The Government notes the commercial agreement between Hydro Tasmania and Bell Bay Aluminium on energy consumption.
The agreement will see Bell Bay Aluminium temporarily reduce energy consumption by about 10 percent (32-40MW) for a period of up to five months.
We have been advised by Bell Bay Aluminium that the temporary reduction will not result in any reduction to their permanent workforce. A small number of contractors may be affected, if so, Hydro has agreed to work with Bell Bay on redeployment opportunities within Hydro.
I want to make clear that this is a commercial agreement which has been negotiated since the Basslink outage, and the agreement does not indicate any new adverse event or downward revision in the energy challenge facing the state.
Hydro Tasmania continues to advise that storages will reduce to about 14 per cent with normal inflow conditions before gradually rebuilding over winter.
The Tasmanian people can be assured that the Government will continue do everything necessary to ensure that energy security is maintained.