SA Government signs contract to purchase diesel generators when their lease ends in 2019

THE State Government will purchase 276MW of diesel generators when their lease ends. But the Opposition says the purchase is “scandalous” and will appoint a special investigator to examine it if they win next year’s election.

• Amount of electricity available from diesel generators cut back
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A JUDICIAL inquiry will be held into the State Government’s “scandalous” process to purchase 276MW of gas-diesel turbines if the Opposition wins next year’s election.

Opposition justice spokeswoman Vickie Chapman promised the inquiry as the Government declared it would purchase the turbines when their two summer lease expires in early 2019.

Premier Jay Weatherill won’t reveal the price of leasing or purchasing the turbines, but says it’s included in the Government’s $550 million energy plan.

Diesel generators at the old Holden factory at Elizabeth. Picture: APR Energy

He defended the tender process to purchase the turbines, which will be clipped together to form a state-owned power plant at a yet to be determined location, stressing it was “first class”.

The Government had previously indicated it would purchase the turbines once the lease ended, but made it official with today’s contract signing.

Ms Chapman said a special investigator would be appointed on day one of a future Liberal Government to examine the deal.

She said it was akin to the Gillman land deal, where an Independent Commissioner Against Corruption investigation found two public servants guilty of maladministration.

“To procure a hundreds of millions of dollars project without any of the processes, all in secret, is totally unacceptable,” she said.

“How many Gillmans does South Australia have to suffer and endure before the Government get the message?”

But Mr Weatherill said the procurement was a “market-based process” with a large number of international bidders.

Premier Jay Weatherill.

Opposition justice spokeswoman Vickie Chapman

“We got a great deal for the South Australian taxpayers,” he said.

“The idea that the Liberal Party, who are the authors of our current difficulties through the privatisation of (the Electricity Trust of SA) should now also be criticising us for remedying their mistakes, is to say the least, galling.”

Mr Weatherill denied taxpayers were paying more by exercising the option to purchase so early, or that the state would have been better off if it purchased the turbines outright.

“We’re better off. We needed the generation for the next two summers, there was no way of getting a permanent site available for these next two summers, we were always going to need temporary generation,” he said.

“The price that we got, which was an excellent result, is because we’ve both combined temporary generation and permanent generation in one bid.”

Mr Weatherill said the Government would reveal the individual cost of the turbines when it was relieved of commercial in confidence obligations, but would not confirm if voters would know the price before next year’s election.