If you refer to Muja PS, just outside Collie, I know a bit about that site.
A big part of the project was to adapt the base load plant in C and D stations for a double shifting arrangement to fill in the gaps between supply and demaond in morning and evenings. The less said the better about the A and B stations, but it was more a case of bad timing in a resources boom driven labour shortage than anything wrong with the concept of refurbishing 4 X 60 MW units, like was done at Playford A and B a few years prior.
This was capital investment by a State Owned Company, not a subsidy.
These projects in principle provided a useful amount of synchronous generation, in markets that are disrupted by unscheduled generation. Putting inertia onto the budgets of the renewables project developers somewhat levels the playing field, and with the new Ancilary services markets we will be much better placed provide threshold of the LET is set sensibly. Not betting on that.
Interim provision of synchronous generation might be better sourced from mobile temporary facilities, like Powerships.
http://www.karpowership.com/en/about/karpowership
