Edithburgh Sports and Community Club Power Supply Upgrade

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:22): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister advise if there is potential to reimburse community groups to meet the cost of mandatory new power supply upgrades for community facilities used as refuge centres? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr ELLIS: The Edithburgh Sports and Community Club got a $30,000 bill from SAPN to connect and upgrade power supply for its facility upgrade project in order to meet the extra load requirements over and above what they would have had to have as a simple sporting club. Their new facility is funded from a Black Summer bushfire recovery grant and is designed to be an emergency refuge and coordination centre in the event of an emergency. As a result, their overall budget has blown out and the club is in danger of not being able to complete the project.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:23): That is an excellent question. Just for some background for the house, as you connect to the grid, with the way the market works those costs are borne by the person wishing to connect to the grid if the grid requires an upgrade. These aren't costs that are usually socialised across the entire network. However, this sounds like a fairly unique situation where a community not-for-profit organisation is receiving commonwealth funding or state funding to build a refuge for an essential service during a bushfire or natural disaster, and the system somehow here has fallen through the cracks that this organisation is not being able to be either reimbursed or have these costs smeared.

I will undertake to the house to go away and have a look at this case and see if there is something we can do. It might require a rule change or some sort of ministerial intervention—I'm not quite sure. I need to get the details of it all and I need to know what the upgrade is for exactly. I'm assuming it's generators to operate if they are cut off from the grid. I'm not quite sure why a refuge would require a larger load, but I will have a look at it all and get back to the member with an answer. I thank him for raising this with me.