Microgrid Energy System

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Why is the launch of the hybrid microgrid system and work of Angelo Demasi and the team at SA Produce Market so important in the establishment and management of self-sufficient energy systems?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:51): I thank the member for Florey for this question—a project which I know is dear to her heart in her electorate at the SA Produce Market. We had the pleasure to be there together last week for the official launch of this microgrid program, and I have to say that SA Produce Market, through their CEO, Angelo Demasi, their board and their grower members have really nailed it with this project. It is an industrial scale of exactly what we would like to see at smaller, similar and larger sizes all over the state.

They have used their massive rooftop capacity to install solar panels. They have battery storage on site. They have diesel capacity on site. They are still connected to the grid and, through the work of AZZO, Mr John Azzollini's company, and Schneider Electrical, a very well-known international firm—which in fact has a very strong presence here in South Australia—and other partners, they have a tremendous integration system which means that they can completely optimise what they are doing on site.

If there is cheap electricity to be had in the grid at the wholesale market, they will put their solar energy into their storage on site and they will draw electricity out of the grid. If there is very expensive electricity in the grid, they will use their own solar generation and/or what they've got stored on site. They even have the capacity to access their diesel as a backup option if ever there are blackouts or some fault on site, which means their electricity supply isn't interrupted.

Also—and this is not recommended in many ways but, from a commercial perspective, for them it is very smart—when there are extraordinarily high prices for electricity, they can actually turn on their generator and export into the grid and earn a very good income for their shareholders. That would only happen perhaps once or twice a year, but they are so finely tuned to their needs that they even have that capacity.

Let's just say that generally what they are going to do is take an enormous amount of electricity off the grid. In fact, this site alone, through their forecast operation of all those various combinations, will actually take about 3.8 megawatt hours of electricity per year off the grid—a very significant reduction in the overall consumption on our grid. That of course not only benefits the grower members at the Produce Market but also benefits every other electricity consumer in South Australia by taking demand off just a little bit, easing things up just a little bit, putting a little bit more of a downward price on the wholesale price of electricity, which then flows through to benefit all other electricity consumers.

I really can't congratulate the South Australian Produce Market enough on what they have done. They have had financial help from the state government. They have brought in the very best and brightest locally and from overseas to make this project work. They have scaled it exactly to their needs. They will save approximately $400,000 per year on their standard electricity consumption, which then gets spread across all of their members. It is a tremendous project, and it was a pleasure to be there with the member for Florey last week.