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.
The South West power grid will have an additional 654 megawatts of battery storage before late 2027 after four projects were successful in WA's first tender under the Federal Government's Capacity Investment Scheme
The batteries in Boddington, Merredin, Muchea and Waroona are scheduled to be operational by October 2027 - just when state-owned utility Synergy will shut down its Collie coal-fired power station.
The batteries will be able to store excess solar generation during the day and in the evening discharge enough power for 600,000 households for up to four hours.
The tender launched in September 2024 assessed the ability of projects to reduce the wholesale price of electricity and boost reliability. A second tender for generation and storage is planned for mid-2025.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said investors and developers were competing to provide the cheapest form of power - renewables - to WA.
“Peter Dutton wants to stop the renewable rollout and squander Australia’s natural advantages, the sun and wind resources that are the envy of the world,' he said.
“Instead, Peter Dutton will cut critical services to fund a $600 billion nuclear scheme, and extend aging, unreliable coal fired power stations for decades with Australians paying the price with higher bills and reduced reliability.”
PGS Energy will build a 324-megawatt/four-hour battery near Boddington and eventually wants to expand the facility to a 1200MW battery coupled with 400MW of renewable generation.
ASX-listed Frontier Energy plans to build a 120MW solar farm with its 80MW/four-hour battery near Waroona.
Neoen's 150MW/four-hour battery near Muchea, just north of Perth, will add to its huge Australian portfolio, including Australia's first grid-scale battery in Hornsdale SA, the 300MW Victorian Big Battery and its battery at Collie south of Perth.
WA's battery charge
Synergy Kwinana - 100 megawatts for two hours - operational
Synergy Kwinana 2 - 200 megawatts for four hours - undergoing operational testing
Synergy Collie - 500 megawatts for four hours - to be completed 2025
Neoen Collie stage 1 - 219 megawatts for four hours - operating since October 2024
Neoen Collie stage 2 - 341 megawatts for four hours - under construction, expected to be operational Q4 2025
Alinta Wagerup - 100 megawatts for two hours - start-up planned for early 2025
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016 I have written for The West Australian, The Saturday Paper, RenewEconomy, Michael West, Boiling Cold and WAtoday.
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.
Peter Milne
