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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-15 Daily Xml
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Power Supply

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier received any advice that indicates how long South Australian households and businesses will be left without power and whether there is any risk of a statewide blackout over the coming weeks?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:18): I thank the member for his question. I do point out to the house that this is now the fifth occasion there has been a separation event where South Australia has been islanded. There have been a number of measures put in place since the 2016 statewide blackout to ensure that, when islanding occurs, South Australia will be able to withstand it. Those measures were put in place throughout 2017-18. All those measures that were put in place were not changed by the previous government other than one aspect, which was the sale of our backup generators. They were—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: When there was a separation event just recently, on the weekend, when the transition tower dropped in Tailem Bend, that didn't cause a single blackout—not one. Because members opposite know the difference between transmission breaks and distribution breaks—I can tell by the blank looks on their faces they don't.

There is a difference and that difference is very, very important. In fact, the resilience of the South Australian electricity market is a bipartisan effort: it's not a single-party issue. We are part of the National Electricity Market, with national rules governing it, and we have national measures and national agencies in place to oversee the operation and security of the market. All those mechanisms kicked into place and we are all collectively authors of that system—all of us.

There has been a long-term bipartisan view in this house that as the national regulations that govern the electricity market are legislated in this house, those national reforms are implemented on a bipartisan basis because the state is a national regulator in terms of parliamentary legislation for all national electricity laws. I have not received advice that says the state is at risk of another separation event or a statewide blackout, but what I do say is that everyone responded as they should.

It was a storm. The reason we are having blackouts now is because the distribution network has had trees take out distribution networks. We all love our tree canopy in South Australia; it's what makes us unique among other states. The tree canopy, which I have heard Leader of the Opposition talk about before, is a very important part of decreasing the heat impacts from the more extreme summers we are getting because of climate change. One of the consequences of climate change is more extreme weather events, which means that that canopy is a threat and risk to our distribution lines.

The problem is that, if you wish to underground the distribution network throughout South Australia to avoid those risks, the cost to the taxpayer and the cost to the energy consumer would be immense. I have seen estimates of up to $75 billion to $100 billion to underground the distribution network that members opposite privatised. The question is: why would we use taxpayers' money to underground our distribution network to minimise the risk of blackouts through these serious weather events and then be accused after the serious weather events of gold plating the distribution system? I think, in the end, the system worked well.

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