Power Prices

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): My question is to the Premier. What measures, if any, will the government introduce to bring power bills down for South Australians? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Labor's Hydrogen Jobs Plan promised to create thousands of jobs for South Australians, build a hydrogen power plant and bring down the price of power. This project has since been abandoned and this week serious concerns have been raised about SA's base load power capacity by ElectraNet.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:20): Mr Speaker, there are a couple of things in that question that I think need to be delved into. First of all, I think he misunderstands the nature of ElectraNet's public statements. I think what he is talking about there is the forecasting ability of AEMO to see a growing economy where there is more electricity demand in South Australia than there has ever been before.

So what he is actually talking about is our economy growing and for the first time in decades there is more industrial demand in South Australia than there has been previously wanting more power. That is a good thing, not a bad thing, and I think that is what ElectraNet is trying to tell the national market bodies that overlook the regulation and framework of the National Electricity Market, of which South Australia is a member.

I think he mischaracterises the understanding about base load power, and I think he also misunderstands the role of base load power now in the new modern electricity network. The days of old coal clunkers operating emitting carbon are over. It is not 1996, it is 2025. It is a different time. The way now we supply energy into the market is through the cheapest possible method, which is renewables, backed up and firmed by either batteries or gas. They are low emission, fast start. They are used rarely and they are there only to back up, which is why we have got our firm program that members opposite voted for.

On the idea that, because the government has suspended the Hydrogen Jobs Plan, to save a city—to save a city—to put that money into the rejuvenation of the steelworks, which every member in this house voted for unanimously, it is a bit rich to turn up today and say, 'Oh, what's your plan?' The members opposite know that we have a plan to go towards net zero, the members opposite do not. We have a plan to decarbonize; members opposite do not. The members opposite are fighting internally about what their energy policy actually is. There are some who are arguing for nuclear power; there are some who are not.

Mr TEAGUE: Point of order 98(a) on relevance, and I refer to the Third Edition of Blackmore's, at page 205, edited by Crump, with the assistance of Pegram and Forkert. The minister needs to respond to the substance of the question. He has now departed completely from that.

The SPEAKER: I have been listening closely to the answer and I think from my reading of what was publicised earlier in the week, the comments from ElectraNet were directed towards AEMO, and I think the Minister for Energy has been addressing that. He is now moving on to other parts of energy policy, which all tie into what the cost of energy will be to South Australians. That is my understanding as a layperson, without the level of knowledge that some others will have on the energy market. So I think the minister is addressing the question and he still has a minute and a half to go. The minister.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Fundamentally, when renewables are operating, the wholesale market is very, very low and the wholesale market peaks and retail markets peak, those who are on time-of-use pricing, around the peak times of demand, in the morning and in the evenings. People go home and they turn their heaters or their air conditioners on. Families use a lot more power, power prices peak. So we have a very volatile system in South Australia, more so than every other jurisdiction. What is setting the price of those peaks is the use of thermal fuel to back up renewables, to meet that peak demand.

The measures we put in place are through the firm which will incentivise through an oxygen process more thermal generation that is being displaced. How is that thermal generation being displaced? It is being displaced by a deliberate government policy of the former government to build an interconnector into New South Wales. That regulatory investment test, paid for by the previous government, said that as a benefit of building that interconnection will be the displacement and closure of the Torrens Island power station.

So we have to turn up now and bring in a new policy to incentivise new thermal generation to back up the renewables that the thermal generation members opposite closed. They dare to get up and complain about there not being enough base load energy. Quite frankly, you are fighting about net zero, you are fighting amongst yourselves—just get a clear, coherent policy and leave the grown-ups to run the system.