Hmmm ... SA needs to embrace pragmatism rather than political...

  1. 5,822 Posts.
    Hmmm ... SA needs to embrace pragmatism rather than political ideology in resolving energy needs.

    MINING & ENERGY

    Elon Musk sticks it to Jay on energy


    Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.
    In a blow to Jay Weatherill’s “bromance” with Elon Musk, the US tech billionaire’s Tesla has slammed the South Australian government’s planned energy security target and warned it is not representative of the state’s leadership on renewable energy.

    The criticism will come as a blow to the Premier, who last month with Mr Musk announced Tesla would build a 100MW giant battery as part of the government’s $550 million go-it-alone energy plan.

    An energy security target, delayed until January 1, is a key plank of the plan and requires retailers to buy 36 per cent of their power from sources located in South Australia. This will rise to 50 per cent by 2025.

    Tesla is among several major organisations to criticise the proposal in submissions to the government on the legal framework of the proposed target. Its primary concerns include that it will “hold back technology innovation whilst incentivising incumbent technology ... imposing barriers on innovation by excluding rapidly evolving fast response technologies”.

    “The approach will not improve the ‘dispatchability’ of South Australia’s large penetration of wind generation — and as a result will not drive low emissions or low-cost electricity generation,” Tesla says, urging the government to reconsider so it can “continue to grow” in South Australia.
    The view was backed in separate submissions by Lyon Group, which plans two of the world’s biggest battery storage installations, Zen Energy and SolarReserve.

    Nyrstar, AGL, Momentum Energy and Alinta questioned the Premier’s claim that the energy security target will drive down the price of wholesale electricity. Nyrstar’s submission noted that while the intent of the scheme was to lower wholesale prices, “given the generation market structure and in particular the high concentration of generation in

    South Australia and the high underlying cost of the predominant fuel (gas), it is debatable whether the scheme will be effective at reducing pricing due to these factors”.

    AGL warned that as the scheme aims to replace imported electricity with locally generated power, “the desired effect of lowering wholesale prices may not be achieved”.

    Momentum Energy, owned by Hydro Tasmania, said the target was “unlikely to have any downward pressure on prices, and will instead become a pure pass-through to customers”.

    Origin warned the rushed legislation was unclear, while Alinta said the scheme could add $100 a year to consumer bills.

    Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis yesterday in parliament dismissed the concerns, insisting the energy security target “will incentivise more generation” and “lower wholesale electricity prices”.

    “In the absence of a national market mechanism, we will bring in our energy security target, which is a price mechanism to get more generation into the market,” he said.

    Opposition energy spokesman Dan van Holst Pellekaan said criticism of the target, even from the Greens, showed the government’s “chaotic” energy plan was “conceived in panic and delivered without detailed analysis of its impacts”.

    “The government must conduct independent economic modelling of the impact of its EST before inflicting further pain on long suffering South Australian businesses,” he said.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...n/news-story/e3b2a6673d97db181f5d827de06ff5e8
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    Cheers ... tight stops.

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