Climate change affects us all and we how we address it as a community is challenging. One way that can significantly improve our response to managing climate risks is electrification.
From industrial manufacturing to your car and heating, the future is electric.
Why is electrification good? By changing goods or processes that use fossil fuels (petrol, gas, firewood, or coal) to ones that use renewable energy we can significantly reduce the emissions we create as a individuals, businesses, and communities.
And the best part of this strategy is that the technologies and solutions we need to electrify our lives are low cost, getting cheaper and are readily available. Electric vehicles (EVs), battery storage, and other technologies are hitting the market quickly and at ever lower costs meaning consumers and industry have increasing opportunities to electrify.
Greening the grid
Increasingly, renewable grid electricity is sourced through solar panels or wind farms, generated by the power of nature.
The transition to a greener grid is accelerating in Western Australia due the combination of our world class renewable resources and the fact that wind and solar are now the lowest cost forms of new generation. Renewable electricity supply is growing driven mainly by residential solar.
The focus on integrating greater renewables into the grid and reducing carbon has added benefits. It means that every connected electrical device, appliance, industrial process, and EV will get cleaner throughout its life as more renewables are added to the grid.
Taking action
Electrification has the potential to significantly increase the overall demand for electricity from the grid. Western Power is transforming its network to a modular grid in readiness for an electrified future. We’re taking action to ensure the network is ready for when households and businesses integrate their electrification investments into the grid and electricity market.
Households in the metro area might notice that we’re undergrounding more, so we can increase the capacity for Distributed Energy Resources, like solar PVs and batteries, on the network. In the regions, we’re set to install thousands of stand-alone power systems and are exploring the potential of deploying micro-grids to provide communities with a stronger mix of renewable energy.
We’re also ensuring the grid is ready to support the connection of more EV fast chargers to enable people and businesses to choose EVs.
As Western Power readies the grid for the future, homes and businesses also play a big role in helping our community’s efforts to decarbonise. By evaluating how and when you can electrify means together we’ll reduce emissions.