The South Australian premier has offered cold comfort for photovoltaic solar panel owners whose systems were tripped off to protect the SA energy grid.
Last Saturday's storms took out a key piece of interconnector infrastructure at Tailem Bend, disconnecting the state from the national energy market.
SA Power Networks last week that it was forcing photovoltaic solar generation offline after the interconnector with Victoria went down, in compliance with an Australian Energy Market Operator directive to reduce supply in the grid as it had nowhere to send surplus electricity.
The state government shut down some of its renewable energy output and some wind farms were taken offline.
Household photovoltaic solar panel owners' feed-in only resumed in some cases early this week.
Nobody has been able to indicate to Flow that compensation could be payable to rooftop solar owners who lost export tariffs during the mandatory shutdown.
Speaking on his way to the Riverland for a flooding announcement, premier Peter Malinauskas took the question of compensation towards future hydrogen energy:
"When it comes to not being able to feed solar energy into the grid, when it comes to disconnection, that's why we took a $590 million program to the last state election to build a hydrogen electroliser which seeks to use that excess demand up and provide a requirement for it.
"That will go a long way to not just improving the stability of the system but also ensuring that there is a customer for additional solar capacity that isn't interstate but rather right here in the state of South Australia."
Hear the full interview on the Flow podcast player below:
AEMO has indicated the nearer-term renewable energy export solution in future interconnector failures will be via New South Wales. The EnergyConnect project through south western NSW was a Marshall Liberal government initiative and is currently under construction, due to be completed next year.