Study to determine energy requirements

With the state's energy policy firmly in the spotlight in the wake of the Varanus Island incident, it has emerged that the Chamber of Minerals and Energy is undertaking a major study to determine the resources industry's power needs for the next decade or more.

CME CEO Reg Howard-Smith described the research, which is being handled by an outside party, as significant, attempting to better quantify the needs of an industry that's often quite guarded about its plans.

The energy study is one part of a three-pronged review of demand and supply gaps, which also includes people and water, in the sector through to 2020 under the title State Growth Study.

Mr Howard-Smith said the chamber was planning for the project, which has support of government, to be completed in a period of less than five months.

"It is ambitious," he said.

"We'll analyse what is known, what is planned and what we are actually forecasting.

"What we will have is rich data about what resources companies actually plan in the future."

Mr Howard-Smith said business had to play its part if it wanted infrastructure and services such as power to keep pace with its own growth.

"Industry is often critical of government for a lack of planning," he said.

To highlight the need for industry involvement, the CME said it recently made its own assessment of the Pilbara's population and found it was underestimated in official Australian Bureau of Statistics by at least 10 per cent.

In some specific cases the numbers could be out by as much as 30 per cent, with many people in the region uncounted in census surveys due to their itinerant nature.

"Obviously the people issue is critical," Mr Howard-Smith said.

The Domgas group of domestic gas users said WA's current consumption of gas was about 1,000 terajoules a day, with existing demand projections showing an additional 650TJ a day could be required in the market in the next five to six years. A further 250TJ a day on top was required to replace exhausted fields.

The lack of an energy policy has been raised in the context of Varanus, though most acknowledge that such a policy was much more than a contingency plan for problems created by an explosion at a key piece of infrastructure.

Much of the concerns around energy stem from the cost and longer-term security of supply issues, rather than just the short-term crisis that has occurred in the past two weeks.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA last week used the Varanus issue to call on the state government to encourage further exploration and development of new energy sources, including coal, gas and uranium. The state opposition has also called for the government to release an energy policy.