SYNERGY — REBATE
CALCULATION
359. Hon COLIN de GRUSSA to parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Energy:
I
refer to recent notifications sent by Synergy to customers advising that due to
a shortage of meter readers electricity bills would be calculated on
historical usage rather than an actual meter reading. However, rebates under
the renewable energy buyback scheme, or REBS, and distributed energy buyback
scheme, or DEBS, will not be made under a similar estimate but will only be
made following an actual meter reading.
(1) Does the
minister acknowledge that participants of the REBS and DEBS will be financially
worse off because of this decision by virtue of being required to pay their
full electricity bill based on an estimate, while having their rebates held
back until an actual meter reading is made?
(2) What steps is
the minister taking to remedy this situation?
(3) Does the
minister acknowledge that this issue has arisen due to the delay by Synergy and
Western Power in installing smart meters to households?
(4) Can the
minister provide a definitive time line for when smart meters will be installed
in all relevant households?
The PRESIDENT:
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney General and other portfolios.
Hon
MATTHEW SWINBOURN replied:
Thank you,
President. That was nice coverage there!
I thank the member for some notice
of the question. The following information has been provided to me by the
Minister for Energy.
(1)–(4) It is not possible to provide the information
requested in the time required and I therefore ask the honourable member
to place his question on notice.