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Category: Electricity Energy and Utilities / States and Territories

Industry not consulted over mothballing of power station, inquiry hears

Thursday, 4 Aug 2016 09:17:36

The Minerals Council says it heard about the station's mothballing via the media.

Major energy users in Tasmania have criticised a government decision to decommission the Tamar Valley Power Station without consulting with industry.

The Tasmanian Minerals and Energy Council has appeared before a parliamentary inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the state's energy crisis.

Tasmania was forced to import diesel generators at the height of the crisis after a prolonged outage of the Basslink power cable coincided with record lows in Hydro Tasmania's dams.

Council president Ray Mostogl, who is also chief executive of Bell Bay Aluminium, told the inquiry industry was not advised about the mothballing of the back-up power station.

He said while it was a risk to business, he only found out about the decision by reading about it in newspapers.

Mr Mostogl said the energy crisis was still having an impact on the Bell Bay smelter.

"The dams are full, Basslink is back in but we are not back to full production," he said.

He said the energy crisis was "new territory" for his business and full production might not resume until the end of the month.

Alarm over energy asset use

Tasmanian energy inquiry witnesses Photo: Ray Mostogl says Bell Bay will not return to full production until the end of August. (ABC News)

Mr Mostogl questioned whether the state's energy assets were being used to generate cash or drive the economy.

He said he was alarmed by the decisions and messages surrounding the state's energy assets, saying they had been "floundering for the last six years".

He welcomed the current government's energy strategy but said it was yet to be delivered.

The Mineral Council's chief executivem Wayne Bold told the inquiry it was up to individual businesses to decide whether to pursue compensation from the Government or Hydro in the wake of the crisis.

Another representative, Greg Zooeff, said the decision to mothball the back-up power station without consulting industry posed a risk to business.

"We would want to see a long-term contract that actually then signals that there's a future for Tamar Valley, provides us certainty, provides us also with and economic transmission price and also a backbone to grow gas ... that's our position," he said.

AustraliaPlus


 

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