Perth Energy to set up power exchange

ELECTRICITY broker and retailer Perth Energy will set up a power exchange to cater for the next tranche of electricity deregulation.

WA’s electricity market was deregulated on January 1 to allow customers using one megawatt per year to choose their electricity supplier. A further deregulation to 33 kilowatts is expected in July.

Perth Energy has built up a market and customer inform-ation base to support this exchange and plans to create a pool of smaller customers to avoid problems such as load following. The eastern states electricity market operates on a similar principle.

Load following is required to ensure the electricity system is not over or underloaded.

Independent power producers are forced to monitor their output to the system every 30 minutes to ensure their supply is matching demand.

“A power exchange is the only logical way of extending independent power supply to that market,” Perth Energy managing director Ky Cao said.