THE supply of gas for Western Victoria has been secured following a decision by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) on Tuesday night to guarantee supplies due to high demand.

Concerns for gas supplies across Victoria increased in recent days due to a sharp rise in usage following colder temperatures.

On Monday, July 11, an initial threat to supply was raised and a request to participants was sent asking them to cease purchasing gas from Victoria’s Domestic Wholesale Gas Market in an attempt to reduce the depletion rate of Iona storage inventory.

AusNet is one of three networks that is supplied gas by the Iona Gas Plant and distributes gas throughout Victoria, including responsibility for western Victoria.

AusNet head of communications, Karen Winsbury, said that Western Victorians may notice decreased pressure when using gas due to supply being “quite tight”.

“This is due to temperatures being so cold,” she said.

“Everyone is using more gas at the same time, and it is being used faster than it can be distributed down the pipe.

“There is enough supply, it’s just concern about the capacity of the pipelines.

“People might experience low gas pressure when they turn on their gas top stove and if they try to turn it up high, they might notice the supply is weak.”

The AEMO, Australia’s national energy operator, issued a second ‘threat to system security notifications’ on July 18 to further reduce the depletion rates at the Iona Gas Plant. 

On Tuesday night, the AEMO activated the Gas Supply Guarantee mechanism to secure additional gas supplies from Queensland-based gas producers to support gas-powered electricity generation in the National Electricity Market (NEM). 

As a result, New South Wales will move to get supplies from Queensland to reserve supply for Victoria.

The Iona Gas Plant is located near Port Campbell in south-west Victoria, and is connected to four pipeline connection points, which receive gas for storage and also delivers gas out of storage.

The AEMO said producers and pipeline operators have responded positively to the request for additional gas supply and said it will continue to work to monitor gas supply availability.

The AEMO said in a statement on Tuesday that it expected the gas supply guarantee would need to remain in effect until September 30, 2022, or until gas supplies are sufficient and the threat to gas supply caused by storage inventory depletion at the Iona Gas Plant had subsided.

The Iona Gas Plant receives gas from the offshore Casino Field in the Otway Basin and is designed to receive gas from new fields when they develop capacity.

“In terms of supply, gas comes from multiple sources of which AEMO is responsible for managing and coordinating adequate supply with demand,” Ms Winsbury said.

“While we are seeing very high demand for gas due to cold temperatures, we are not experiencing any low gas pressure in the distribution network in the Hamilton area due to that increased demand.”