W.A. bulks up transmission to pave way for 10-fold lift in wind and solar

Western Australia says it will invest $708 million in new transmission projects – its biggest investment in the grid for than a decade – to kick-start a planned 10-fold increase in new wind and solar capacity in the state.

The commitment was announced on Friday as part of a local summit that featured a flurry of announcements, including confirmed funding for a green hydrogen project in Kwinana and a solar for renters project, and slashing green tape for environmental approvals of new projects.

State premier Roger Cook said the new transmission spending, largely focused on the wind and solar rich – but transmission poor – “mid west” region north of Perth, was an important step towards the state becoming a renewable energy powerhouse.

W.A. is widely criticised for its support of giant offshore LNG projects, but its view on the local electricity grid has changed dramatically in the last year or two after being told by miners and industry that they wanted cheaper and cleaner power.

A recent demand forecast prepared for the state envisages up to 50 GW of new wind and solar capacity over the next two decades to provide power for the shift to electrification in homes and businesses, the uptake of electric vehicles and the push for zero emissions power in energy intensive industries.

“Strengthening the northern transmission network is critical, with modelling indicating a 10‑fold increase in renewable generation may be needed to meet future low-emissions electricity demand,” the government said.

Some $575 million will be spent to increase capacity of the network’s 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.

There are already many large scale wind and solar projects to the north of Perth, but many are constantly constrained by the lack of capacity into the main load centres.

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, a proposed green energy hub.

Energy minister Bill Johnston said the infrastructure was necessary to support the decarbonisation of industry in the south west of the state. He said the plans outlined on Friday would enable more than a gigawatt of new wind and solar capacity to be connected.

“By upgrading the northern network, we can increase the output of existing wind generation as well as connect around a gigawatt of new wind and solar generation capacity, which is almost double the amount of large-scale renewables currently connected.

The state government will also establish a new entity, PoweringWA, to coordinate the delivery of new electricity infrastructure at the pace needed for decarbonisation. It will be housed within the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety,  and will coordinate transmission, renewable and storage infrastructure.

“Put simply, there is no energy transition without better transmission,” Cook said in a statement.

“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.

“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.”