Trademark activity by power giant

Western Power has registered several trademarks ahead of the split up of the entity into several separate entities next year as part of a disaggregation of the power utility.

Although the names for the four entities have not been formally announced, the trademark register could give a hint as to the new names of the four companies.

A Western Power representative told WA Business News that, while no decisions had been made on the names of the companies, a lot of work was going into researching of brand names.

However, a lawyer from Griffith Hack, the firm that lodged most of the trademarks, denied the recently trademarked names were for the separate entities coming out of Western Power.

Rather, the lawyer said the recently lodged trademarks were for use within the existing Western Power structure.

The names Horizon Power, Ready Power, and Regional Power, as well as combinations and variations of the three, have all been lodged in the past few months and are pending approval as trademarks.

Under a deregulation process, as of April 1 next year Western Power will be split into four different businesses: generation, distribution, retail and regional.

The legislation enabling the split up passed through parliament last month, and the reform process involves capping Western Power’s generation capacity to 3000MW.

This will allow new players to enter the market, over which Western Power has traditionally had a monopoly.

New energy players include companies such as Alinta, the Griffin Group, Western Energy, Beacons Consulting, and aspiring producers like Eneabba Gas, which has a strategy based on coal seam methane gas.

Western Power has been busy upgrading the capacity of existing power stations during the past year to try and avoid the blackouts of last summer.

In addition, a contact was recently awarded for the construction of a new 300MW power station to Wambo Power Ventures, which plans a gas fired plant at Kwinana.

Western Power recently announced a $206.1 million profit, $35.4 million down on last year.