WA Premier Roger Cook's core "Made in WA" election policy will be tested by his use of local content provisions to keep Chevron's WA engineers working in WA.
Power in WA's South West is generated by State-owned Synergy and private companies while the State's Horizon Power and miners cover the rest of the State.
The Liberals predict by 2027 WA's south-west power system will be on the verge of collapse but Labor is confident that batteries, wind and gas will come to the rescue.
Ahead of opposition leader Peter Dutton releasing costs for his nuclear policy this week, for the seventh straight year renewables were the lowest-cost new power generation technology.
WA energy policy in Labor's second term may have to tackle tough issues avoided so far, including tariffs, Collie's future, the role of gas, and a path to net-zero by 2050.
WA's iron ore miners must develop wind power and drop decades of rivalry to share transmission networks to meet their emissions reduction targets, according to Alinta Energy.
WA energy minister Bill Johnston sees no current alternative to gas for dispatchable power and wants to use low prices to lure more gas-hungry investments to WA
Solar is "an uncontrollable generation source" making life hard for operators of the South West grid, according to an annual review of the network by operator AEMO.
If CO2 from Yara's Pilbara ammonia plant is buried WA could ship a clean fuel to displace coal in JERA's Japanese power stations, but underground carbon storage has its doubters.
South West WA's power system may get two $100M big batteries to help handle rooftop solar growth with Alinta planning an investment at its Wagerup power station.
