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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-02-10 Daily Xml
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Electricity Prices

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:43): My question is again to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Has the government undertaken any modelling to assess the impact of increased wind generation on electricity prices to households and businesses?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (15:44): Well, Mr Speaker, we think wind power generation in this state is a virtue, not something we should be ashamed of or think is going to hurt our electricity market.

Mr Pisoni: As long as someone else pays for it.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Again, you will notice the interjections are riddled with—

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley will leave, under the sessional order, for the next hour, being a repeat offender.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Mr Speaker—

The SPEAKER: Could the Treasurer pause until the member for Unley removes himself.

The honourable member for Unley having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: Minister.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: As I was saying, wind generation is not the evil that members opposite think it is. In fact, it lowers our carbon footprint dramatically. Once the investment is sunk in, it generates very, very low-cost energy. The one failing that it has—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The one failure it has, Mr Speaker, is that it is not dispatchable 24/7. I know that members opposite—

Mr Marshall: We would never be able to work that out before we advocated for the model!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Oh, 'advocated for the model'.

The SPEAKER: Could the Treasurer supply information to the house without continual reference and reflection on members opposite?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir.

The SPEAKER: Thank you.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Our wind farms are an asset to this state. In fact, when they get into the market they can bring prices dramatically down, but, of course, that has to coincide with demand and that can be quite difficult. The government is investigating ways to try to offset that, to make wind more efficient. There will come a time when the large majority of wind farms being in South Australia will become a very important economic factor in this state and quite an important economic advantage, and this is why.

Once we have an efficient way to store power, and that's obviously commercial on a mass scale, and there are lots of ways in which a lot of the retailers are looking at that through very large batteries or, of course, in situ batteries in people's own homes—we can have time and price metering in place, eventually. Once we do that, wind becomes a lot more stable. People can charge their batteries at home and use that very, very cheap power to get through the peaks and troughs.

But, ultimately, there is not one simple answer to this. This won't be fixed with slogans. It won't be fixed with slogans, it will be fixed by doing the hard yards: the changes to the National Electricity Rules, more interconnection and lobbying the regulator to have more interconnection. I would like to see more interconnection with New South Wales and more interconnection with Victoria. I would like to see more efficiency in our electricity grids, and I would like to see the development of microgrids in and amongst our suburbs, which will see more efficiencies. I also point out, in my closing remarks, that we took an energy policy to the election; members opposite didn't.

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