ELECTRICITY
SUPPLY — WALPOLE
444. Ms E.J. KELSBIE to the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the McGowan Labor government investment in
delivering a secure and reliable energy system for Western Australians right across the state. Can the minister update the
house on the work underway to deliver clean, affordable and reliable energy to households and businesses throughout
regional Western Australia, including those in my electorate of Warren–Blackwood?
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON
replied:
I am very pleased to
answer this excellent question from the hardworking member for Warren–Blackwood.
It is well known that there is a transition in the energy system and we
need to make sure that we can have reliable, affordable energy with a lower carbon footprint. This government is determined to
do that, because we believe in taking action to combat climate change.
The town of Walpole in the member's electorate has certainly had its
challenges with power reliability, and I want to acknowledge the issues that
the member has raised with me on that topic since she has been elected.
I understand how
inconvenient it is to be without electricity. As I pointed out before in
respect of other communities that are
called fringe-of-grid—those that are at the end of the grid—it
is difficult for physics to get electricity to the edge of the grid and
disturbances inside the grid can affect those more on the edge of the grid. But
the good news is that Western Power is working to solve these problems right
across the south west system.
Western Power has
supported a Western Australian engineering company called Power Research and
Development in developing a new technical solution for Walpole's
situation. It will be deploying a pumped hydro-electric energy storage system to improve the reliability of
electricity for the residents in Walpole. Power Research and Development's
dynamic hydro solution is being conceived in
a completely new way for pumped hydro. This is a microscale pumped hydro
of 1.5 megawatts. It is designed to connect at the edge of the grid in specific
locations to support the network, rather than requiring significant investment
in a central location. Rather than relying on damming rivers, it can use farm dams and other features that can develop in a
modular way, like in a wind farm, so that we can get much more opportunity to deploy these new systems. This is a
globally significant research and development project, just another
reflection of the fact that Western Australia leads globally with the adoption
of new technologies in the electricity system. This will provide a microgrid to
support the Walpole community that should allow most of the outages in Walpole to be dealt with through the islanding of
the grid for this facility. One of the reasons we are able to do it at such a low cost is the innovative work of Power
Research and Development, which uses existing equipment that is bought
off the shelf; for example, polypipe from Bunnings rather than bespoke
equipment. That keeps down cost. The great news is that we think this can be
deployed to other locations in the future. I congratulate Western Power for having the innovation and foresight to support
the research and development that has gone into this problem, as this
has shown how Western Australian technology, which will now be able to be used
in a range of other locations, is able to solve problems.