Power Prices

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:11): My question is to the Premier. Will the government's flagship hydrogen power plant at Whyalla lower electricity costs for all businesses in South Australia, as promised. With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: The SA Labor Hydrogen Jobs Plan election policy document states that Labor will:

Lower electricity prices for all businesses in South Australia.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:12): It's an interesting question that the member asks, and I thank him for it because his shadow minister has been saying that this will not lower residential household power prices despite the Leader of the Opposition just quoting the policy document talking specifically about wholesale prices which impact businesses. So they know, they have now admitted that they know that they have been out there talking about two different things. So, yes, what we said we would do is our generator will bid into the market to attempt to lower wholesale prices at peak times.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The interjections after asking a question are unbecoming a person who wants to be the Premier of this state.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: He just asked a question. I've been up 30 seconds and you're interjecting. Just give me a moment and I will answer your question. What we are attempting to do with our generator is, what we are seeing in the market is gas setting the prices during the peaks. Because a lot of businesses are in the wholesale market, they see their prices peak around those times when residential households start using a lot more electricity at night and when renewable energy comes offline because of either the sun going down or the intermittency of the wind and gas setting the price.

What is happening is, amazingly in unison, every single gas-fired generator bids in at almost exactly the same amount, which spikes prices. The advice we have from Danny Price from Frontier Economics, who has also done work for both sides of parliament, is that when we have a government generator that is bidding in at its marginal run costs of producing electricity plus a small profit margin we will see us bidding in at a lower level than those other generators who are bidding at a higher level, which will bring down wholesale power prices.

What else brings down wholesale power prices? Renewable energy. The more renewable energy you have in the system, and you have a government generator acting in the interests of the people of South Australia and its constituents rather than their shareholders, you will get lower prices in the system.

But it's good to see you finally admit that what your shadow minister has been saying and what you have been saying have been misleading. The shadow minister has been out there saying, just as recently as one o'clock today on the Stacey Lee show, the hydrogen project won't lower household power prices, while the Leader of the Opposition gets up and actually quotes the document when we're talking about lowering business costs. The former shadow treasurer, who was booted out by his own people—not by us—shouldn't be commenting at all.