SPECIAL REPORT: Gas peaking generation and utility scale batteries will become increasingly valuable in WA as coal power units are retired and new wind farms come online.
SPECIAL REPORT: Four prospective domestic gas projects will be key to ensuring adequate supply in WA in the next decade, despite new facilities recently starting up.
There's growing pressure for the state government to rethink how it prices electricity because of the proliferation of solar panels, but the issue could be electoral dynamite.
Chevron has announced its Wheatstone domestic gas plant is ready to begin regular supply, two months after successful test flows into the market and two years after the first LNG shipment.
Older coal fired power stations such as Synergy's Muja C&D could begin closing in 2023, driven by changing market dynamics, while harsher carbon policies would accelerate shutdowns, according to a recent report by the Australian Energy Market Operator.
Rooftop solar capacity across Perth and surrounds will nearly triple in the next decade, to be about 2.3 gigawatts, as the Australian Energy Market Operator confirmed current capacity and demand side management was sufficient to meet forecast demand on the South West Interconnected System power network.
The state's domestic gas market will soon receive a small supply boost, with Woodside Petroleum's Pluto project expected to begin pumping up to 25 terajoules a day into the network from the second half of this year.
Western Australia's domestic gas market is likely to have sufficient supply for the next decade if Chevron's Gorgon domgas stage two proceeds on time and other replacement fields come online as anticipated, according to the latest Australian Energy Market Operator report.
Western Australian Energy Minister Ben Wyatt has opened the door for a potential state-based renewables target after the federal government confirmed a major change in energy policy today.
Two of Western Australia's biggest power stations have earned after-tax profits of around $37 million in the 12 months to March, despite one of the generators being out of action, according to the annual report of their part owner.
Schools, aged care facilities, shopping centres and bars are among the eclectic mix of establishments installing solar panels, amid predictions commercial rooftop installations could grow by nearly a gigawatt in Perth and surrounds by 2037.
Rooftop solar panels cut peak electricity demand last summer by 7 per cent and their growing popularity is reshaping consumption patterns, potentially at higher cost to electricity generators, a new report has found.
Australian Vanadium has joined fellow Perth company Carnegie Clean Energy in hoping to help solve South Australia's energy crisis, today committing to tender to build a battery storage facility in that state.
Sydney-based AGL Energy has said it would lose around $15 million in a bid to enter the Western Australian domestic gas market in the 2018 financial year, after it lodged a retailing application with the state's Economic Regulatory Authority.
Certainty around the state's domestic gas supply received a boost today, with the Chevron-led Gorgon project delivering first domgas to Synergy and AWE taking the next step towards the development of stage two at the Waitsia gas field.
The state's domestic gas market is expected to have excess supply of 640 terajoules per day by 2021, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator, although a delay in commencement of production at the Wheatstone or Gorgon domestic gas facilities could lead to a tightening of the supply as early as next year.
New technology is leading to a dramatic reduction in per capita power use around Australia, a new report has found, but WA has bucked the trend, as the only state where residential energy consumption is expected to increase over the coming decade.
The latest official report into Western Australia's gas supply and demand outlook has raised the ire of a group of major domestic gas users, which says some of its key findings are misleading and called for an independent review into how the report is compiled.
Having invested million of dollars over many years in an uncertain regulatory environment, Western Australian private power station developers are now facing further delays due to proposed changes to the electricity market.
Vinalco Energy, the Synergy-owned Muja power station operator, could be fined up to $100,000 after it was found to have exercised unlawful power over Western Australia's electricity market.
Transferring control of large swathes of WA's electricity market to the east-coast based national regulator has been welcomed by dominant market player Synergy.
The state government has announced its intention to phase out its $500 million-plus annual electricity subsidy within the next four years, paving the way for deregulation allowing households to buy their electricity and gas from competing suppliers.
Alcoa of Australia has signalled its long-term commitment to Western Australia, signing a new gas supply agreement with Santos at the same time as a review revealed the global aluminium giant is considering big job cuts.
The Woodside-led North West Shelf joint venture has struck a new supply agreement that will deliver a small increase in the amount of gas coming into the local market but there is still no word on the future of contracts that account for more than half the state's domestic supply.
As the state's review of its electricity market seeks to turn the system on its head, investors protecting their interests have argued strongly to keep Western Australia out of the national electricity market (NEM).
SPECIAL REPORT: Energy Minister Mike Nahan has told Business News a review of Western Australia's wholesale electricity market could open the door to some dramatic shakeups in the sector.
Western Australia's peak business body for sustainable energy has welcomed the federal government's review of the Renewable Energy Target, welcoming the challenge to reveal the benefits of the RET
