Published on Friday, 14 March 2025 at 3:43:15 PM
At a Special Meeting of Council held on 5 March 2025, the Shire committed to renew the Power
Purchase Agreement (PPA) contract for a further 3 years, which will put the Shire’s contestable assets
(those using over 50 MWh per annum) on 100% renewable energy.
The Shire is a current participant in the WA Local Government Association (WALGA) Sustainable
Energy project, which is an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)approved
buying group of Local Governments that has contracted electricity under a volume aggregated
purchasing process. A total of 48 participating Local Governments benefited from
access to renewable energy and reduced energy prices in Phase 1, which commenced on 1 April
2022 and will expire on 31 March 2025. Phase 1 of the Project was estimated to save Local Governments
$34 million in expenditure and offset over 120,000 tonnes of carbon.
WALGA ran a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for a new contract commencing 1 April 2025, in which the
Shire of Northam entered a Memorandum of Understanding with WALGA allowing the contestable
energy spend to be represented in this procurement process for the purposes of pricing.
Shire President Chris Antonio said of the decision to renew, “the savings seen both within the Shire
of Northam and across the state in terms of cost and carbon footprint have been well above
expectations. As such, the Shire is happy to enter into another 3-year contract, under which we hope
to see this trend continue. "In the past 3 years, the Shire has used a total of 1,812,401kWh, with 800,400kWh being green
renewable energy saved in billing costs, and has reduced the carbon footprint by 480 tCO2-e
(tonnes of carbon dioxide). The savings experienced have been better than anticipated with the
contract providing protection from increases in utility prices that have been experienced across the
state
Back to All News