Labor’s campaign has centred on making WA a renewable energy leader, but industry leaders are pushing back on a new government fee, calling it “extortionate” and a major obstacle for developers. Despite the criticism, the ABC understands the government plans to proceed with the charge.
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00:00In the WA coal mining town of Collie, the energy transition is well underway.
00:07We are the only state in Australia who will be out of coal by 2030.
00:13Ditching coal will require major upgrades to the poles and wires that feed electricity to homes and businesses on WA's main power grid.
00:22If you want to decarbonise, you'll need some new lines to get that renewable energy to where it's needed.
00:29To help fund the new transmission, the ABC understands the government is planning to charge renewable energy developers $100,000 per megawatt to connect to the grid.
00:39The peak industry body for renewables has described the one-off fee as extortionate.
00:45And in a national market that each state is competing for capital and competing for developers to come in,
00:50WA's going to lose this investment and it's going to head over east into the NEM.
00:54And that will be a project killer. And what we'll see is lots of these medium-sized companies will simply go to the east coast because this tax doesn't exist there.
01:02This is part of the market. We have a demand in the market and we will continue to work with industry as they participate in the energy transition.
01:12The ABC understands state-owned power provider Synergy has already exhausted most of its multi-billion dollar budget for replacing coal-fired generation,
01:21despite building barely half of the combined wind and battery capacity required,
01:27leaving independent energy consultant Peter Kerr sceptical about WA Labor's 2030 coal deadline.
01:34You need a certain amount of renewable energy to displace coal and we're not building enough of it and we're not connecting enough of it via new transmission lines.
01:43The state government insists WA is on track to meet its 2030 goal.