Mark McGowan admits Western Australia will import coal until at least 2030 to keep the lights on 

Mark McGowan admits he will have to import coal to keep Western Australian households running as the state braces for more potential power cuts and prepares to spam households with warnings.

Concerns have been raised over the state’s coal supply, with electricity generation shutting down to rebuild supplies, and in one case a huge colliery in receivership.

The WA Prime Minister said the coal would be bought over several years from the highway, probably from New South Wales, the ABC reported.

Residents of Western Australia face another uncertain summer when it comes to regular electricity supply

WA plans to move to a mix of 80 percent renewable energy and 20 percent gas by 2030.

McGowan announced that before 2030, WA will exit the coal-fired electricity market and invest billions of dollars in renewable energy.

WA Energy Secretary Bill Johnston said people don’t have to worry about power outages – but this week SMS alerts said likely this summer (Pictured, an example of the kind of message WA households can receive)

The predicted coal shortages are a major concern for WA in the run-up to summer, after 100,000 people in the state were affected by power outages during the Christmas season of 2021.

WA’s Secretary of Energy Bill Johnston said in early October that people “don’t have to worry about power outages this summer any more than any other summer.”

But this week, he discussed the text alerts they might receive, the ABC reported.

As part of its planning for what is expected to be a hotter-than-average summer in the west, the WA government will send warnings to customers to turn off or turn off devices.

The reports state that households should reduce their electricity consumption during peak times in the summer in order to maintain the electricity supply.

“Western Power can tell when it gets clogged in a certain location, [and can] text people in that area and say ‘turn down your air conditioner and you’re less likely to lose power,’ said Mr Johnston.

The news of the SMS alerts comes after Western Power sent thousands of Western Australians poorly worded text messages they believed had been spammed in September.

There will also be a new advertising campaign advising households to reduce power consumption between 5pm and 9pm.

Mark McGowan admits WA will have to import coal from other Australian states, most likely from NSW (Pictured, Mount Piper coal plant, Portland NSW)

WA’s state-owned company Synergy announced last month that the Collie Power Station would close for three months “to further build its coal reserves” before the summer.

In September, Griffin Coal, one of the state’s major coal mines, went into receivership of $1.5 billion from creditors.

WA’s Bluewaters power station had attempted to gain control of Griffin coal after continued disruption of supplies.

But Griffin’s creditors appointed Deloitte as trustees and Griffin’s board called on Cor Cordis as liquidators.

In June, Mr. McGowan and Mr. Johnston announced that state-owned Synergy plans to shut down its remaining coal-fired power plants by 2029.