Synergy is a

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

owned by the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government o ...

. Synergy is Western Australia’s largest energy retailer and generator with more than one million industrial, commercial and residential customers, generating total annual revenue of more than $3.2 billion (2014/15 financial year).

History

Synergy,

Verve Energy Verve Energy was a Western Australian Government owned corporation responsible for operating the state's electricity generators on the state's South West Interconnected System (SWIS). It was split from the then vertically integrated Western Powe ...

Horizon Power Horizon Power is a commercially focused, state government-owned, power company that provides power supplies to Western Australia. It is responsible for generating, procuring, distributing and retailing electricity to residential, industrial and co ...

and

Western Power The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

were created in 2006 as a result of the breakup (disaggregation) of

Western Power Corporation Western Power Corporation (WPC), owned by the Government of Western Australia, was Western Australia's major electricity supplier from 1995 until 2006. It was formed in 1995 when the monopoly electricity and gas supplier, the State Energy Com ...

. With effect from 1 January 2014 the retailer (Synergy) merged with the state-owned generation business (Verve Energy). That new company is also called Synergy.

Area served (retail electricity)

Synergy sells electricity to customers connected to the

South West Interconnected System The South West Interconnected System (SWIS) is an electricity grid in the southwestern part of Western Australia. It extends to the coast in the south and west, to Kalbarri in the north and Kalgoorlie in the east. It is not connected to the ot ...

(SWIS) covering the area from Kalbarri in the north to Albany in the south and east to

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

Legal basis

The corporation was created by enactment of the ''Electricity Corporations Act 2005''. It's official legal name is the "Electricity Generation and Retail Corporation". It is a body corporate with perpetual succession. It can use and operate under trading names approved by the Minister (for example, Synergy). Although it is a State owned corporation, it is not part of the WA public service under the ''Public Sector Management Act 1994''. Further, it does not have the status, immunities and privileges of the State of WA.

Business overview

The primary activities of Synergy are electricity generation and retail sales, and wholesale energy trading. It sells electricity to residential and business customers, and gas to large-scale business customers.

Electricity generation

Synergy is involved in electricity generation from a variety of sources. Generation assets include coal-fired generation at Muja and Collie power stations, gas turbines at Cockburn, Pinjar, Kalgoorlie and Mungarra and wind and solar farms in WA’s mid-west and great southern regions.

Electricity wholesale business

Synergy is involved in wholesale trading of electricity in WA. It manages the dispatch of Synergy’s generation fleet and independent power producer contracts, as well as fuel contracts. Wholesale buys electricity and related products, and sells to retail and wholesale market participants under ring fenced arrangements that aim to comply with Australian competition law.

Electricity retail sales

Synergy is involved in the pricing, sale and marketing of electricity to end-user customers in the SWIS. It also sells accredited

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

electricity.

Gas trading

Synergy is involved in the wholesale trading of natural gas in WA.

Gas retail sales

Synergy is involved in the pricing, sale and marketing of gas to end-user customers in WA.

Monopoly and other retailers

Synergy has a legislated monopoly on the sale of electricity to residential and other customers who do not consume a large amount of electricity.

supplies energy to WA customers outside the SWIS.

References

External links

http://www.synergy.net.au/

Government of Western Australia - Office of Energy

Government of Western Australia - Office of Energy - Electricity Reform Implementation Unit
* https://www.synergy.net.au/~/media/Files/PDF-Library/Synergy-Annual-Report-2015.ashx?la=en {{Authority control Companies based in Perth, Western Australia Energy in Western Australia Government-owned companies of Western Australia Electric power companies of Australia Government-owned energy companies Australian companies established in 2006 Energy companies established in 2006