The Australian
By: Fran Foo
Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has scoffed at suggestions the federal government's multi-million-dollar smart-city, smart-grid trial had been cancelled despite missing a critical deadline.
The government had committed up to $100 million to the project to establish a large-scale smart-grid and smart-meters pilot aimed at demonstrating best practise, shape government policy and help industry and consumers realise the benefits of smart grids.
This was the message from Environment Minister Peter Garrett when he launched the program last year. However, he was stripped of key responsibilities, including the smart-city project, after the home insulation debacle. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had Senator Wong take over some of his duties.
A spokeswoman for Senator Wong allayed industry fears that the smart-city, smart-grid project had been canned. "The project is still going ahead and an announcement will be made shortly," she said. "Any suggestion that this is not going ahead is not true."
She would not set a timeframe.
Energy companies were invited to apply for government funding to begin the project and applications closed on January 28. Four applications were received and the winner was expected to be announced last month, with funding agreement negotiations to begin then.
The identities of applicants cannot be revealed for probity reasons, a spokeswoman for the climate-change department said.
The government had a self-imposed deadline of June 2010 for project work to begin but since Senator Wong took over the project there has been no word on its progress.
This led to murmurs in Canberra that the plan could have been shelved, with the $100m funding channelled into another environmental project, the green-loans scheme.