The WA parliamentary question highlights the isolation and limitations of the Western Australian Wholesale Electricity Market compared to the National Electricity Market.

AnsweredQoN 200Legislative Assembly
Asked
9 May 2013
Portfolio
Energy

QuestionView source ↗

Victoria is part of the National Electricity Market, an interconnected
electricity system spanning all Australian jurisdictions, except Western
Australia and the Northern Territory.
In contrast, the Western Australian Wholesale Electricity Market is a
geographically isolated market that services around one million end-use
consumers. As a result there is less diversification of load across the
consumer base than in a larger market, the size of the market means it is
restricted to more costly smaller-scale generating units; and investment
in transmission and generation assets can be large and "lumpy"
relative to the size of the total system.

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
11 June 2013
Responded by
Minister for Energy
Response time
33 days
Victoria is part of the National Electricity Market, an interconnected
electricity system spanning all Australian jurisdictions, except Western
Australia and the Northern Territory.
In contrast, the Western Australian Wholesale Electricity Market is a
geographically isolated market that services around one million end-use
consumers. As a result there is less diversification of load across the
consumer base than in a larger market, the size of the market means it is
restricted to more costly smaller-scale generating units; and investment
in transmission and generation assets can be large and "lumpy"
relative to the size of the total system.

Explore WA Government Data

Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.

Explore more