WA’s energy minister has left the door open to allowing miners to feed excess power into common user energy grids and non-mining infrastructure.
WA’s energy minister has left the door open to allowing miners to feed excess power into common user energy grids and non-mining infrastructure.
Fortescue and Northern Star Resources have both this year proposed supply deals from their power assets which would test the limits of WA’s land tenure and mining laws.
Allowing broad energy development under the Mining Act would set a worrying precedent, according to shadow energy minister Steve Thomas.
“The issue is simply that renewable energy development is not mining,” he said.
“You start to establish precedents where we go, well, renewable energy is coming under the Mining Act, but it's not mining, so what else might ultimately come under the Mining Act, which is not mining.”
Projects built under the Mining Act have lower cost and regulatory burdens compared to those built under the government’s preferred Land Administration Act but can currently only be used for mining-related purposes.
Northern Star Resources’ proposal to stabilise Kalgoorlie’s notoriously fickle energy system with its own generation built on Mining Act tenure was knocked back by the Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration in January.
The state government has so far ducked questions about Fortescue’s announcement in April that it intended to sign up data centres and other industries to its green power network built under the Mining Act.
Northern Star’s push to power Kalgoorlie – which is connected to the South West Interconnected System common user grid – would be unlawful under the remit of the Mining Act.
The legality of feeding power to non-mining infrastructure as Fortescue plans to do is a grey area, according to several sources Business News spoke to.
Business News asked Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson’s office whether Fortescue’s plan would be allowed, whether miners would be permitted to power common user grids, and how proponents building power under the Land Administration Act would be competitive if the above was permitted.
Ms Sanderson did not directly answer these questions.
“The most competitive energy will be delivered by common use infrastructure, a solution that also reduces impacts on heritage and environment,” a spokesperson for Ms Sanderson said.
“The government is currently working with a range of proponents interested in exporting energy generated on their land to this common-user energy grid.
“This includes working through the appropriate regulatory and tenure pathways as well as engagement with other landholders and traditional owner groups.”
Mr Thomas said delays to the state government’s renewable energy strategy had pushed developers towards progressing their projects under the Mining Act.
“The primary act should be fixed rather than resorting to alternative acts that simply give you the outcomes in an easier manner,” he said.
“Shortcutting the proper approvals process because it is convenient is the wrong outcome.
“When you allow proponents to use alternative sneaky backdoor methods through different legislation, because that's the only way they can go forward, it should deliver an absolute message that the proper and appropriate legislation isn't functioning.”
Mr Thomas said large developers should be using the State Development Act and small developers the LAA.
- The journalist is a Northern Star Resources shareholder.
