found they discussed the decommissioning of the network<\/a> eight months before customers were told.<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/16f1b6e3b6974b20ddc47c705485c76b.jpeg\")
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Amber-Jade Sanderson says the government tried to persuade ATCO to remain in Albany. (ABC News: Armin Azad)<\/p>\n
Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said following unsuccessful discussions to keep ATCO in Albany, it was her preference residents move off gas entirely.<\/p>\n
“It’s not going to be the long-term fuel for Western Australia,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a transition fuel, and ultimately, we want the residents of Albany to electrify.”<\/p>\n
More cash for electricity<\/p>\n
Energy analyst Ray Wills said the transition from gas to electric was the right move, but the package needed to be larger to entice people away from gas bottles.<\/p>\n
“No longer burning gas should be an incentive in itself,” he said.<\/p>\n
“However, if you’ve got to spend six or eight or 10 grand to convert your house \u2026 it’s still reasonably dear.”<\/p>\n
Professor Wills said a business case should determine the exact price, with the government subsidising 50 per cent of the cost.<\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/b26cc8727667a72aa3c80df7ed271d4b.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Albany residents who want to keep gas appliances will need to transition to gas bottles. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n
He said the main concern with the package was that customers would stay on gas as the rest of the state electrified.<\/p>\n
“We can draw a metaphor \u2026 the Rio Tinto board tried to electrify, it didn’t quite get there because they were getting free money from government for their diesel, so they stuck with it,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This is kind of the same thing. It’s about having a lower cost option being the one that’s still burning stuff, and the higher cost option is going electric, which is what the state is trying to achieve.”<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/819d2e388a1cb65ff08fd155008a8a7b.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Greg Stocks says the package will not encourage all residents to go electric. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n
City of Albany Mayor Greg Stocks said the package was not enough to achieve the state government’s goal of electrification.<\/p>\n
“This transition package is about gas bottle, reticulated gas to gas bottle, the budget’s not big enough for electrification,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I would think by the time you buy a heat pump and perhaps go to reverse cycle air conditioning you’re well over the $10,000 mark.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years designing dozens of buildings in the coastal city of Albany, architect Michael Roberts finally built his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":949384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[516640,516635,29947,516641,186419,498983,64,63,99,516638,516642,516637,29946,516636,516639,8146,310137,63779,45],"class_list":["post-949383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-albany-gas","tag-albany-house","tag-albany-news","tag-albany-power","tag-amber-jade-sanderson","tag-atco-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-energy-provider","tag-gas-prices-wa","tag-gas-shutdown","tag-great-southern-news","tag-middelton-beach","tag-ray-wills","tag-renewable-energy","tag-wa-energy","tag-wa-gas","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Green](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/fed04cb615a3931083c8633a44e34128.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n