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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-06-18 Daily Xml
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Power Prices

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (15:02): I will leave that aside. This is again a question to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Does the government have a plan to reduce power prices for South Australians? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr PATTERSON: The Premier has criticised next-generation nuclear energy generation because it is an evolving technology. However, his government is happy to forge ahead with a $600 million taxpayer-funded hydrogen plant that Labor has acknowledged will not lower power bills for households or small businesses.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (15:03): First and foremost, the mischaracterisation of the allocation of money for the generator—my friend the shadow minister should know better.

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That would be ungentlemanly.

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: Why? We're here today.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It's not sport, come on, let's keep it civil. Follow my lead.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: They just jump on the hook. I don't even have to bait them. I just throw it out and they jump on.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: There he is, the thinker. The generators are one aspect of the Hydrogen Jobs Plan, and no-one is saying that the generators are going to cost $600 million. When the shadow minister quotes the CSIRO report, he doesn't quote the entire context. I think it is important that we give the house the proper context for levelised costs. The CSIRO determined the levelised costs—

Mr PATTERSON: Point of order: 98, sir. I just asked the question here. He had plenty of opportunity previously, but didn't. I would ask that he respond to the question I have asked at hand.

The SPEAKER: I think we will give the minister—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I don't need the help of the backbench, thank you. The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: In his explanation, the shadow minister talked about the levelised costs of nuclear power in comparison to hydrogen and renewables, so I thought I would give the actual costs that the CSIRO had published. The GenCost 2023-24 final report by CSIRO determined the levelised cost for electricity generation technologies. It estimated that the levelised cost of electricity in 2030 from a nuclear small modular reactor would be up to $382 a megawatt hour. This compares to integrated renewables, at $89 a megawatt hour. So when we are comparing the technologies that the shadow minister is calling experimental, versus the really expensive mythological services that he wants to have here—

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: He talks about small modular reactors, and he talks about experimental. They are highly speculative, because there are no such reactors in commercial operation outside former communist states. One SMR of about 70 megawatts operates on a ship in Russia, and in China, and some small experimental reactors are operational; and an SMR is in construction of about 125 megawatts.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that there are more than 70 SMR designs at various stages of development, and so their costs per unit of energy generation are likely to be higher than the cost per unit of conventional large-scale nuclear reactors. So the SMRs are even more expensive than large-scale generators.

In Georgia, the most recent nuclear generator built, which commenced operation in July 2023, that plant is—wait for it—$US17 billion over budget, at a total cost of $US31 billion.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The member for Chaffey interjects on energy yet doesn't have the courage to get up and ask a question, because he just interjects. He interjects, sits quietly, then interjects, then sits quietly, smiles and laughs, has nothing to contribute. At least his colleague has the courage to get up and ask a question. A few weeks after the budget and nothing—just interjections. My point is that hydrogen technology is not experimental. Members opposite derided the grid-scale battery at Hornsdale as nothing but a big tourist attraction. It is now the template around the world for grid-scale storage, as will be hydrogen.

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