On Friday 1 September, the NSW Parliament’s General Standing Comittee reviewed the Government’s gas-fired power and wind proposals made in response to the state’s energy crisis.
300MW by 2009 at Munmorah: The first stage of the 300 megawatts plant to be built by Delta Electricity at Munmorah on the state’s central coast was expected to be operational by 2009 and there would be a further 300 megawatts by approximately 2010.
400MW at Tallawarra for $350m: Construction is already under way on another gas-fired plant in the Illawarra. The development of this 400 megawatt gas-fired power station was recently announced by a private investor, TRU Energy. The $350 million power station would be located at Tallawarra, which is 13 kilometres south of Wollongong.
Securing state’s supply: Construction has commenced on the Tallawarra gas-fired power station and is expected to be completed by summer 2008-09, well on track to meet the needs of the New South Wales energy market. These two projects will maintain the reliability and security of electricity supply in New South Wales and deliver lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Further gas and wind proposals: The Government also has gas-fire generation proposals for Uranquinty, Bamarang, Marulan, Cobar or Bega. New wind farms have been proposed at Crookwell and Woodlong.
Over 99 pc reliability: The Government is committed to ensuring that the people of New South Wales receive the best service when it comes to their energy supplies. New South Wales takes seriously its world-class levels of over 99 per cent reliability.
Licence restrictions since August 2005: In August 2005 for the first time the Government imposed licence conditions on New South Wales electricity distributors for the benefit of customers. These licence conditions require the distributors to meet mandatory standards for the planning and reliability of new and existing infrastructure and to compensate customers who receive poor reliability.
$320 compo for long blackouts: New South Wales electricity customers would be entitled to receive up to $320 a year in compensation if they suffer frequent or long blackouts because of equipment failures.
$80 for 12 powerless hours: From July, residents of Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Illawarra, parts of the Hunter and Central Coast can receive an $80 payment if they are without electricity for more than 12 hours or experience four outages longer than four hours in a year.
15 hours for rest of state: Customers in the remainder of the State are entitled to an $80 payment if they experience an outage greater than 18 hours or more than four five-hour interruptions; an acknowledgement of the often greater distances to be travelled by the skilled rural-based technicians required to fix problems on the network.
Reference: General Purpose Standing Committee No. 5. Friday 1 September 2006.
Erisk Net, 4/10/2006