Home Battery Scheme

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister please provide information to the house on how the state's Home Battery Scheme is reducing energy costs for South Australian households?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:56): Yes, I welcome this question from the member for Kavel and, yes, I can certainly answer it. It was a pleasure to be with the member for Kavel in Mount Barker in his electorate about a week and a half ago talking to his very good constituents. In fact, I bumped into a constituent of mine who was actually staying in Adelaide for a while and who thought it was interesting to come down and have a listen as well.

We know that we can make as much solar energy as we want—just about—through rooftop solar for the homes, but we also know that the majority of electricity is consumed in homes in the evening, not during the day when the electricity is generated. So, by bridging that gap, by allowing energy that is generated through the day from solar to be stored through the day, through the afternoon into the evening and then consumed by that household in the evening saves money for households.

Even when you consider forgoing the current levels of feed-in tariff that are available—I am not talking about the previously very high feed-in tariffs—if you are getting 15¢ feed-in tariff repaid for electricity you put into the grid but then paying 40¢ at night to consume, why not forgo the 15¢ that you get during the day, store the energy and use that energy so that you can forgo paying approximately 40¢. It works very well.

Our program to provide a subsidy plus a low interest loan towards the purchase of batteries and solar and installation is proving to be very successful with the benefit for an enormous number of households that they can pay the loan back from the savings in their electricity bills—so, no money up-front, no additional cash outlay.

We have 1,900 homes so far that have taken up the Home Battery Scheme. We have about 1,250 homes as part of the Tesla VPP, and about 300 of them do not actually even have the equipment: they are the ones that are benefitting from receiving lower electricity prices because of the Tesla VPP in the other 1,000 or so homes that do have the equipment.

It comes to the point, which I know the member for Kavel is very aware of, that this is work we are doing not just for those homes that actually invest in the equipment but it is work that we are doing for all South Australians. We want to reduce the electricity costs to all South Australians. We know that, through the Home Battery Scheme, when we take a good chunk off evening demand, that takes downward pressure on wholesale prices and that flows through to lower retail prices for all household electricity consumers, even those who don't have the equipment installed.

We already know that through the VPP, that hundreds of homes can benefit through a virtual power plant even if they are participants but they don't have the equipment installed. This market is evolving very well, very positively. There are now four virtual power plant opportunities that South Australian households can sign up for. AGL, Tesla, Sonnen and Simply Energy all have virtual power plant opportunities out there, which are voluntary to participate in.

There is no obligation for anybody to do that, but if you have the equipment which is virtual power plant enabled, as is a requirement with our Home Battery Scheme and the Tesla Virtual Power Plant, then homes can sign up. They can get lower electricity prices, but then other homes that are part of the VPP but without the equipment can also get lower electricity prices.

We are determined to get the supply mix right. We are determined to get demand management right. We are determined to make electricity more affordable, more reliable and cleaner for all South Australians, from the smallest household all the way through to the largest employers.