As with any business, it’s a very sad occasion to accept that the enterprise you are engaged in is unsustainable.

But after spending $47 million on Albany’s liquefied petroleum gas network over the past 15 years and facing an additional $80m cost to replace the system, decommissioning the network is the only option available to ATCO.

Since taking over the network in 2011, ATCO has raised only $37m in supply charges. We have reinvested every cent back into the network and much more.

ATCO has also committed to making a voluntary contribution to help customers transition to LPG gas bottles, and we are speaking with the State Government about that.

By the time we spend an additional $10m on decommissioning we will have invested tens of millions of dollars more in Albany than we will ever get back.

That’s the nature of business, but to suggest ATCO has not reinvested in the network is plain wrong.

The age of the network and safety profile of pipeline LPG are the key reasons we need to decommission the system, but there are some other factors which make the economics challenging.

Only 40 per cent of the city is connected to the network, with many households already choosing bottles over pipeline LPG.

Large energy consumers that could be connected to the network have chosen to source alternative supplies, including the State Government’s Albany Health Campus and the City’s Albany Leisure and Aquatic Centre.

Spending $80m to replace the network would result in consumer bills increasing by 50 per cent to 100 per cent, making bottled LPG significantly cheaper and inevitably leading to a mass exodus of customers.

When the State Government privatised gas supplies there was no provision for regional customers to be subsidised by Perth consumers, as is the case with electricity.

When ATCO took over the operations of the Albany network the State Government had promised to extend the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline to Albany.

That commitment would have supported more large-scale commercial customers in Albany and replaced LPG with natural gas, which has a stronger safety profile.

Regrettably, in 2016 the State Government reneged on this commitment.

We realise the switch to LPG bottles will be inconvenient for some, but there are many existing retailers in the city and there will be no need for customers to change their appliances.

Right now, there is no need to do anything, with ATCO delaying the decommissioning process to early 2027.

We commit to keeping the community well informed through this process.

Russell Godsall is ATCO Australia’s executive general manager of gas operations.