The State Government will spend more than $700 million on upgrades to the State's main electricity network to enable large-scale renewable energy generation to connect to the grid.

Speaking at a State Government Energy Transition Summit, Premier Roger Cook said $575 million would be directed to increasing capacity of the South West Interconnected System’s (SWIS) northern section, including a new 330kV double circuit transmission line between Malaga and Pinjar, enabling massive renewable energy generation projects in the Mid West to connect to the grid.

A further $133 million will be invested towards planning for new lines, reinforcements and upgrades around key industrial areas, including Kwinana and Collie, as well as upgrades between Geraldton and Perth to support development at Oakajee.

He said strengthening the northern transmission network was critical, with modelling indicating that a tenfold increase in renewable generation may be needed to meet future low-emissions electricity demand.

The Government would establish PoweringWA to coordinate the delivery of new electricity infrastructure at the pace needed for decarbonisation.

It will be responsible for planning, community consultation, industry liaison, and project management, ensuring appropriate consideration is given to environmental, cultural and social issues, while delivering a reliable and low emissions electricity supply for all users.

“This is the largest investment in transmission infrastructure in WA in more than 10 years and is an important step on the transformation of our main electricity grid,” the Premier said.

“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.

“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.”

Opening the summit, the Premier said WA was fundamental to the green energy transition and global fight against climate change.

“The benefits of WA helping other high-emission countries to decarbonise far outstrips the benefits of decarbonising our own economy,” he said.

“A part of that is WA’s supply of transition fuels, because the global transition isn’t always as simple as quitting fossil fuels and replacing it with renewables.

“That would devastate economies, plunge neighbouring cities into darkness and see coal-fired power plants turned back on.

“We can support our international partners transition through our world-class natural gas resource delivered to world best practice environmental
standards including the utilisation of carbon capture and storage.

“There will be a time when our trading partners no longer need our gas, but our role is to be there and work with them at all checkpoints along the road to net zero.”

He said there was keen interest in the ammonia and green hydrogen industries being developed in WA.

There were more than 30 projects at various stages of development. Current and prospective projects in WA could produce up to 100GW of renewable
hydrogen in the next 10 years and that output could increase to 200GW by 2040.

The current generation capacity in the SWIS is around 4.5GW.

Even allowing for the projected increase in renewable energy, there would still be a requirement for baseload, gas-powered generation.

Realising the potential of renewable energy and meeting future consumer demand was not possible without upgrades to the existing transmission network.

The targeted spending to improve the northern section was integral to harnessing the potential of the Mid West, which has wind and solar resources that
were the envy of the world and which “has the capacity to propel WA to become a global leader in clean energy solutions”.

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