WA is experiencing a coal supply shortage due to financial difficulties of some suppliers, compounded by wet weather.  This has translated into much higher spot and forward electricity prices.  Additionally, Synergy’s 100MW battery and some smaller new generators are not operational as planned. 

Currently about 35% of certified generation in the SWIS is on outage at a time when most generators should be fully operational ahead of high summer demand.

The State Government has committed to importing coal from NSW to help increase stockpiles ahead of summer.

More information can be found here: https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/wa-power-players-predict-coal-generator-issues-to-last-all-summer-20221109-p5bwxi.html

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has serious concerns that there will not be enough generation to meet demand on hot days.  There is potential for prices to reach the price cap of over $1000/MWh as a result of using liquid fuel (diesel).  Prices normally average around $50/MWh.

Change Energy may look to send out alerts to all customers in the event of extreme pricing to encourage customers to reduce consumption in any way possible to help manage grid demand.

The ongoing issues with coal supply and generation has pushed forward electricity prices up by between 50 to 65%.  The cost of generating electricity typically only makes up about 30% of the bill, so customers can expect pricing to increase by approximately 2.5c/kWh when electricity supply agreements come up for renewal.