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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-10-18 Daily Xml
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National Electricity Market

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Can the minister provide the house with details on the future of Australia's energy supply?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (15:01): Thank you for the question from the member for Florey and her keen interest and ongoing support for the role that renewable energy plays as part of a sensible response to climate change in this state. Based on the Australian Energy Market Operator's figures for the past five years, South Australia has the highest penetration of renewables of all the regions within the National Electricity Market. The total renewable generation in South Australia for 2015-16 was a whopping 5,260 gigawatt hours, or about 43 per cent of the state's overall power generation.

Analysis undertaken since Alinta closed its coal-fired power station in May to July, indicates the percentage of total renewable energy production in this state across those months has risen to above 50 per cent. That's a good thing for our state. The AEMO analysis also shows South Australia is comparatively reliant on gas-powered generation compared with other regions in the National Electricity Market. During the same May to July period, gas-fired generation accounted for about 48½ per cent of the total electricity generated within South Australia.

This government regards gas as an important transitional source. The SA grid currently consists of nearly 3,000 megawatts of traditional generation, which is predominantly gas. Lower carbon emission generation is the future for South Australia, the future for Australia and the future for 195 countries that took part in negotiations that culminated in the Paris agreement to combat global warning.

We have seen reports in Victoria that the Hazelwood power station will soon close, becoming the last in a growing list of coal-fired power stations to close across the country. Just as Northern's power station became uneconomic, the country will see more coal generation exiting the national electricity market as it becomes increasingly unviable in a carbon-constrained environment.

There are some people, at the behest of federal members of parliament, who last week called on the state government to intervene in the market and use taxpayers' money to reopen a coal-fired power station which, of course, was privatised by the last Liberal government. It is a typical and lazy response, which shows that those people calling for this are beholden to their federal masters and, most importantly, are beholden to coal interests around the country.

The idea of the government mining for coal again is akin to hunting whales to use their blubber to light street lamps. We won't be whale hunting to repower South Australia and we won't be returning to coal-fired generation. Rather—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It's the Jack Nicholson response. Rather, we believe—I believe and all of us on this side of the house believe—that the future requires the modernisation of the electricity market, as proposed at the COAG meeting of energy ministers, so we can better integrate renewable energy and become a market for the 21st century, not a market for the 19th century, where members opposite belong.

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