Page 3910 - Week 10 - Thursday, 28 August 2008
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Opposition members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Members of the opposition, come to order!
MR STANHOPE: The Leader of the Opposition does not want to listen to this little bit. He does not want to listen to the response from the chief executive officer of ActewAGL. It starts—and we have had to start a number of responses to the Liberal Party in this way over the last couple of weeks:
It is incorrect that the ACT Government forced ActewAGL to include a peaking power station on the Tuggeranong site as a condition of the agreement to sell the land. It is also incorrect that the Government foisted the peaking power plant onto the development application.
ActewAGL has been pursuing the possibility of a peaking power plant in the ACT since the formation of the joint venture. It has investigated various options over the years, but had not been able to find a way to make it economically feasible.
That is why it is not correct that ActewAGL asked the government to wriggle out of the requirement to have a peaking power station at the site. The reverse is in fact the case. In considering how to make a peaking power plant economically feasible, ActewAGL concluded that the addition of a Data Centre with an accompanying dedicated gas power plant might make the economic numbers stack up, because some of the infrastructure could be shared.
That is very sensible and reasonable. Mr Costello continued:
As I announced at a press conference on 27 May, we decided not to proceed with the peaking power plant on the Tuggeranong site because we finally concluded that it was too small to be economically desirable. In the modern economic environment, a much larger peaking plant of some 500 megawatts was necessary if it was to make good economic sense. As I said on 27 May, a much larger peaking plant would exceed emission and noise limits for the Tuggeranong site. We therefore decided not to go ahead.
As we have stated several times over the last months, ActewAGL remains, as it has been since 2000, fully committed to trying to locate a peaking power plant in the ACT. We are continuing active studies to that end and remain very hopeful of an economically feasible outcome.
The fact of the matter is that, yes, there were discussions on a deed of option for the direct sale of land to ActewAGL and the proponents for a gas-fired data centre—quite reasonably so. In the context of those discussions, Actew, on behalf of the proponents, came to the table in negotiations with the LDA and said, “We want, in relation to the peaking power plant and the gas-fired aspect of this proposal, the capacity and discretion, if this site proves not suitable, not to lose the opportunity or the possibility of proceeding with a peaking power station on another site.” And that is precisely what is happening. (Time expired.)
MR SPEAKER: Is there a supplementary question?
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