Australia.

The conference was positive in many ways, but one of the ways it was very positive was also that Mr Sanjeev Gupta was able to speak at the conference. He is a person who has an enormous and very positive influence in South Australia at the moment. He was able to share with people at the conference his intentions not only for steel production and iron ore mining and many other things but also with regard to using cleaner and greener and more affordable energy for his business but also then being able to share it more broadly with South Australians.

One very interesting thing that came up at the conference—many people commented on this—is that only last week in the Australian Financial Review Mr Gupta made it very clear that his working relationship with Premier Marshall is much better than it was with premier Weatherill.