The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting tomorrow must consider how South Australia’s reliance on renewable energy impacts the reliability and cost of essential power supplies to businesses, the South Australian Business Chamber’s Executive Director, Industry and Government Engagement, Anthony Penney, said today.
Mr Penney also called on the State Government to act on previous the South Australian Business Chamber calls for an independent inquiry into all options to transition South Australia’s electricity market to a low carbon future which protects the long term interests of consumers with respect to price, quality, reliability and safety.
“COAG’s number one priority when it meets tomorrow must be to ensure that every reasonable step is taken to avoid a repetition of the blackout that was a disaster for businesses across the State,” Mr Penney said.
“South Australian businesses must have the confidence they require in the national electricity grid and, unfortunately, we are a long way from that point as the blackout clearly showed,” he said.
“COAG must also ensure that alignment of Australia’s energy and climate change policy begins now. We cannot continue on a path of each State and the Federal Government running separate climate and energy policies which ultimately costs consumers, particularly South Australian electricity consumers who face the highest electricity prices in the nation.
“The impact of last week’s system shutdown on South Australia’s business sector was significant, particularly for major regional centres including Port Lincoln which were without power for two days”.
“While South Australia’s wholesale electricity market remains suspended, the temporary cooling of spot prices in the past month does not reflect the reality for most SMEs which still face forward contract prices double that available in mid-2015 and forecast to remain on average two thirds higher than Victoria’s over the next three years.
Prior to August’s COAG Energy Council meeting, eight industry and advocacy organisations, coordinated by the South Australian Business Chamber, called on the State Government to establish an independent inquiry into power pricing and future supply options.
“As the South Australian Business Chamber recently pointed out, an independent inquiry will not seek to replicate existing work by network companies, Federal regulators and agencies, but rather present a holistic analysis of options from an authority which is operationally independent of existing market structures with the power to second appropriate international expertise as required.”
Media ContactSonia Bavistock
Media & Communications Executive
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soniab@business-sa.com
