This is what happens when you have no government worthy of the name to address market structure issues:
The West Australian government is facing a coal supply crisis and could follow South32’s lead and turn to Indonesia for imports of the fossil fuel.
A coal shortage in WA has forced the shutdown of a major power station supplying Perth and major towns from Geraldton to Albany, and increased the risk of outages at times of peak demand.
…“There may be occasions that Synergy needs to take emergency action to bring in small amounts of coal, whether that’s imported coal or there’s some other solution that’s up to Synergy,” he said.
Mr Johnston said on Monday that the WA government had given South32 its blessing to import coal from Indonesia to the port of Bunbury, where many of the thousands of workers at WA’s remaining coal mines and coal-fired power stations live.
This is neither here nor there for WA. The amount of coal is small. The state’s coal power output is relatively small. And it has reservation to ensure any blowback in the form of greater reliance on gas can be handled.
Where this story matters more is on the east coast. Both NSW and QLD are still very coal dependent for their power. As a result, the coal shortage being illustrated in WA has been a significant driver of the power shock on the east coast.
Since the Ukraine War began, NSW and QLD electricity prices have averaged $228MWh and $241MWh. More gas-dependent VIC and SA have averaged $182MWh and $180MWh.
We’ve even had stories of gas cartel member, Origin, being forced to close coal-fired power stations because it could not secure supplies from the coal cartel.
What this says is that not only does the Albanese Government need to break the gas cartel, it needs to break the coal cartel as well.
In light of the abject capitulation of Albo’s cowards to the former, there is more chance of them running naked up Northbourne Avenue than there is of it addressing the latter.
In short, you’re about to be reamed.
