STATUTES AMENDMENT (NATIONAL ENERGY RETAIL LAW IMPLEMENTATION) BILL

Conference

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (14:22): I have to report that the managers for the two houses conferred together and it was agreed that we should recommend to our respective houses:

As to Amendment No. 1—

That the House of Assembly no longer insist on its disagreement.

As to Amendment No. 2—

That the Legislative Council no longer insist on its amendment but makes the following amendment in lieu thereof:

New clause, page 6, before line 23—Insert:

13B—Amendment of section 36AE—Feeding electricity into networks—requirements on holder of licence authorising operation of distribution network

(1) Section 36AE(6)(a)—before 'altered' insert:

subject to subsection (6a),

(2) Section 36AE—after subsection (6) insert:

(6a) If an alteration under subsection (6)(a)—

(a) was approved before 1 October 2011 by the holder of the licence authorising the operation of a distribution network to which the generator is connected; and

(b) is completed on or after 1 October 2011 and before 1 October 2013,

the qualifying customer in relation to the generator will be taken to be a Category 2 qualifying customer for the purposes of this section.

and that the House of Assembly agrees thereto.

Consideration in committee of the recommendations of the conference.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I move:

That the recommendations of the conference be agreed to.

I would like to begin by thanking the representatives of this house who participated in the conferences for their constructive involvement. Honourable members would be aware that the resolution of these amendments paves the way for the commencement of the National Energy Customer Framework of South Australia. The framework introduces a robust national law to protect consumers' access to electricity and gas and will improve the energy market for the benefit of energy consumers and suppliers.

Honourable members may recall that the government initially opposed the amendments put forward in this place by the opposition as they will have an impact on increasing power prices for ordinary South Australians. We are, however, strongly committed to providing South Australian customers early access to the benefits of the national energy customer framework and have, therefore, decided to support the amendments put forward by the opposition in the interests of moving this legislation forward.

Once the framework commences, all retailers in the national market will be able to offer South Australian customers competitive offers. Customers' participation in this competitive market will be assisted by the introduction of national protections to ensure that they have continued access to essential energy services on reasonable terms. The government is also committed to ensuring that vulnerable customers have the ability to access the hardship regime introduced in the national energy customer framework as soon as possible.

It is from this context that I can report that the conference representatives agreed to amend amendment No. 1 from the Legislative Council, which seeks to alter the definition of an 'excluded generator' in the Electricity Act 1996. This amendment requires that, where there are two or more meters measuring consumption on a site, SA Power Networks must take into account the electricity consumption of the site as a whole when enforcing the provision excluding solar systems.

Information supplied to the conference participants by SA Power Networks indicated that there are less than 107 customers which have been excluded from the feed-in scheme which may, as a result of this amendment, have the ability to redeem their eligibility for the 44¢ per kilowatt hour feed-in tariff. In relation to amendment No. 2 from the Legislative Council, I can advise that the conference representatives have agreed to a compromise.

Amendment No. 2 sought to permit solar customers who received approval from SA Power Networks for an upgrade prior to 1 October 2011 to carry out the upgrade at any time and retain eligibility for the 44¢ per kilowatt hour feed-in tariff. The compromise amendment which I lay on the table today provides that solar customers who received approval from SA Power Networks for an upgrade prior to 1 October 2011 and who choose to complete the upgrade by 1 October 2013 will be eligible to receive the 16¢ per kilowatt hour feed-in tariff for the whole of their solar system until 30 September 2016.

The compromise ensures that customers with an approval for an upgrade are able to make an assessment as to whether it is worthwhile to complete the upgrade and receive a feed-in tariff as a category 2 customer, compared with retaining their category 1 status on a smaller system and represents a significantly lower cost option to the amendment from the Legislative Council. Conference representatives were also concerned that nine customers with eligibility for the 44¢ per kilowatt hour feed-in tariff sought in good faith to upgrade their solar system but, due to matters outside of their control, completed their upgrade a short time after the cut-off date of 30 September 2011.

The government has committed to ensure that SA Power Networks implements an administrative solution to ensure that these nine customers retain eligibility for the 44¢ per kilowatt hour feed-in tariff for the whole of their solar system. Thank you to all members who contributed to the debate, and I look forward to seeing the benefits that this legislation will have on household energy consumers.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:29): I indicate that the opposition will be supporting the amendments and I will just make a few brief comments in relation to the conference and comment on a couple of comments that the minister made. The conference was quite lengthy and took some months to complete, and I think that it was conducted in a good spirit of trying to find compromise wherever that could be found and to find a solution to some of the problems. It is interesting that the minister indicated that the amendment put forward by the opposition would increase power prices. Further on in her contribution, the minister did talk about one of the comprises being a lower-cost option; I think that was about $90 million saving.

In the whole scheme of things, 107 customers had solar panels installed in good faith, often on the advice of the installer, often on a property where they had a second meter on a shed not shaded by trees in order to get better access to solar energy. As I am sure you would appreciate, Mr Chairman, 107 people—a very small number of people across the state—installed these solar panels in good faith, and it was the committee's view, and certainly the opposition's view, but also the conference's view that those people should not be disadvantaged by their having entered into that arrangement in good faith. With those few comments, I indicate that the opposition will be supporting these amendments.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: The Greens are pleased to support this motion as well. I will not go into any great length, as the Leader of the Government and the Leader of the Opposition have explained the purpose of the compromise that has been reached, but I will say that it was a lengthy conference for the relatively small number of people who we were ultimately talking about at the end of the day—some 107 customers, mostly farmers, who, in good faith put solar panels on their separately-metered shed, who will now have a greater opportunity to be eligible for the feed-in tariff, provided they have electricity being used elsewhere on the property, most likely through their homestead. I think that is a good amendment to make sure that those people stay eligible.

In relation to the second amendment, I think it does make eminent sense to treat people who are upgrading their systems exactly the same as those who are putting in brand-new systems. So, there is a great deal of equity in this compromise. I do accept that work was needed in the deadlock conference because there were some unintended consequences of the amendment as originally passed through the Legislative Council, and that was resolved, and that, I think, shows us the value of these conferences.

Thirdly, what we affectionately came to call 'the gang of nine'—these people who, through no fault of their own, missed out narrowly on being eligible for a feed-in tariff—the minister's undertaking to deal with them administratively, I think, is an appropriate response.

The final thing I will say, lest the energy minister in another place see fit to go onto the airways again to talk about the impost on electricity consumers via the changes made in the Legislative Council, is that I remind members one more time that the mother of all savings was made in this place when we sensibly agreed to keep the feed-in tariff at 44¢, rather than allow it to blow out to 54¢. The saving we achieved in the Legislative Council, I think, is in the order of $90 million. I think that the Legislative Council has done well in this matter, and I congratulate the government on its compromise.

Motion carried.