It has been alleged that the seven protesters climbed a locked gate and two of them chained themselves to a conveyor belt used to transport coal into the power station.

The men allegedly prevented its operation, halting the conveyor’s supply of coal into the plant.

They displayed a banner stating ‘Renewables are Do-able’.

Police cut the padlocks of the protesters but one of the Bunbury men, aged 30-year-old Benjamin Robert Cody, allegedly ran away and climbed a cooling tower reaching 15 metres into the air.

Police followed him up and arrested him, charging him with trespassing, obstructing police and escaping custody.

Another man, 22-year-old Guy Eddison Sullivan, was charged with trespassing.

However despite the action, Verve Energy manager of corporate affairs Peter Winner said operations were not affected by the protest.

Concerned Independent Activists (CIA) spokesperson Nicholas Morgan said it was a sad joke that the government was responding to the lack of gas by reopening the state’s “dirtiest” power station, which he said was decommissioned because it used old, polluting technology.

Mr Morgan said he was disappointed and frustrated that short-sighted politicians and vested interests were preventing WA from moving forward into the renewable energy industry.

“This is not about taking away jobs, it’s about creating more jobs in energy industries that are sustainable and reliable, such as wind, solar, wave, and geothermal,” he said.

“It is unacceptable that in this day and age the WA Government is still relying on fossil fuels for the state’s energy needs.

“Western Australia’s energy emergency highlights the need to invest in a range of clean and reliable resources such as solar and wind.”

Collie-Wellington MLA Mick Murray said in this case the protesters were ill-informed and did not understand the implications of what they were doing.

“If you cut out the coal industry you cut out 30,000 jobs and billions of dollars in export income,” he said.

“While their concerns are noted, the coal industry is working hard to come up with a formula to reduce emissions which we think will be a reality in 10 years.”

Mr Cody said he was shutting down the plant to highlight and protest against government approval of two new coal-fired power stations and plans for the construction of two more.

“Each of these will have a lifetime of at least 30 years, committing ourselves and future generations of West Australians to dirty, polluting and unreliable energy until around 2040,” Mr Cody said.

“The Carpenter and Rudd governments need to be held accountable and the transition to WA’s dean energy future has to start now.

“Generating electricity from coal-fired power stations is the dirtiest way to produce power on the planet and Collie could be the ‘Silicon Valley’ of renewable energies if the government were to direct investment into renewable technology, but instead this money is all being directed towards the coal industry.”