Question Without Notice No. 166 asked in the Legislative Council on 14 March 2024 by Hon Dr Steve Thomas

Parliament: 41 Session: 1  

SYNERGY — PRIVATE COMPANY PAYMENTS 

166. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the parliamentary secretary representing the Minister for  Energy: 

For each of the financial years 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23 and 2023–24 to date I ask the  following. 

(1) What payments has Synergy made directly to private companies and not through the  Australian Energy Market Operator to reduce power consumption during periods of  high electricity demand? 

(2) What requests has Synergy made to private companies to reduce power consumption  during periods of high electricity demand? 

(3) Which requests made in (2) were for reduction without compensation to be paid? 

(4) What was the total supplementary reserve capacity payments paid by Synergy and the  whole of government for the period 1 December 2023 to 13 March 2024? 

Hon DARREN WEST replied: 

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. On behalf of the Minister for  Energy, I provide the following answer. 

(1) Synergy has not made any direct payments to private companies to reduce power  consumption during periods of high electricity demand. 

(2)–(3) Nil. 

(4) The Australian Energy Market Operator manages the supplementary reserve capacity, and  the cost is allocated between all market participants as part of wider market fees.  AEMO does not provide a specific line-item charge for supplementary reserve  capacity.