As Western Australia edges towards its next State Election in March, the energy sector continues to be a hot button topic. Already this year, the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) has been forced to navigate record peak demand and highest demand days, a massive test for operators and market participants who successfully dealt with the challenge.
Despite this resilience, the timely delivery of new generation will be critical to address the forecast capacity shortfall by the end of the decade and ensure a reliable and affordable system for industry and consumers. Removing the bottlenecks preventing new generation from connecting to the grid in a timely manner will be crucial.
Here we take a look at the challenges of delivering new projects in WA and cast a spotlight on some of the issues that still need to be addressed.
