Vikas Rambal’s Perdaman Group is planning to enter the state’s retail electricity market, with a focus on greener energy.
Perdaman submitted an application to the Economic Regulation Authority for a retailing licence late last year, with a decision expected within weeks.
The group’s interests already include solar power installer Perdaman Advanced Energy, Port Coogee Village shopping centre owner Perdaman Commercial Properties, and Perdaman Industries, which is planning a $4.6 billion urea plant on the Burrup Peninsula.
The new arm of the empire will focus on selling electricity to businesses in the state’s contestable market.
Under the state government’s rules, customers who use more than 50 megawatt hours a year, about the size of a supermarket, are allowed to buy power from any supplier. Smaller customers must buy from Synergy.
The biggest businesses in the contestable market are Synergy, Alinta Energy, and Perth Energy.
Perdaman Energy is led by Shannon Hewitt, who was previously chief executive of FutureGrid Energy and general manager at CleanTech Energy.
Mr Hewitt told Business News the company would initially focus in the retail market with a lower emissions offering.
Longer term, Perdaman hoped to build small-scale solar and storage operations in regional areas, close to customers, and contribute to the state’s Distributed Energy Resources roadmap.
Western Australia has become a vanguard market for use of distributed energy products, including through microgrids and standalone power systems.
Microgrids and standalone systems can reduce cost and improve reliability for customers at the edge of the power grid, while also reducing emissions.
The state government has flagged that about 1,000 standalone systems could be rolled out around WA.
