A gas supply crisis at Wagga's Oasis Aquatic Centre has been averted after its supplier was suspended.
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This week Wagga City Council announced it has been forced to secure alternative gas supplies to the centre after the previous supplier Weston Energy was suspended by the national regulator.
Wagga Council's chief operating officer Scott Gray said council's arrangement with the aquatic centre is unique compared to other council sites as it is the only asset that has contracted out its gas services.
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"The centre has a term contract for gas supply and due to the influx of prices, the gas provider had to increase its working capital," Mr Gray said.
"But they were unable to do that within the time frame given, so the regulator suspended their ability to provide us with those gas services," he said.
Mr Gray said working capital refers to the amount of finance invested in a business.
"When there's an increase in some sort of supply chain costs, there's a requirement for a business to increase its capital. That can be through shares or private investment," Mr Gray said.
In a recent statement from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), a spokesperson said it had "initiated the Retailer of Last Resort process" to transfer customers from gas retailer Weston Energy to ensure the continued supply of energy services to affected customers.
Under the Retailer of Last Resort process, customers are transferred to major retailers such as AGL, ActewAGL, Origin Energy or EnergyAustralia.
"The AER applied the market safeguard after the company was suspended from wholesale energy markets for failing to comply with Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) requirements," the spokesperson said.
"Weston Energy's authorisation to trade in the gas markets was revoked... ...impacting around 400 large and medium size customers."
Mr Gray said council has been provided with an interim supplier - Origin Energy - and will now "go back out to the market", advertising a tender for a "one-year contract with the option of three additional years."
He said with the current state of the market, it was as yet unclear what price or rate council would secure with the next provider.
"Obviously there is some volatility with prices in the gas market at the moment, so we expect an increase but we'll just have to wait and see what that will be," he said.
"Depending on what the market dictates, it could be a floating or fixed rate, we'll just have to wait and see what we get."
Tenders are currently out and are set to close next week.
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