Mr BAYLEY – Minister, look, to stick with the Bell Bay and industrial theme, the Liberty Bell Bay Power Purchase agreement signed earlier in the year for 10 years. Can you confirm whether that’s exclusively for GFG Alliance or whether it’s transferable? What I’m trying to get at here, is it attached to that title and that major industrial, or is it something that notionally or potentially GFG Alliance could split off and sell separately which ultimately delivers a different result for the Tasmanian public?
Mr DUIGAN – My expectation would be that the power supply contract would go with the site, but I’d probably refer to the secretary on that. Do you have some understanding of that contract?
Mr LIMKIN – It’s with the company, so it’s with the actual company, which is the owner of the site. Unlike other parts of the GFG groups where it is integrated into GFG, Liberty Bell Bay is a very separate company with its own shares, and my understanding is the contract is between that entity and the company and therefore cannot be moved to another.
Mr BAYLEY – It effectively goes with the site.
Mr LIMKIN – It goes with the company and the site.
Mr BAYLEY – With the company and the site, not the owner of that company.
Mr LIMKIN – That is my understanding.
Mr BAYLEY – Can you confirm that and correct the record if that is not the case?
Mr LIMKIN – Why don’t you ask that in business industries and jobs on Thursday and I’m happy to confirm it by then, but that is my understanding.
Mr BAYLEY – Understood. No worries. Thank you. In relation to the Firmus AI proposal again in the north, has a power purchase agreement been reached for Firmus’s expansion in the north? And is it for stage 1A1B or for stage 2 and if negotiations are ongoing, when do you expect them to conclude as minister?
Mr DUIGAN – In terms of their power purchase?
Mr BAYLEY – Yes, for a power purchase agreement for that facility. Obviously, data centres are a new high-demand customer, so there’s a lot of interest in this particular proponent for a whole range of different reasons their history and the amount of data that they may need. Just some clarity and transparency around the power purchase agreement for the Firmus AI expansion.
Mr DUIGAN – As you say, data is going to be an ever more potential opportunity for Tasmania. We have our green grid; we have cooled climate. All of those things feed into that offering in terms of where Firmus is, Vanessa, do you have visibility on Firmus’s PPOs?
Ms PINTO – My understanding is that both Hydro and Aurora are currently in negotiations with Firmus. And I also believe that you know that Firmus may also be considering, as you would do as a major load, discussions with other developments that are coming along. I believe that would be an active space they would look at but at the moment they are definitely discussing with Hydro and Aurora.
Mr BAYLEY – Do you have a sense or an expectation as to when those negotiations with Hydro or Aurora would conclude?
Mr DUIGAN – It would depend on what aspect of Firmus’s plan you’re talking about.
Mr BAYLEY – 1a, 1b, stage 2.
Mr DUIGAN – I know they scale up fairly substantially. In the very larger parts, it is absolutely a conversation.
Mr BAYLEY – But at the moment, nothing has been signed for any of the stages and no timeline has been set in terms of when it will be needed.
Ms PINTO – Not that I’m aware of.
Mr BAYLEY – Just to follow on from that, you’re saying in terms of power purchase agreements, either Hydro purchasing power from a generator or selling power into a load, the government doesn’t give any sort of policy instruction or any direction to Hydro or Aurora on the things they should prioritise and how they should structure their negotiations in relation to those power purchase agreements.
Mr DUIGAN – There’s the ministerial charter, which sets out expectations of supporting jobs and economic development in the state. But when it comes down to those commercial discussions, it’s not a place for government to be. I’m very reticent to have government and politicians in the middle of contract negotiations. I don’t think that’s a happy circumstance.
Mr BAYLEY – You have the power to direct them to enter into a power purchase agreement, though. Have you had to exercise that power and direct Hydro into engaging and entering into a power purchase agreement?
Mr DUIGAN – Certainly, there have been conversations with Hydro between myself and the government, and various instruments of government, around our expectation that Hydro has a very sharp pencil when it comes to, for example, Bell Bay Aluminium and other large important employers in the state. Some of these businesses might be experiencing some vagaries occurring in global markets which are, to some extent, outside their areas of control. We would see there being value in providing a bit of an anchor and a bit of a rock.
Mr BAYLEY – Are they just verbal discussions, or is there an exchange of letters?
Mr DUIGAN – Certainly, I haven’t provided a direction to Hydro Tasmania. I and the Treasurer recently, in terms of the 12‑month extension to Hydro when that was floated, said ‘Please action this’. It wasn’t a direction, but it was a pretty clear instruction to proceed.
Mr BAYLEY – With Bell Bay Aluminium?
CHAIR – Mr Garland.
