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Department of State Growth

Interim Report

The Tasmanian Energy Security Taskforce’s Interim Report was released on 21 December 2016.

The Taskforce affirmed in its Interim Report that Tasmania’s energy security is the responsibility of the Tasmanian Government and set out recommendations to clarify the roles and strengthen the frameworks that support the Government in achieving this responsibility.  

The Taskforce assessed that at the end of November 2016 there were no immediate risks to energy security after the higher than average rainfall in the winter of 2016 and the return to service of Basslink after a 6 month outage in 2015-16.

However, an examination of recent history revealed four energy security threats this century, with the recent 2015-16 situation being the most significant energy security risk to Tasmania since 1968. The Taskforce concluded that the incidence and the severity of these events called for more conservative energy security settings. The Taskforce’s consultation process also revealed heightened community concern and an appetite for a higher level of insurance to improve the security of energy supply.  

The Taskforce recommended five priority actions for the Tasmanian Government.

  1. Define energy security and responsibilities.
  2. Strengthen independent energy security monitoring and assessment.
  3. Establish a more rigorous and more widely understood framework for the management of water storages.
  4. Retain the Tamar Valley Power Station as a backup power station for the present and provide clarity to the Tasmanian gas market.
  5. Support new on-island generation and customer innovation.

The priority actions were supported by 32 recommendations and were designed to ensure households and businesses can have high confidence in their energy needs being met following the 2015-16 energy security event.

The Taskforce also developed an energy security assessment framework to consider both electricity and gas energy security in Tasmania.

The Interim Report, and its Executive Summary, can be accessed through the links below.  

  • Interim Report (PDF)
  • Interim Report Executive Summary (PDF)