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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-09-21 Daily Xml
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Reservoir Management

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:29): Supplementary question arising from the Minister's answer: I refer to his SA Water officer, who was on radio today, who said, and I quote:

…what we try and do is to minimise the amount of pumping that we need to do from the Murray…it is expensive to pump that water across and we try and do that late summer, early autumn…when power prices are low and get water into the reservoirs then...

Can the minister explain how his officer thinks that it is cheaper to pump in late summer and early autumn, and yet the minister said it has nothing to do with the time and the seasons?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:30): The honourable member has expressed her ignorance in this matter. The two of us have not made any difference. He says, 'We pump when the electricity is cheapest.' That is exactly what we do. The longer period of time you have to pump, the cheaper the price schedules that you can actually go for. So you do not pump for 12 hours a day, you might only pump for three hours when the prices are low and you can spread that out over three months. What is so hard to understand about that?

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