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Western Australia, like other Australian states and high-income countries, is a heavy energy user by global standards.
The most distinctive features of Western Australia's energy systems are the massive export of natural gas, its independence from the interconnected cross-state gas and electricity networks in eastern Australia, and the presence of two separate large-scale grids and many microgrids to provide power for the sparsely populated state.
Western Australia is the source of over 60% of Australia's natural gas, [1] and over 80% of this production is exported as liquified natural gas. The vast majority of production is from offshore wells off the north-western coast of the state.
Domestic gas is piped to industry in the Pilbara and the major population centres in the south-west. There is, however, no pipeline connecting Western Australia's gas network to the eastern states of Australia.
Western Australia has a domestic gas reservation policy that requires gas exporters to make 15% of export production available for domestic consumption. [2] The policy is generally agreed to reduce Western Australia's domestic gas prices. However, it is unclear whether the policy is economically beneficial overall, with some modelling suggesting otherwise. [3]
Western Australia's size and remoteness have resulted in two completely separate large-scale energy grids in different parts of the state. [4] Large parts of the state are too remote and sparsely populated to justify connection to the centralized grids.
The first demonstration of electric lighting in Western Australia took place in 1888, when Government House, Perth was lit with electricity supplied by Western Australian Electric Light & Power Co. [5]
In 1894, the Perth Gas Company began to install electric lighting in Perth. Private companies in several other municipalities supplied power for electric lighting and trams. In 1912, the Perth Gas Company was acquired by the City of Perth, and electrification of the city's street lighting was completed by 1923. [5]
In 1938, a Royal Commission was held to investigate the desirability of a centralised power grid for the southwest, supplied by a large coal-fired power station supplied by the Collie coal deposits. Reporting in 1940, the commission ultimately recommended against such a scheme. [6]
In 1943, the State Electricity Commission of Western Australia was formed, and took over the Perth Gas Company operations by 1946. [5] Generation and transmission was gradually centralised and expanded over this period, including the establishment of coal-fired power stations supplied by the Collie coalfields, conversion of AC power to the national standard of 50Hz, high-voltage transmission lines, and eventually gas-fired power. [5]
In 1994, gas and electricity was separated with the establishment of Western Power.
In the south-west of Western Australia, including the Perth metropolitan area, Western Power, a state-owned corporation operates the South West Interconnected System electricity grid. [7] The SWIS is supplied by a combination of gas-fired, coal-fired, solar, wind, and tiny amounts of hydroelectricity generation.
Outside the SWIS, grid services are supplied by Horizon Power, another state-owned corporation. The Pilbara mining region is supplied by the North West Interconnected System. [8] Privately owned mining companies are major participants in this electricity grid. The majority of generation on this grid is currently gas-fired.
There is a third, small interconnected grid (including the Ord River Hydro Power Station) in the far north of the state, and 34 additional microgrids operated by Horizon Energy supplying power to towns in the remoter parts of the state. [9]
Western Australia produces nearly 80% of Australia's petroleum and LPG, [10] as a relatively minor product from the offshore gas fields.
However, Western Australia has no local oil refineries, with the closure of BP's Kwinana refinery in 2021. [11] The Kwinana refinery site now acts as a petroleum import terminal.
The City of Kwinana is a local government area of Western Australia. It covers an area of approximately 118 square kilometres in metropolitan Perth, and lies about 38 km south of Perth central business district, via the Kwinana Freeway. Kwinana maintains 287 km of roads and had a population of almost 39,000 as at the 2016 Census.
India is the third largest producer of electricity in the world. During the fiscal year (FY) 2022–23, the total electricity generation in the country was 1,844 TWh, of which 1,618 TWh was generated by utilities.
Verve Energy was a Western Australian Government owned corporation responsible for operating the state's electricity generators on the state's South West Interconnected System (SWIS). It was split from the then vertically integrated Western Power Corporation, in 2006 during reforms to the state's electricity sector.
Horizon Power is a commercially focused, state government-owned, power company that provides power supplies to Western Australia. It is responsible for generating, procuring, distributing and retailing electricity to residential, industrial and commercial customers and resource developments in its service area.
Synergy is a corporation owned by the Government of Western Australia. Synergy is Western Australia’s largest energy retailer and generator with more than one million industrial, commercial and residential customers, generating total annual revenue of more than $3.2 billion.
Western Power is a statutory corporation established by the Electricity Corporations Act 2005 (WA). It is owned by the State Government of Western Australia and is accountable to the Minister for Energy. It is responsible for building, maintaining and operating the electricity network within the South West Interconnected System (SWIS), the poles and wires or energy grid.
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The Western Australian gas crisis was a major disruption to natural gas supply in Western Australia, caused by the rupture of a corroded pipeline and subsequent explosion at a processing plant on Varanus Island, off the state's north west coast on 3 June 2008. The plant, operated by Apache Energy, which normally supplied a third of the state's gas, was shut down for almost two months while a detailed engineering investigation and major repairs were carried out. Gas supply from the plant partially resumed in late August. By mid-October, gas production was running at two-thirds of normal capacity, with 85% of full output restored by December 2008.
The petroleum industry in Western Australia is the largest contributor to the country's petroleum exports. Western Australia's North West Shelf (NWS) is the primary location from which production originates. Oil exports are shipped from Port Hedland.
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The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) performs an array of gas and electricity market, operational, development and planning functions. It manages the National Electricity Market (NEM), the Wholesale Electricity Market (WA) (WEM) and the Victorian gas transmission network. AEMO also facilitates electricity and gas full retail contestability, overseeing these retail markets in eastern and southern Australia. It is additionally responsible for national transmission planning for electricity and the establishment of a Short Term Trading Market (STTM) for gas.
Kwinana Cogeneration Plant was a cogeneration facility located 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Perth, Western Australia that operated from 1994 to 2022. It provided steam and electrical power to the BP Australia Kwinana Oil Refinery and electricity to Synergy, the State owned generator/retailer.
The United Kingdom has a National Grid that covers most of mainland Great Britain and several of the surrounding islands, as well as some connectivity to other countries. The electrical sector supplies power at 50 Hz AC, and ~240 volts is supplied to consumers. In 2020 the electricity sector's grid supply came from 55% low-carbon power, 36.1% fossil fuelled power, and 8.4% imports. Renewable power is showing strong growth, while fossil fuel generator use in general and coal use in particular is shrinking, with historically dominant coal generators now mainly being run in winter due to pollution and costs, and contributed just 1.6% of the supply in 2020.
The South West Interconnected System (SWIS) is an electricity grid in the southwestern part of Western Australia. It extends to the coast in the south and west, to Kalbarri in the north and Kalgoorlie in the east. It is not connected to the other large Australian grids. Other parts of the state are connected to independent, smaller grids, including the larger-scale North West Interconnected System and many smaller microgrids managed by Horizon Power.
Kwinana Oil Refinery was sited on the shore of Cockburn Sound at Kwinana, near Fremantle, Western Australia. Built by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and completed in 1955, it was the largest oil refinery in Australia, with a capacity of 138,000 barrels per day (21,900 m3/d). It was closed by BP in March 2021 to be converted to an import-only terminal.
Bluewaters Power Station was the first privately owned, coal-fired power station in Western Australia. It was built by Griffin Energy in 2009 and is the newest coal-fired power station in Australia. The site is 4.5 km (2.8 mi) northeast of Collie.
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