Adelaide Desalination Plant has been controversial as the high cost of construction has contributed to water price increases, even when the plant is not in use. While the plant was used quite intensively between 2013 and 2015, its utilisation has reduced due to greater water availability in metropolitan reservoirs and from the Murray River. This is shown in the table below, which demonstrates that the plant produced around 8 GL in the year from November 2015 to October 2016, compared to over 100 GL between December 2012 and October 2015. As of January 2016, the desalination plant was continuing to run at around 10 per cent capacity, despite having sufficient reservoir capacity and water allocation from the Murray River. During the course of determining water prices for South Australia, the Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA) commissioned expert engineering advice from to assess SA Water's proposal to operate the desalination plant at minimum capacity, rather than place it into 'cold standby'. Based on this advice, ESCOSA allowed for SA Water to recover $4.1 million per year to cover the cost of operating the plant in minimum operation mode (approximately 8 GL/year), noting that doing so: may defer capital upgrades elsewhere in SA Water's supply network (though the associated cost savings were highly uncertain) could improve security of supply for customers who rely solely on the Happy Valley Treatment Plant for supply gives SA Water flexibility to undertake maintenance on other assets could allow it to respond to water quality issues arising elsewhere in the supply network. November 2019 startup In November 2019 an agreement was reached between the Australian Federal Government and the South Australian government to significantly increase production of water to supply the Adelaide metropolitan area. The agreement was reached to allow farmers affected by drought to access more water from the Murray River. Since much of Adelaide's household water supply is sourced from the River Murray, allowing the desalination plant to produce the city's water frees allocation from the river to be used upstream. The river water saved will then be allocated to drought-affected farmers along the river's irrigation area with farmers in this area able to bid for the water at a discounted rate. The development of a solar farm on 14 hectares of land adjacent to the desalination plant is expected to significantly reduce the plant's electricity bills. Gallery See also List of desalination