Ex-Liberal leader John Hewson among heavyweights meeting at SA Government’s energy summit

ENERGY heavy hitters, including former Liberal leader John Hewson will gather in Adelaide on Thursday to discuss the power crisis from last week’s storm.

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• OPINION: Cheap shots at wind farms threaten jobs

• READ BELOW: Mopping up cost to run into millions

ENERGY heavy hitters, including former Liberal leader John Hewson will gather in Adelaide on Thursday to discuss the power crisis from last week’s storm.

Dr Hewson is in charge of planning a $1.2 billion solar thermal plant at Port Augusta; one he has promised can provide 24/7 power.

Following the statewide blackout, he said the secret to providing steady, baseload power in the state was through battery storage.

He is already working on projects that can store power at household, commercial, and grid level.

Dr Hewson has called for two conditions to be met for renewables; that all new wind and solar farms should only be approved with effective storage; and that all existing farms must install effective storage within years.

John Hewson will push batteries as a path to secure energy, at today’s energy meeting.

This would solve Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s call for “energy security”, he said.

Dr Hewson has also warned that there is “possibly a much more significant crisis looming just around the corner”, when the Hazelwood power station closes next year; that’s the station that provides power to SA through the Heywood connector.

He told The Conversation that if that power supply was cut off it would “precipitate a power crisis” in SA.

Joining Mr Hewson at the State Government’s summit will be Australia’s Chief scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, and top economist and climate change adviser Ross Garnaut.

Climate Change Minister Ian Hunter said the summit would “bring the science behind renewables to the table — and dispel misconceptions” before Friday’s meeting of energy ministers.

“It’s important that we have a fact-based discussion around how we make our energy system more secure, cheaper and cleaner,” he said.

MOPPING UP COSTS TO RUN INTO MILLIONS OF FOLLARS

By David Nankervis

THOUSANDS of households and businesses will share in an estimated $2 million blackout compensation pool.

SA Power Networks will cough up the cash for customers left in the dark for more than 12 consecutive hours during the power outage between 28 September and October 1.

The electricity network company estimated it will make payments “of about $2 million for about 6,000 customers’’ who experienced extended power loss.

An SAPN spokesman said the payments were “processed automatically and we are required to mail cheques to eligible affected customers within three months of the event’’.

The maximum payout is $605 for those without power for more than 48 hours.

The compensation payment figures came amid expectations by the Insurance Council of Australia that the damage bill for the storms and floods could be worth tens of millions of dollars.

The ICA said early reports indicated “largely low-level damage to property across a very widespread area, though it will take several days for a more complete picture to emerge’’.

RAA Insurance said it had already received more than 890 claims due to the recent storm worth an estimated $4 million.

Storms leave SA under water

The RAA’s senior claim manager Hayley Cain said she expects to see an increase in both number of claims and dollar value of damage from the storm.

“We had our biggest day ever in our Insurance claims area on Tuesday and the second biggest ever day last Friday,” she said.

The majority of claims were for “water damage to homes’’ Ms Cain added.

The ICA said storm and flood damage was covered as standard by the overwhelming majority of household insurance policies.

Meanwhile the State Government has begun a full assessment of the damage to arterial roads and other infrastructure, including jetties.