Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

We are absolutely prioritising energy security—ensuring the lights stay on and the power stays on—to support households and businesses. In the wake of the state-wide blackout, we have commissioned and brought to action the Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel, who will shortly deliver his blueprint for security at the national electricity market. We have commissioned and made sure that the Australian Energy Market Operator is stabilising the system by ensuring two gas-fired units are operating at all times, to ensure that there is more stability within the system.

We are seeking to address challenges of how to integrate more distributed and intermittent energy sources, such as wind and solar, into the system. We have opened a new round of $20 million for pumped hydro and storage technologies to respond to the challenges posed by intermittent sources, which comes on top of $100 million already invested in storage technology by the CEFC and ARENA. We are also investigating the deployment of high-efficiency low-emission carbon capture and storage facilities, recognising that a technology-neutral approach is the best way to solve these issues. (Time expired)