THE Shire of Northam has committed to another three years of renewable electricity supply after councillors voted to renew their participation in a statewide green energy deal.

The power purchase agreement (PPA), coordinated by the WA Local Government Association (WALGA), took effect from April 1 this year.

The Shire of Northam joined the PPA in 2022 and said it had since avoided about 480 tonnes of carbon emissions while protecting its facilities from rising energy prices.

Shire of Northam president Chris Antonio said the environmental and financial outcomes had been better than expected.

“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,” he said.

“As such, the shire is happy to enter into another three-year contract, under which we hope to see this trend continue.”

The PPA applies to Northam’s large energy-using sites which has been defined as those using over 50MWh each year.

According to a Shire of Northam publication, under the current contract, about 800,000 kilowatt hours of the shire’s electricity was matched by renewable sources, including wind farms supplying Synergy’s grid.

Northam is one of more than 40 local governments involved in the 2022 to 2025 collective energy deal using renewable energy.

WALGA began consulting with members late last year on the next stage of the project, known as the Beyond 2025 strategy.

Echo News reported last month that the Shire of Mundaring was assessing renewing their agreement ahead of its expiration at the end of March.

As reported in Power purchase agreement: What is it? (Echo News, March 14), despite being in effect for the past three years, and with more than 50 local governments signing on, little is known about it.

Minutes of the March 5 Shire of Northam special council meeting showed three documents totaling 16 pages were considered as part of their agreement renewal and all were marked as confidential redacted material.

These documents included the WALGA estimated cost and analysis of offer, detailed report of pricing of 25 percent to 100 per cent and the WALGA sustainability energy project offer document.

The officer’s recommendation of approving the renewal following a behind closed doors meeting was passed unanimously by councillors at the March 5 meeting.