Demand fall delays power station
Tumbling electricity demand caused by rampant solar panel uptake, rocketing prices and more efficient appliances has delayed the need for a new base-load power station until the end of next decade.
Amid forecasts from electricity provider Synergy of a fourfold increase in solar energy in the grid within six years, the State Government revealed a major power station would not be built until 2029.
The revelation, outlined by Energy Minister Mike Nahan at a Budget estimates hearing, comes months after Synergy revised the expected need for a new base-load generator from 2017-18 to 2022-23.
Central to the revision is booming demand for solar panels, which allow consumers to generate much of their own power while taking far less from the network.
From a low of just three in June 2007, the number of Synergy customers with solar panels has risen to 135,419 as of March.
Solar panels within the South West network have a collective generation capacity of about 300MW - equal to a major coal or gas-fired power station.
With applications to Synergy to install solar cells still running at up to 2500 a month, the State-owned utility is predicting there could be as much as 1500MW of solar capacity in the grid by 2020.
A significant part of this is likely to come from the business sector, which the Government expects to start rapidly embracing solar power as a way of avoiding rising energy costs.
