Federal and Western Australian legislatures have signed a milestone agreement to grow and modernise electricity grids in Perth, the South West and the North West Pilbara district.
Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the agreement would drive less expensive, more solid energy in WA and set the state up for quite a long time into the future.
Commonwealth Western Australia Rewiring the Country arrangement will reinforce WA’s energy security in anticipation of expanding utilisation of environmentally friendly power and battery storage.
Supported by up to $3 billion through concessional loans and value investments to WA through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to new forms and significant upgrades to transmission in the state’s South West Interconnected System (SWIS) and the North West Interconnected System (NWIS).
“The Australian and Western Australian Governments are enabling WA to capitalise on the renewable energy transformation and make the most of the incredible job opportunity that comes with it,” said Bowen.
Initially proposes that in 20 years’ time, the SWIS grid serving Perth and the south-west should have up to multiple times more power than is accessible today, as new industrial users connect with the grid.
Recently, the Australian Energy Market Operator modelling supports the need for sustained investment in transmission infrastructure in the SWIS. Priority projects in these grids were identified through WA’s demand assessment processes.
Western Australian Minister for Energy Bill Johnston said the understanding has been informed by the WA Government demonstrating, explicitly, from the South West Interconnected System Demand Assessment and the Pilbara Industry Roundtable cycle.
“It is expected the private sector will largely fund the cost of renewable energy generation and transmission infrastructure in the Pilbara, to the tune of tens of billions of dollars over the coming decades,” said Johnston.
Sustainable power in the NWIS will receive more support while guaranteeing existing infrastructure redesigns are facilitated among industries and Governments.