In March of last year, this correspondent, in these pages, called on the Western Australian government to reverse course on its ideological determination to pursue Net Zero via its energy transition plan, stating that it was unachievable at any cost.
Slowly but surely, WA Premier Roger Cook and his state Labor government are being mugged by reality.
A report (co-authored by this correspondent, IPA Research Fellow Kevin You and former Western Power General Manager of Generation, Mark Chatfield) published by the IPA concluded that, by shutting down all coal-fired power stations in WA and focusing on wind, solar, and batteries, the WA government might need more than $52 billion in taxpayer funds to avoid supply-volatility-induced blackouts – way in excess of the $3.8 billion Cook had budgeted when he committed to the decommissioning.
The last summer in Perth and the south-west was what can be described as a traditional summer – hot and dry. On January 20, the maximum temperature in Perth hit 44 degrees, the hottest day of the year (not the record by the way, which was 46.2 degrees back in February 1991).
We did hit a record, though, of the most ever maximum operational demand in the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) of 4,486 MW (at 6:30pm) on that day. In the lead-up to the state election around that time there were several power blackouts, which Cook declared would be ‘part and parcel’ of summer in WA – a comment he quickly apologised for.
This winter, there was another record of peak demand during the coldest and wettest July in Perth for over 40 years. On July 21 (again at 6:30pm) demand reached 3,676 MW.
Is it any wonder, then, that the Cook government has been slowly walking back commitments to introduce emissions reduction targets. In fact, WA’s carbon emissions have actually been increasing, a factor due in no small way to its mining-intensive economy.
And yesterday it emerged that the helpless and hapless WA Energy Minister, Amber-Jade Sanderson, quietly delayed an update to the state energy transition plan – due on September 30 – by two years, to September 2027.
This will no doubt mean that the closure of WA’s coal-fired power stations, slated for 2030, will be pushed back – again.
The West Australian reported that ‘the delay was necessary to prioritise planning and approval of new transmission network infrastructure, to maintain power system “security and reliability” as WA’s coal plants were retired’.
In other words, the commitment to an 80 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030 will not be achievable – at any cost.
In Cook’s own words, he does not want to ‘shackle WA to state legislation requiring a 2050 Net Zero target’, since, as he told the Australian Energy Producers Forum last year, ‘Australia produces 1.3 per cent of global emissions, Western Australia is less than 20 per cent of that 1.3 per cent.’
Where have I heard that before?
As I wrote in these pages in March 2024
‘Let’s not forget that Australia is responsible for just over 1 per cent of the world’s emissions.
‘Less than one-fifth of that 1 per cent comes from WA, and about 6 per cent of that one-fifth of the 1 per cent comes from WA’s coal-fired power stations. Therefore, shutting them down would contribute to reducing roughly 0.013 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions.’
All food for thought as the Federal Opposition meets to – we live in hope – follow the rest of the world and walk away from the economy, livelihood and environment destroying insanity that is Net Zero.
