One of WA’s biggest and lowest-cost power plants has suffered a major outage that could keep it out of operation for months.
The 200MW coal-fired plant is one of the cheapest in WA to run and exclusively supplies State-owned power provider Synergy, which in turn supplies more than a million household and business customers.
Built by fallen coal tycoon Ric Stowe, Bluewaters has been owned by Sumitomo and Kansai Electric since the Japanese companies bought it for $1.2 billion in 2013.
Bluewaters also faces potentially significant costs in forgone capacity credits, paid to generators for every megawatt of capacity available per day. The credits, which underpin WA’s capacity market to ensure there is always enough back-up supply, are a lucrative revenue stream worth more than $120,000/MW a year.
CCE Price at posting:
8.2¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
