Page 1337 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 5 April 2011
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is paid to them under the premium rate. I have determined that the percentage of the premium rate for medium generators should be based on the advice we have received today from industry, which is around 35c per kilowatt hour. That is certainly the very clear feedback we have had from industry on that. As a result of that, I determined that the percentage rate would remain unchanged.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Ms Bresnan?
MS BRESNAN: Minister, can you table in the Assembly any modelling that has been undertaken? Given that the ICRC’s report on the feed-in tariff determination in March 2011 indicated that the current rate may not cover additional costs associated with it, how can you be sure that 34.27c will ensure that investment in medium-scale generation will occur in the ACT?
MR CORBELL: I am happy to provide the advice I received from the ICRC on this matter and I will actually table that as soon as possible. In relation to the viability of that percentage rate, I would simply make the point that my department is engaged very closely with a large number of industry operators who are interested in investing as a result of the territory’s decision to make the feed-in tariff available to medium-scale generation. The consistent advice we have received from industry is that a price around 35c per kilowatt hour would be a price that would make it viable without being excessive, and we have taken that industry feed-back into account in determining what the percentage rate should be.
MS HUNTER: A supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Minister, does the government have a policy of ensuring a fair, reasonable and equitable rate of return on all scales of renewable generation in the ACT and, if so, why have you set the medium-scale tariffs so low, yet left the microgeneration returns so high?
MR CORBELL: They are not low and they are not high; they are the appropriate settings. I have outlined the rationale for the micro premium rate in the determination I announced last Friday. There are a range of factors influencing my decision to retain the premium rate at its current level. Those include the possible changes in the value of the Australian dollar and also the uncertainty around carbon pricing and the impact of the changes to the commonwealth’s renewable energy certificate scheme. For all those reasons, we believe certainty in the market is the most desirable outcome. I would refer Ms Hunter to media statements from the Australian Solar Energy Society and the Australian Photovoltaics Association, who have both endorsed the government’s decision last Friday in relation to those price settings. They have welcomed it as a sign of stability and continuity in the industry, and I would have thought the Greens would be supporting that when it came to providing certainty for investment in renewable energy generation.
MS LE COUTEUR: A supplementary.
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