Antinuclear

Popularity of Western Australia’s rooftop solar makes privatisation of electricity assets unlikley

WA’s rooftop solar so popular power privatisation not an option, says expert, Guardian, Calla Wahlquist, 6 Jan 16   Prof Philip Jennings, a renewable energy expert, says investors would be unlikely to be interested in unprofitable power networks Western Australia would not be able to privatise its electricity assets “even if they gave it to them for nothing” because the popularity of rooftop solar panels has made state-owned power stations unprofitable, a renewable energy expert has said.

Prof Philip Jennings, an emeritus professor in energy and physics at Murdoch University, said the uptake of solar was a looming problem for the Barnett government, which has indicated it may consider privatising some or all of its energy assets after the 2017 state election.

An analysis of energy regulator data by Curtin University has found that rooftop solar panels had the capacity to produce more electricity than any power station servicing the Perth grid.

WA’s electricity network is 66% over capacity, thanks in part to an unexpected increase in rooftop solar.

“Effectively we have built another very large power station on the rooftops of Perth, and that is what has thrown the government’s calculations out because they didn’t factor it into their calculations when they decided to go in and bring [coal-fired power stations] Muja A and B back online,” Jennings told Guardian Australia.

The Muja A and B power stations at Collie, 200km south of Perth, described as the “oldest and least-efficient” power stations in WA, were decommissioned in 2007 but recommissionedafter more than $250m in upgrades and a brief period of mothballing in 2014.

They are used intermittently at high-demand times.

The power stations, which Jennings described as “not particularly clean and not particularly efficient”, were tipped to be among the state assets up for sale in a bid by the treasurer, Mike Nahan, to curb WA’s credit rating.

But Jennings said unless the state’s energy profile changed, investors were unlikely to be interested in Muja or any other assets…….

The cost of electricity in WA has increased 85% since 2008, and the number of houses with solar panels has increased by 40%

January 7, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | solar, Western Australia