North West energy providers have given the local economic development group an insight into their plans with hopes to provide certainty on power prices to industries in the region.
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At a MITEZ meeting at Cloncurry last month speakers from Diamantina Power Station operators APA and the CopperString 2.0 team gave updates on their plans for future supply of energy to the region.
DPS and Stanwell's Mica Creek are both gas-fired power stations in Mount Isa which supply most of the North West Minerals Province's current energy supply while CopperString 2.0 is a proposed 900km high voltage transmission line to connect the North West to the east coast grid near Townsville.
MITEZ said it understands both parties are working to pin down their energy pricing as many major customers in the region are considering the best option for their future supply while new mines in the North West Minerals Province are evaluating their resource economics based on the cost of energy and other key factors such as transport logistics and water.
They said the possibility cheaper energy may extend the life of a number of mature mines facing increased costs to extract and process ore from low-grade resources as well as enabling new projects to enter the region with confidence on the back of competitive energy pricing.
MITEZ President David Glasson said with both options on the table, there was now a competitive process underway.
"We believe this will result in better energy pricing for customers as well as giving a greater degree of confidence all round to businesses in the North West," Mr Glasson said.
"The other possibility is that this process may result in a longer-term competitive arrangement for the region that will influence future energy pricing and at the same time we expect local generation to play an even more important part in the overall scheme."
Last month Traeger MP Robbie Katter called on the state government to put $20 million into Copper String to ensure it went ahead.
"This $20 million investment by the government would ensure a $1.5 billion private investment in real infrastructure in North Queensland, it would appear to most that the government should proceed," Mr Katter said.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
