Mr. Johnston questions the Minister on how electricity supply contracts between private companies and customers put state assets at risk. The Minister's answer blames the previous Labor government's energy reforms for creating excess capacity and financial burdens on government enterprises.

AnsweredQoN 246Legislative Assembly
Asked
22 May 2013
Portfolio
Energy

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to the Minister's comments in relation to electricity supply in the House on 17 April 2013 which states that a reform basically puts state taxpayers' assets hugely at risk, and I ask, how does the State place its assets at risk when: (a) Perth Energy enters into an electricity supply contract with one of its private customers; (b) Alinta enters into an electricity supply contract with one of its private customers; (c) ERM enters into an electricity supply contract with one of its private customers; and (d) Griffin Energy enters into an electricity supply contract with one of its private customers?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
8 August 2013
Responded by
Minister for Energy
Response time
78 days
(a)-(d) The reform of the previous Labor Government artificially restricted the generator capacity of Verve Energy which forced premature retirement of plant and writedown of assets and it forced Synergy into entering into a large number of minimum take contracts with private providers resulting in excess supply.
The regulatory system imposed by Labor was not only high cost, but also unresponsive to conditions in the market, resulting in excess capacity the cost of which is being borne by government enterprises.

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