Esperance Quality Grains Neil Wandel's has been left without natural gas

Last season's grain is painstakingly being cleaned by the slow process - because the Esperance Gas Distribution Company has decided to switch off Esperance's natural gas pipeline.

The timing of the switch couldn't have been any worse for Esperance Quality Grains owner Neil Wandel, who had only about a week of grain left to process.

What would have been a week's work has now stretched out to months and the venture has become a lot more expensive.

Esperance Quality Grains will, in the future, be relying on LPG gas that is trucked in to supply its needs and is currently trucking bottles from Bunbury to run its operation.

Mr Wandel said it showed the disconnect between government and business owners and he feels like an unwilling participant in a "bureaucratic nightmare".

He knew the pipeline was getting shut off and tried to negotiate with the government to extend the cut-off for another week.

"We knew we were going to get shut off, we had about a week to go and I would have been finished," Mr Wandel said.

"But they wouldn't leave the pipeline open for a month, or even another week, they just shut it off."

Mr Wandel is hopeful he'll be able to get his big dryers working in a few weeks time - where the 2000 tonnes of grain he has waiting will only take two days.

With his current set-up, those two days are looking a lot more like a week and a half.

With triple the normal amount of grain to process after a bumper season - and 30 per cent more staff - it is clear that this year has been slow and tiring.

The natural gas switch-off follows the government's decision to turn to a new power station, predicting the move will lower costs for Esperance residents.

Agricultural Region MLC Shelley Payne said the transition was a "significant milestone" for the town and would create "cheaper energy prices for households and businesses".

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To this, many Esperance residents blatantly disagree, including Mr Wandel.

"LPG gas is going to be more expensive and we have to order it when we need it, we will have to truck it in," he said.

"But you never know in the drying business how much you need, if it's a hot day the drying stops, but if it's a cool week everyone takes in their grain."

A Horizon Power spokesperson said LPG costs were unregulated in WA, unlike electricity, and they tried where possible to help consumers switch to electricity.

"All businesses who made an application for funding support for LPG transitions acknowledged that their energy bills would be impacted by their selection of energy alternative, as part of the application process," the spokesperson said.

"While we acknowledge not all customers could choose electric alternatives, the decision to remove reticulated gas was not that of the State government."

They also said there was never any prospect of a further extension, and all impacted customers were made aware of this.

Politically, Mr Wandel believes it was the wrong decision for the region - and he said the promises the government made that no one would be out of pocket from the switch was false.

"It's going to cost me between $110,000 and $120,000 to switch, but they are only going to cover $50,000 - I'm going to be $70,000 out of pocket and we're going to be using more expensive gas," he said.

In a media statement, the government said the Esperance Energy Transition Plan had provided financial assistance to customers for like-for-like replacement, and they have invested $10.5 million to ensure all affected customers are transitioned to a longer-term energy solution that best suits their needs.

The natural gas pipeline, which runs from Esperance to Kalgoorlie, is unlikely to be used again.