This week, the Government will clearly outline the facts relating to energy.
Over the past nine months, we’ve heard nothing but false claims from Labor.
The fact is, our energy supply plan worked. We kept the lights on. We supported our major employers and the regulated price of electricity didn’t increase as a consequence of the failure of Basslink.
Labor, and in particular Bryan Green, are on the record making all sorts of wild claims. They said our Energy Supply Plan wouldn’t work, that there would be rolling black-outs, that we should ration power and that the Basslink cable would never be repaired.
All of these claims are clearly wrong and at the inquiry hearing tomorrow we will make sure the facts are on the record.
Labor’s false claims
FALSE LABOR CLAIMS | FACT |
Storage levels: “…I
can see it getting to below 10 per cent just based on [my] back of the
envelope calculations…” | The Energy Supply Plan estimated a conservative storage level low of 12 per cent. Storages bottomed out at 12.5 percent in late April and are currently at 38.1 percent. |
Power rationing, brownouts and blackouts: “…threat of brownouts and
even rolling blackouts…”, “The insider [energy whistle-blower] rates the
worst case scenarios – rolling blackouts – at a one in twenty chance of
occurring over the next few months…The threat of brownouts and severe energy
restrictions is much higher” “…the Premier is telling
Tasmanians that everything will be OK, refusing to admit the real possibility
of power rationing” “…should
start thinking about rationing power…” | The Energy Supply Plan ensured that the lights stayed on. There was no forced power rationing and there were no brownouts or blackouts. |
Capacity of diesel generation: “…there may not be enough
diesel available to keep the generators running” “…not
sure state can supply fuel to diesel generators…” | The generators did not run out of diesel. |
Energy Supply Plan: “…they haven’t got
contingencies right, still a massive amount of risk…” “There
are big doubts over the plan Matthew Groom is relying on to keep the lights
on in Tasmania” | The Energy Supply Plan worked. |
Tamar Valley Power Station
Labor’s repeated claims that the crisis could have been avoided if the TVPS was turned on earlier | The process for putting TVPS into dry layup commenced 8 July 2013 under the former Government (when Mr Green was Energy Minister) Labor didn’t call for TVPS to be brought back into operation until 3 December 2015 The process to bring TVPS back into operation had already commenced in November 2015 |
Dividends
Labor claims that the Govt used the budgeted $75 million dividend to drive Hydro to sell the CCGT
| Again, the claim is just wrong. The TVPS wasn’t sold under the current Government. The proposal to sell the CCGT was an idea first proposed by Hydro under the former Government. Between 2010-11 and 2013-14, Labor and the Greens ripped out over $500 million in returns (approximately $240 million in dividends) from Hydro. |
Power prices
Labor claimed the Energy Supply Plan would force regulated power prices up. | The Tasmanian Economic Regulator (who sets regulated power prices in Tasmania) has confirmed that costs associated with the Government’s Energy Supply Plan are being covered by Hydro and are not linked to regulated pricing. Under Labor, electricity prices rose by 65 percent. Under the Liberals, electricity prices have fallen and are still 2.4 percent lower than when we came to office. |