Posted 13 November 2024
A Summary of the Renewable Energy Information Session
Following on from its first Renewable Energy Information Session on 10th September, the Shire held its second session at the Sport and Recreation Centre on 4th November 2024.
The panel included Peter Kerr from ATA Consulting; Jai Thomas CEO of PoweringWA; Rob Cossart, Wheatbelt Development Commission; and Patrick Ragan from Green Wind Renewables.
Jai Thomas became the first Government officer to speak publicly in respect of the WA Government’s planning, development and strategies to achieve its renewable energy targets in the context of reliability, security, affordability and environmental sustainability. He described how State and Federal Government legislation and policy are the key drivers of the economy’s decarbonisation and renewable energy targets.
Mr Thomas also explained how the electricity grid functioned and how markets responded to the demand for electricity at any moment in time. The scale of change ahead is bigger than any single agency. PoweringWA is a new entity set up to transform, decarbonise and future-proof the energy system, starting with WA’s main grid – the South-West Interconnected System, and may evolve to cover all of WA.