Press conference in Cammeray, NSW

CHRIS BOWEN: Welcome to Cammeray, it’s a great day for North Sydney and a good day on our transition to renewable energy. The key is storing renewable energy. To do that we need lots of different types of technology, including batteries, and community batteries are an important part of that going forward. Very pleased to be rolling out the 420 across the country and today is a good day in that journey. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Minister, you mentioned earlier that the program's running under budget. Why is it under budget?

CHRIS BOWEN: Because we're getting real value for money from our suppliers, including Ausgrid. That's good management.

JOURNALIST: And how much does a battery like this cost?

CHRIS BOWEN: About half a million dollars.

JOURNALIST: And how much of that does the Federal Government pay for? You pay the full cost?

CHRIS BOWEN: No. Well that varies from battery to battery, but as a general rule, half a million dollars is what we allocate per battery.

JOURNALIST: Okay, how many homes will this help?

CHRIS BOWEN: 350 directly this one. There are a thousand households already eligible to sign up and the first 350 and of course we'll be able to benefit straight away. And of course we're going to expand this program as it goes.

JOURNALIST: And is that borrowed money from the Federal Government or is that from consolidated revenue?

CHRIS BOWEN: It's all budgeted for, it's in the budget, it's an election commitment. It's been budgeted for the budget of the government.

JOURNALIST: And the households on average save about $200?

CHRIS BOWEN: Correct.

JOURNALIST: So, that's for 350 households, about $200 a year in savings.

CHRIS BOWEN: That's direct savings. And of course there's indirect benefits for the entire grid, for everyone. Because if you are smoothing out the grid and Rob might want to add to this, if you're smoothing out the grid, you're helping everyone, you're helping manage the grid and you're helping everyone reduce the total cost of energy that they use. But Rob from Ausgrid might be able to add a few remarks.

ROB AMPHLETT LEWIS: Yeah, Rob Amphlett-Lewis, Group Executive Distributed Service from Ausgrid. So, batteries like this embedded in the network help us manage power flows across the network. And as you know, increasingly they're becoming two-way flows. It's much more complicated. So, these batteries help us in that regard. Secondly, things like peak demand, they can reduce the peak demand in a local area which reduces costs and reduces our investment needs going forward. And obviously batteries like this are also bid into the market and lift minimum demand events and reduce peak demand events in the market. So, they reduce energy prices more generally, they reduce the cost of infrastructure in the local area. And obviously there's now direct bill savings from energy storage as a service as well.

JOURNALIST: Who owns the battery?

ROB AMPHLETT LEWIS: So, Ausgrid owns the battery and we partner with EVO Power to deliver the battery. We partner with retailers to deliver the retailer-as-a-service product and we partner with a retailer for the battery to operate in the market.

JOURNALIST: Minister, why doesn't the taxpayer own the battery?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we're doing this in partnership and we're making a contribution. You know, batteries can be delivered for as little as a quarter million dollars, up to half a million dollars, you know, depending on the circumstances. For a quarter million dollars per battery, that's a very good investment, not only for the communities that directly benefit, but as I said, you know, we're building grid scale batteries across the system. Obviously, Snowy 2.0, a project which has had plenty of problems but is nevertheless important for storage. And that's how we make sure that we store the energy for the future that we need for a very stable, very reliable grid. The biggest threat to reliability in our energy system today is coal fired power stations. There hasn't been a day in the last 18 months where there hasn't been one broken down, not one. These batteries will play an increasingly important role in ensuring the reliability of our energy system and improving the reliability of our energy system going forward.

JOURNALIST: Is storage the biggest challenge?

CHRIS BOWEN: You could say that, you could say that, but it's a challenge we're up for. You know, Australians, as I said, have led the world in renewable energy, but we've got a lot of work to do on storage and we're getting that work done. So, that's the key difference.

JOURNALIST: So, these projects work smoothly under budget. How much more problematic is the offshore wind project, particularly down in the Illawarra?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I've declared six zones and they're all at various stages and all with varying degrees of interest. So, for example, Gippsland had more than 30 applications and I've awarded 12 licences. Now, different zones are at different levels of interest. I'm not going to go into detail on all of them, but all have received interest. All have received interest. The Illawarra has – I've declared and received interest. I read a report in the Daily Telegraph today which is incorrect. It's still on BlueFloat's website, their interest. I'm not going to go into details because I'm still in the middle of a decision-making process.

JOURNALIST: Can I also ask you about the Coalition's plan to audit stalled gas, iron ore and other projects? They say, you know, there's $100, almost $120 billion that's sitting there, plus this could create 47,000 jobs –

CHRIS BOWEN: An audit. That's what they've got. Three years in opposition to prepare and they're going to hold a review. Congratulations, guys. I mean, their energy policy is a mess. Their centrepiece nuclear policy raises more questions than it answers. They are addicted to the energy of the past. We are focused on the energy of the future.

JOURNALIST: Would you call gas an energy of the past or is it going to be important?

CHRIS BOWEN: I've been very explicit all the way through that gas has an important role to play because it's flexible. You can turn a gas fired power station on and off at two minutes notice. So, therefore that's a useful reserve to have as you're moving to an 82 per cent renewable system. You can't turn coal on and off, you can't turn nuclear on and off, you can turn gas on and off. So, it's a very useful part of the transition. I've been crystal clear, the Government's been crystal clear about that all the way through. As you're building the storage, building the transmission, building the renewables, gas has a role to play to support, which nuclear can't play and coal can't play.

JOURNALIST: The power plant, the nuclear power plant at Kurri Kurri running on diesel –

CHRIS BOWEN: That's not correct. It's not running on diesel. It won't be running on diesel.

JOURNALIST: It started up on diesel.

CHRIS BOWEN: It's not running on diesel.

JOURNALIST: Didn't start up on diesel?

CHRIS BOWEN: It won't be running on diesel. There was a time when that was contemplated. It is no longer the intention for it to run on diesel.

JOURNALIST: When will it be running on green hydrogen as you promised before the last election?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, what we promised is what we've been working on to ensure that it is hydrogen ready. Hunter is a hydrogen hub as you know. We are developing the hydrogen capacity for the Hunter and as soon as that is up and running, then we'll be working very closely with Snowy to make sure that's reality.

JOURNALIST: Obviously, Donald Trump inaugurated today. Does that make it harder for the world to reach the necessary climate ambitions?

CHRIS BOWEN: Look, Mr. Trump was elected last November. He was elected with a mandate, which is unsurprising. He's going to go about delivering that. There'll be all sorts of commentary about that. I'm focused, we're focused, on Australia and Australian consumers and Australia's best interests. And reducing bills by getting more of the cheapest form of energy into our grid as possible is in the best interest of Australia, regardless of what other countries do. When other countries make changes, obviously that has implications for them. We're focused as the government of Australia, on the needs and aspirations of Australians.

JOURNALIST: We saw last night, another antisemitic attack in Maroubra. What are your thoughts?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, definitely disturbing, as everyone has been, and just utterly unacceptable and inappropriate in our thriving, multicultural country that is Australian. Everyone, of decent mind and reasonable thinking condemns the fact as I do, as the Prime Minister does, as the government does, that sort of thing. Thank you.