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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 4457 ..

MS TUCKER: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mr De Domenico as Minister for Urban Services. It was good to hear an announcement about the installation of electricity generators at Canberra's two landfills this week; but I would now draw your attention to another area where the Government, through ACTEW, could actually improve its environmental performance in relation to electricity generation, and that is through buying electricity generated by local houses and businesses. There is a person in Mawson who has installed a solar power system on the roof of his house which supplies most of his electricity. Sometimes during the day he generates more than he needs, which he feeds back into the electricity grid. Unfortunately, ACTEW is not prepared to pay him for the electricity which he supplies to ACTEW. There are not many good interactive houses like this in Australia yet, although I notice in the latest issue of Renew, which used to be called Soft Technology Magazine, there is an article on other grid interactive houses around Australia. It is definitely the way that things will be moving. I am interested to know how you, as a shareholder of ACTEW, believe that ACTEW should respond to this growing phenomenon in relation to actually buying environmentally sound electricity which is going to be produced more and more locally.

MR DE DOMENICO: I thank Ms Tucker for her question. I did - - -

MR SPEAKER: Just keep it formal. You are not allowed to ask for an expression of opinion, Ms Tucker.

MR DE DOMENICO: I realise that. Nor am I going to get into a highly technical diatribe. I am not competent enough to do that. It is true that a Mawson resident has installed a solar power system on his roof which supplies much of his household's need for electricity. Ms Tucker should be aware that ACTEW staff assisted with that installation. ACTEW has also sponsored Canberra entries in the World Solar Challenge for solar-powered vehicles, and local seminars on such vehicles and photovoltaic power, that is solar cells, in general.

At the Mawson house that Ms Tucker is talking about there is not quite enough solar power available to cover all the annual power needs, so some electricity is still bought from ACTEW. That is my information. When the house is using less energy than is being generated by the solar cells, the electricity meter is driven backwards. So he is getting credit when he is putting something back into the grid. During times of higher power demand and at times when the sun is not shining, electricity is supplied by ACTEW and the meter runs forward again. The net result in winter is that the house has lower electricity bills. There is more than enough generated in the summer months, and zero bills will be sent by ACTEW until the meter starts going forward again. Effectively, the grid is being used as an energy store or battery on a daily and seasonal basis and the resident is being credited for the power generated.

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