Energy Policy

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister update the house on action the government is taking to deliver more affordable and reliable energy for South Australian families and businesses?

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:49): Yes, I can; in fact, it's a pleasure to do so. The Marshall Liberal government is making tremendous headway in this very important area. We are in a transition. South Australia is in a very important transition with regard to energy. The transition actually started about 10 years ago. The first 8½ years of that transition were clearly not going very well. The first 8½ of that transition saw increasing electricity prices.

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Ramsey is warned.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: We saw the first statewide blackout in the nation's history as part of that transition, which was being handled incredibly poorly. But now, as I have said in this place many times, in opposition we very carefully put together our energy policy. We kept some things that the previous government was doing, which we believed were helpful. We got rid of a lot of rubbish as well, and we brought in some incredibly positive initiatives.

While those opposite pretend that they don't like it, they should be pleased for all South Australian electricity consumers to see the change that is taking place. Independent analysis has shown that the last financial year's household average electricity prices for customers were 3 per cent lower than the financial year before, and the financial year before was half a per cent lower than the one before that. The tide has turned, and we are also very pleased with the fact that last summer was the first one in many years that we did not have any blackouts due to load shedding.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: We enter into this summer as cautiously as we always do, so we will again do everything that we possibly can to avoid any blackouts this summer. Summer is always a risky time, but things are improving—things are always improving. We are harnessing renewable energy—in partnership with industry, in partnership with the regulators, in partnership with consumers even—so that it works for consumers, so that it becomes cheaper, so that it becomes more reliable, so that it continues year after year to become cleaner and cleaner as well.

We are doing the things that we said that we would do. We are seeing the fact that there are now five virtual power plant offerings available to retailers in South Australia. There are now four grid-scale storage systems available to harness renewable energy and, perhaps more importantly, to contribute to the quality of that renewable energy: frequency, voltage control and provision of synthetic inertia. We are seeing the development of the Home Battery Scheme going very well. We have new figures. Its take-up is accelerating all the time.

We have already announced one of the measures from the grid-scale storage scheme—$15 million to go to Neoen to increase the capacity of the Hornsdale battery. What we are doing is paying after the capacity is put in place for the services that it delivers, not just handing out money so that the capacity increase can be funded by industry. We are going to spend taxpayers' money to pay for services that benefit taxpayers once they have been delivered. Four minutes is far too short to go through all the things we are trying to do, but let me just say that what we are doing is working.

The SPEAKER: The members for Waite, West Torrens and Lee are all on two warnings. The member for Kaurna.