RENEWABLE ENERGY
272. Mrs L.M. O'MALLEY to the Minister for Energy:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's commitment to delivering more
affordable energy for Western Australians and driving a cleaner energy
system for the state.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on the McGowan Labor government's efforts in
delivering reliable and affordable energy to households and businesses in Perth
and the south west interconnected system?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house of what the Australian Energy Market Operator has
said about this government's management of the energy system?
Mr W.J.
JOHNSTON replied:
(1)–(2) I
am very pleased to answer that question. I know that the member is very
interested in the continued uptake of renewable energy, which sets her apart
from the Liberal Party, which has just rejected one of the most exciting
renewable energy projects ever proposed in Western Australia! It would be
interesting to know whether the federal
government would reject the member for Cottesloe's plan to build a
renewable energy project close to the coast.
Having rejected a private sector proposal, would it also reject the member
for Cottesloe's proposal?
It is interesting that the energy
transformation strategy in Western Australia is dealing with the higher amount
of renewable energy of 1 350 megawatts of additional capacity into the south
west interconnected system in the last four years. We are now putting on one
megawatt per day of new rooftop solar panels. That is incredible; basically,
every year we are putting on the largest power station in the system. We are
responding to those additions by making sure that our new system adapts to that
new dynamic.
The Australian Energy Market
Operator, which operates the south west interconnected system and the national
electricity market, has just made some comments about the way our system is
evolving. A media release published last
Thursday headed ''Positive outlook for Western Australia's
evolving power system'', includes this information —
AEMO's
CEO and Managing Director, Daniel Westerman said: ''This is a profound
transformation that calls for the highest levels of collaboration across
the WA energy system—amongst market bodies, policy makers, industry
participants and consumer groups.''
�
''It is pleasing that AEMO's
analysis in the 2021 WEM ESOO confirms sufficient generation capacity to meet
forecast demand in the SWIS over the next decade �
In other words, AEMO is saying that
our careful planning will keep the lights on for the next 10 years. The media
release continues —
AEMO Executive General Manager, WA,
Cameron Parrotte said: ''Our analysis shows that even with the expected staged retirement of coal
generators, including Muja C � in 2022 and � 2024, connected and
committed capacity is forecast to meet anticipated demand over the next decade.''
Again, our careful management of the
exit of coal is being acknowledged by the Australian Energy Market Operator. Mr
Cameron Parrotte goes on to say in this media release —
''AEMO is supportive of
innovative solutions to help address these challenges, pointing to the
importance of projects already underway, like the WA Government's
Energy Transformation Strategy, to help alleviate system security risks under
certain conditions such as when minimum operational demand is low,'' �
Members can see that we are being
acknowledged for the hard work that we are doing here in Western Australia. We
are bringing together the market participants. As recently as yesterday, I held
another forum with AEMO, Western Power and Energy Policy WA to make sure that
we are properly identifying all the challenges that are coming out into the
system, including the whole-of-system plan, laying out 20 years of
infrastructure investment; the distributed
energy resources road map, showing how we can integrate rooftop solar and make
it part of the system, not an adjunct
of the system; and a completely new set of rules that includes reducing carbon
emissions as one of the objectives of running our system in Western Australia.
This is the way to do energy policy, not the mad schemes invented by the member
for Cottesloe.
The SPEAKER: The member for
Roe with the last question.