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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-29 Daily Xml
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Question Time

SOLAR FEED-IN SCHEME

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:02): My question, unsurprisingly perhaps, is to the Minister for Energy. Which of the minister's stated increases in electricity prices because of the government's solar feed-in scheme is correct? Is it 1.67 per cent, 2.7 per cent, 3 per cent, 8 per cent, none of the above, or even the 2.2 per cent that was suggested by the minister to the media at lunch time; and is it true that the government's policy to increase the feed-in tariff to 54¢ would have caused electricity prices to rise even further?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Northern Suburbs) (14:03): I thank the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: —leader for the question. I think it is probably apparent to the house that the deputy leader has been taken out of the equation, given his two—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: —absolutely woeful performances on radio this morning, and the member for Norwood actually—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I can't hear the minister's response. There is too much across the chamber. Dreadful behaviour.

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: —having to come to the assistance of the beleaguered deputy leader with a—

An honourable member: He hollered for a marshal, did he?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: Yes, hollered—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order.

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: He hollered for a marshal, but that didn't help, because he was as flat as a tack.

An honourable member: How long did you practise that in the mirror?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: No, that just came to me. I was confronted last night with a media statement from the deputy leader claiming that I had said that there was going to be an 8 per cent increase, which kind of horrified me at the time, given the fact that I thought he would realise that that was way outside the ballpark, and I was actually—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: I stated on three occasions in question time that I would return with the figure. So, I will work through it, and if the deputy leader wants me to work my way back I am more than happy to do it. We will start with the figure of 8 per cent that I said I would check on and come back to the house. ESCOSA's standing contract was set on 1 August. The deputy leader has some awareness of ESCOSA. He asked me whether ESCOSA could check on the modelling that the opposition was putting up in relation to the feed-in tariff.

From 1 August, ESCOSA set the standing contract, which is the fallback position for people who don't want to go into the marketplace, and it was an agreement that came out of the whole privatisation process so that if the competition mechanism did not work successfully, and people felt that they were being ripped off, they could have a price set by a government authority.

ESCOSA sets the standing contract. I think everybody has a degree of surety with the process. They determined that the standing contract from 1 August should rise by 17.44 per cent. Network prices, which account for 40 per cent of the typical residential bill, constituted 14 per cent of this 17.44 per cent. This was in large part due to calls by ElectraNet and ETSA for substantial—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: If the complexity is getting away from you, just let me know. With regard to the increase of 17.44 per cent, 80.2 per cent of that increase was due to the increase in transmission charges. Our calculations, which I sought to confirm—hence my undertaking to return to the house with a firm figure—set the contribution of solar feed-in tariff at 8 per cent of this increase.

The calculation runs as follows: the ESCOSA standing contract increase on medium usage of 5,000 kilowatts annually is $226.12. At the end of July, installed capacity was around 100 megawatts. The cost of the scheme at 100 megawatts is calculated at $19.73 for medium usage. I will table this because I am going to come back to it a little later. This is where it might get a little—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There is too much noise in the chamber. I can't hear the minister.

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: This is where it may get a little demanding. You divide—

Mr Goldsworthy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Kavel, you are warned.

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: Dividing the $19.73, which is the cost of the feed-in tariff over a year, by the $226.12 increase in the standing contract—that is, the feed-in component of the increase in electricity prices by the total increase—comes in at 8.7 per cent. That is where the figure came from. That is one way—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Norwood!

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: I'm not hollering for a marshal.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Norwood, you are warned. You will have an opportunity to ask a question later. Minister, have you finished your answer?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: No. That is one way of dealing with it. It quite surprised me that the deputy leader did not comprehend because—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: I would expect the deputy leader to be across his portfolio area. I am now tabling the install capacity, the qualifying capacity and the impact. At 130 megawatts of installed capacity, which is the figure as of a week ago, the contribution is $25.62 a year increase in electricity charges, which is 1.67 per cent. In addition to the 130 megawatts of installed capacity, there is an additional 80 that has been booked. ETSA has signed off on these applications.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: This is serious; you really want to get an understanding? So, at 210, assuming that everybody who has applied to put panels on their roofs as of approximately a week ago—if they all have the panels put on their roofs—the increase to the average consumer will be $41.30, which is 2.7 per cent. So, there are three figures in play. The 8 per cent to which I referred yesterday—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN: —and I will table the table for the edification of the opposition.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I know it is Thursday and we are breaking for two weeks. If you don't want to be here this afternoon, please leave now before I throw you out. You are being very bad today.

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