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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-02-22 Daily Xml
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Blythe Battery

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:14): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Primary Industries, representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Energy and Mining, about the government's latest big battery project.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Work has just begun on the Blythe battery. It will be the biggest battery project in South Australia when it is finished this year. French company Neon has the contract to operate the battery and provide energy into the grid. It will be built using battery packs provided by CATL, which are made in the People's Republic of China by a company closely linked to the Chinese government.

On 14 February, American energy company Duke Energy agreed, under pressure from the US Congress, to decommission energy storage batteries produced by CATL at a North Carolina marine corps base over concerns the batteries pose a security risk, including that the batteries and its inverters may have cyber vulnerabilities that state-backed hackers could use to compromise the US's electricity grid—in other words, shut it down.

CATL has denied their batteries are a security risk and do not have communication interfaces that may enable CATL to control sold products. My question to the minister is: was he or the government aware of the security concerns raised by the US Congress about CATL, and will the government now investigate whether the batteries at Blythe are the same as those installed and now decommissioned in the United States and order an immediate review of the project and the use of CATL projects?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (15:16): I will refer the question to the minister in the other place and bring back a response.

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