Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria)

My constituency question is for the Minister for Solar Homes.

The Victorian government has been encouraging Victorians to install solar panels on their roofs to ‘reduce their power bills and help supply more energy to our electricity grid’, costing the taxpayer more than $1.3 billion in subsidies.

Constituents of mine in Clifton Springs have recently brought to my attention their issue of being unable to connect their solar installation to the supply source, having been informed that there is no room.

In an email from electricity distribution network provider Powercor, they were told ‘unfortunately the transformer that supplies your site is at capacity for solar connections and no capacity can be approved at this time. You may connect a 5kW system however export to the grid must be limited to zero kW’.

This is a classic example of the Labor government putting the cart before the horse by failing to ensure there is sufficient room in the system to receive extra energy before encouraging solar home installation.

Clearly, homes cannot ‘help supply more energy to our electricity grid’ as the Solar Homes program boasts about, if transformers are often at capacity for solar connections.

Minister, when are my constituents going to be able to utilise their solar installation as you so vigorously promoted and promised?