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GREENS leader Cassy O’Connor has urged Premier Will Hodgman to recall Parliament so the state’s ‘‘energy crisis’’ can be scrutinised.
Ms O’Connor said Mr Hodgman needed to urgently cut short the long summer break enjoyed by state parliamentarians.
She said the energy situation required the accountability and scrutiny provided by Parliament.
The Tasmanian Parliament resumes sitting on March 8, three weeks after the last state and territory governments start sitting for 2016.
Energy Minister Matthew Groom announced on Tuesday the state’s energy storage levels had dipped to 18.3 per cent, a drop of 0.6 per cent since February 1.
He said low rainfall and the outage of the Basslink cable due to a fault meant the state continued to face ‘‘challenging and difficult energy circumstances’’, but said the government continued to be confident Hydro Tasmania could meet Tasmania’s energy needs.
Mr Groom said storage levels were still on track to bottom out at about 14 per cent in late March or early April, before gradually rebuilding over winter.
Basslink is expected to provide an update on its efforts to repair the cable fault later this week.
In its last public update, Basslink said it was on track to repair the cable by March 19, but has yet to announce if it has determined the cause of the fault.
Opposition Leader Bryan Green said Tasmanians had not been provided with enough detail about the response to the energy situation.
‘‘We’ve heard nothing about what caused the Basslink fault and how repair work is going since January 27,’’ Mr Green said.
‘‘Tasmanians can only speculate over why the cable failed.’’