Steven Marshall: Hazelwood power station closure leaves South Australian electricity supply even more vulnerable
SOUTH Australians should brace for another jolt in power prices with the planned closure of the coal-fired Hazelwood power station in Victoria, writes Steven Marshall.
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SOUTH Australians should brace for another jolt in power prices with the planned closure of the coal-fired Hazelwood power station in Victoria in March 2018 set to make electricity even more expensive and less reliable in our state.
When the Weatherill Government allowed the coal-fired Port Augusta power station to close it drove up the price of electricity and made us much more reliant on Victoria for electricity supplies.
In the 12 months after Alinta announced the closure of the Northern Power Station in June 2015 average wholesale future electricity prices in SA jumped by 99 per cent.
Since Port Augusta closed in May 2016 spot prices in the electricity market have shot up by 90 per cent and household electricity bills have increased by 11 per cent.
The surge in electricity prices is hurting family budgets, damaging businesses and killing jobs.
The closure of Hazelwood will have a similar impact on electricity prices in Victoria and given we now import large amounts of electricity across the border, prices here will rise even further.
In the last six years South Australian imports of electricity from Victoria via the interconnector virtually doubled to 2091 GWh in 2014-15.
Of course the tripping of the interconnector with Victoria last month was also the precise moment South Australia was plunged into the statewide blackout that dragged us back into the dark ages.
The interconnector tripped when wind farms in South Australia dropped out and the system shut down to avoid massive internal damage.
This had been foreshadowed — “reductions in coal-powered generation capacity across the NEM would pose a risk to future supply reliability in South Australia.” (AEMO SA Electricity Report 2016)
How did it come to this? Sheer incompetence.
The State Labor Government wanted to be a world leader in the installation of wind power. Problem was it didn’t understand what impact an over-reliance on wind power would have upon the entire electricity system.
We now know. We are a world leader in electricity prices — having some of the most expensive electricity on the planet.
Despite sky high electricity prices our system is now so vulnerable that a storm in the north of the state plunges the rest of the state into darkness.
When the Port Augusta power station closed the Weatherill Government had achieved one of its burning ambitions.
The Liberal Party has a far more balanced approach to integrating renewable energy with more traditional forms of electricity generation.
We fully support the development of renewable energy but not at the expense of massively increased electricity prices and job losses in South Australia.
There must be greater investment in developing storage capacity, consideration of the use of differential tariffs and a market impact assessment before new wind farms are opened.
Repairing the damage the Weatherill Labor Government has done to this essential service will be a priority of a Marshall Liberal Government.
We will not leave South Australians stranded with the most expensive and least reliable energy in the country.
Steven Marshall is Leader of the State Opposition