State backs coal to fill energy gap

Australian
Tuesday 12/5/2009 Page: 7

WESTERN Australia is increasing its reliance on coal by firing up a decommissioned power station to cope with a predicted 200 MW shortfall in the summer of 2011-12.

While Premier Colin Barnett yesterday pledged his Government's commitment to the Council of Australian Governments renewable energy target of 20% by 2020, he described the decision to refurbish the Muja A B Power Station south of Perth as "perhaps not the ideal solution, but it is a pragmatic one".

Mr Barnett said the four units that comprised Muja A B Power Station would provide 240MW of power for about 15 years, starting in late 2011. Two of the units were recommissioned temporarily last year by the Carpenter government in the wake of the Varanus gas explosion that cut the state's gas supply by 30 % . "(The four units) are old, they were built in the 1960s, they were decommissioned because of their poor environmental performance in 2007," Mr Barnett said.

But he said the decision to use the decommissioned Muja A B coal-fired Power Station would be balanced by an increase in the use of renewable energy for power generation in coming years. "This Government's strategic approach is about ensuring a reliable and secure electricity supply for all Western Australians," he said. "We have a long-term plan for energy security, something that was severely lacking under eight years of a Labor government."

The state Government is in negotiations with a private investor who would pay for a $100 million refurbishment of the units. Mr Barnett has been preparing the public for days for steep electricity price rises in Thursday's state budget. He said yesterday charges would rise by 25% in two installments of 10% and then 15% . West Australians could expect further price rises in the future. He blamed this on Labor's "disastrous" decision to break up the utility Western Power, which ultimately led to utility Verve Energy losing almost $1 billion.

Western Australia's projected electricity shortfall in 2011-12 has also prompted the Barnett Government to spend $263 million on two 100MW high-efficiency gas turbines at the Kwinana Power Station south of Perth. Energy Minister Peter Collier said such turbines had not been installed anywhere else in Australia and were at least one-third more efficient than the generators they would replace.

Construction would begin immediately, with the turbines expected to be operational by late 2011, ready for the 2012 summer. Mr Collier said the state currently got 5% of its energy from renewable resources, and the decision to recommission Muja A B Power Station would have a negligible effect on that percentage.