WESTERN POWER — SOLAR INSTALLATIONS —
REGIONS
812. Hon JAMES HAYWARD to the parliamentary secretary representing
the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the minister's
answer to question without notice 757.
(1) Is the power charge that Western Power collects
from customers different in metropolitan and regional areas?
(2) Can the minister clarify how Western Australians
in metropolitan areas with 63-amp connections pay more for their
electricity supply than regional Western Australians with 32-amp connections?
(3) Can the minister confirm that a supply upgrade in a
regional area can potentially cost the customer over $20 000?
(4) Does the
minister believe that the total cost of providing electricity to regional and
rural areas should be passed on to the people living in those locations?
The
PRESIDENT: Just to note, that last part of the question seeks
an opinion. I will give the call to the parliamentary secretary before I
have the opportunity to consider that question.
Hon
MATTHEW SWINBOURN replied:
I thank the member for some notice
of the question. The following information has been provided to me by the
Minister for Energy. I have an answer to question 4, notwithstanding it sought
an opinion.
(1) No. Under the
government's uniform tariff policy, Western Power is required to
provide postage stamp pricing for regulated tariff customers, including
households, small business users and charities. This means that the price does
not differ between regional and metropolitan customers; however, all customers are required to pay for their connections, which
means costs vary, depending on the details of the connection, including
its capacity.
(2) Any customer
wishing to connect to the Western Power network must pay for that connection
up-front. This may be done by an individual property owner or a developer. When
paid up-front by a developer it will form part of the bundled cost of
purchasing that property.
(3) Connection
costs are assessed on an individual basis for both regional and metropolitan
customers and depend on customer requirements and the work required.
(4) No. The
government is firmly committed to its uniform tariff policy, under which
regional and rural customers receive a heavy
cross-subsidy from metropolitan customers. This is why the Western Australian
government continues to reject the Liberal
Party plan to—I do not want to read that part of the answer, sorry.