The head of Western Australia's biggest coal-fired power producer says the state should be given special consideration under any carbon price scheme because of the unique challenges facing WA's electricity system.
Verve Energy chief executive Shirley In't Veld told The Australian Financial Review that there were three factors unique to WA's electricity grid that would ensure the state would need to rely partly on coal-fired generated power for the foreseeable future.
These were WA's electricity grid is not connected to the national grid, so needs to have a certain level of "redundancy" that coal-fired plants can provide; gas is used for up to 65 per cent of the state's power supplies, but comes from two ageing plants subject to occasional outages; and there is uncertainty over the timing and amount of new gas supplies.