The Western Australia state government has announced $708 million AUD ($464 million USD) in transmission network investment, the largest such announcement in a decade. Western Australia’s population is just 2.9 million, and while it is growing by 2% per year, it’s surprising to see that much of this round of investment is apparently going into expansions near Perth, in the south – on the South West Interconnected System (SWIS), not the NWIS. The big future growth in Western Australian transmission demand comes from mining expansion and utility-scale renewables to power them – both best suited to the Pilbara region, over 1,000 kilometers north of state capital Perth. Of the $464 million, $377 million has been earmarked for the ‘northern’ part…