Written by 
Reprint from Hansard
ELECTRICITY (RENEWABLE ENERGY PRICE) AMENDMENT BILL
Adjourned debate on second reading.
(Continued from 24 February 2011.)
Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:07): I rise to support this bill which was introduced by the
deputy leader, Mitch Williams. I will go through some history of what has happened with feed-in
scheme legislation in this place. On 14 February 2008, the parliament passed the Electricity
(Feed-In Scheme—Solar Systems) Amendment Bill 2008, which enabled the state’s solar feed-in
tariff scheme to come into effect on 1 July of that year.
This scheme provides householders with a 44 per cent rebate on electricity that they feed
back into the grid from photovoltaic electricity systems installed on their roofs. This is a net rebate
and is only paid on electricity that is fed back into the grid; that is, at any time during which
electricity is being consumed at the site where the photovoltaic cell is installed, only electricity
generated in excess of that instantaneous consumption is fed back into the grid.
For example, if a refrigerator thermostat switches that refrigerator on, it is most likely that
while it is running, there will be a net draw from the grid but, most likely, when it goes into standby,
there may be a net input of energy into the grid. This is metered independently of consumption
from the grid and is used to calculate the rebate. The rebate is funded directly on an additional
electricity charge approved by ESCOSA and impacts on the electricity bill of every electricity
consumer.
Prior to this bill being passed, retailers were buying solar electricity from householders at a
one-for-one rate, but after this bill was passed many retailers stopped paying for solar electricity
themselves and, instead, allowed ETSA to pay the 44¢ per kilowatt to householders for their solar
electricity, with the 44¢ collected as an additional charge on all electricity consumers.
Retailers are now profiting from the scheme by onselling electricity so generated back to
consumers. AGL and Origin were paying something in the region of 16¢ to 24¢ per kilowatt hour for
electricity fed into the grid prior to the feed-in bill being passed; if they continued to pay this,
retailers would now be receiving up to 68¢ per kilowatt hour for their solar electricity with the
44¢ legislated premium.
As part of the original legislation, it was deemed that a review of the scheme would be
triggered at 10 megawatts of solar energy capacity being installed. This level was reached in
May 2009, and on 31 October 2009 the government announced the terms of reference for a review
of the scheme. The report of the review was eventually released in August 2010—well after the
March election of that year—making nine recommendations.
It is interesting to note that industry is currently trying to work under the recommendations,
but they have not been formally approved by the government. These range from recommendations
involving the government considering an approach similar to the ACT model, and include a
provision in the legislation for the minister to recommend other technologies into the scheme, and
recommendations about implementing a cap similar to the Victorian scheme. It was suggested that
the cap be about 100 megawatts capacity, and there are some suggestions that the
South Australian cap would possibly be 60 megawatts, and I believe we are very close to that
number
