Premier Cook announces PoweringWA in bid to phase fossil fuels out of WA’s electricity network

More than $700 million will be spent on major upgrades to WA’s primary power grid — including a new high-voltage transmission line north of Perth that will pave the way for large-scale wind and solar farms in the Mid West. Premier Roger Cook used today’s Energy Transition Summit to announce the establishment of PoweringWA, a new unit tasked with planning the poles and wires, storage and renewable generation required to phase fossil fuels out of the State’s electricity network. That task will be kickstarted by a $575m investment in a new 330kV double circuit transmission line from Malaga to Pinjar, which will enable future renewables projects to connect to the South West Interconnected System. “Put simply — there is no energy transition without better transmission,” the Premier said. “This is the largest investment in transmission infrastructure in WA in more than 10 years, and is an important step in the transformation of our main electricity grid. “Growing our electricity network is critical to unlocking our renewable energy potential – to reduce our own emissions, and to help countries across the region reduce theirs.” In addition to the new transmission line, the funding will also be used to reinforce existing infrastructure in Perth’s northern suburbs so that it is capable of handling higher volumes of electricity. A further $133m will be spent on reinforcements in the heavy industrial area of Kwinana, new connections between the existing energy hub of Collie and Perth’s south-east and upgrading lines to Geraldton in preparation for long-mooted potential development at Oakajee. “This investment alone will allow us to slash emissions by around 2.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, create significant job opportunities in the regions, and put our State on the path to becoming a global renewable energy powerhouse,” Mr Cook said. The Premier also announced a bid to lure companies to establish large-scale clean energy projects in WA’s Strategic Industrial Areas of Anketell, Boodarie, Maitland, Mungari, Oakajee and Shotts with $160m worth of waivers for the first five years of their industrial lease. The incentive was in recognition that the global green energy sector was “running hot”, Mr Cook said. Projects with a capital cost of $1 billion or more are eligible and will be required to make a final investment decision by June 30, 2028. Modelling predicts as much as a 10-fold increase in renewable generation in the WA grid in coming decades, with much of that power to come from regional “hubs” to the north, south and east of Perth. Last year, Western Power chief executive Sam Barbaro revealed planning was underway for the billions of dollars in investment required to build a “brand new backbone” for WA’s power grid. That task will be centralised with PoweringWA, a new unit sitting within the rebadged Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety. PoweringWA will be handed responsibility for the planning, community and industry consultation and project management of government-owned transmission lines, batteries and wind and solar farms. Energy Minister Bill Johnston said there was a clear need for “tangible action” to deliver the infrastructure required to decarbonise the SWIS. “By upgrading the northern network, we can increase the output of existing wind generation as well as connect around a gigawatt of new wind and solar generation capacity, which is almost double the amount of large-scale renewables currently connected,” Mr Johnston said. “Working closely with industry and communities, we can ensure our main network delivers a reliable supply of low-emissions electricity to meet our collective decarbonisation goals.” The most recent State Budget in May included $2.8 billion for major battery projects in Collie and Kwinana, a new wind farm at King Rocks and an expansion of the Warradarge Wind Farm. The 180MW Warradarge and 214MW Yandin wind farms are both located in the Mid West and are constrained at times due to a lack of network capacity that will be rectified through the construction of the new transmission line. BP’s planned Daisy Downs project — which envisages up to 10GW of wind and solar generation to be used in the creation of hydrogen and ammonia for export from Oakajee — is also in the Mid West. During a question and answer session, Mr Cook said gas was playing an essential but decreasing role in decarbonisation by replacing coal-fired power — describing protesters who descended on the City Beach home of Woodside boss Meg O’Neill as being “gripped with a moral imperative”. But carbon capture and storage was a “fundamental responsibility” of the gas sector, he said. It was put to the Premier that CCS was dismissed as a “mirage” by some people, and he replied: “It’s better than nothing”. Mr Cook said he was confident WA’s planned exit from coal-fired power by 2030 would be achieved - but conceded “it will be hard”. “We are determined to make sure that that is a legacy of my Government,” he said. “We are up to our guts in the decarbonisation story of Western Australia.”