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Western Australia’s energy landscape is undergoing a remarkable transformation. The biggest game changer is the rapid installation of rooftop solar at homes.

Western Australians have embraced rooftop solar. Currently one in three households enjoy the benefits of solar, a trend that is expected to rise to one in two by 2030.

At certain times of the year, as much as 65% of electricity consumption on WA’s main electricity grid, the South West Interconnected System (SWIS), comes from rooftop solar. We know solar take-up and generation will continue to grow and play a key role in our energy future, and this will help us to decarbonise our network.

However, it can be challenging to keep the power system stable during this green energy transition – especially due to the small population spread out over a very large area, and our network is completely islanded from the rest of the country.

Australian Energy Market Operator is responsible for managing WA’s electricity system and Western Power is responsible for management and operations of the network.

We’ve been working with the WA Government, Energy Policy WA, AEMO and Synergy to address these challenges of rooftop solar, particularly as its exceeding forecasts, we have had to prepare for conditions where rooftop solar generation exceeds levels that system demand can safely balance.

If critically low levels of system demand occur, AEMO will trigger an extreme Minimum Demand event.

 

A larger than forecast uptake of rooftop solar has resulted in a significant shift in the patterns of high and low demand

  • Solar installations in 2016: 24,199
  • Solar installations in 2021: 51,078 

What we're doing

We’re working to minimise the impact of low electricity demand and support the ongoing solar uptake by customers and our community as we transition to a renewable future.   

To do that, we’ve implemented new measures and using new technologies and approaches to facilitate the growth of renewable power on the grid including: 

We’re working with WA Government, Energy Policy WA, AEMO and Synergy to transform our energy landscape to make it more renewable and help decarbonise WA.