The Energy Week

This week saw Australian governments splashing cash on long duration storage, reviving a hydrogen hub and subsidising EV loans.

A fresh batch of energy market data for the December quarter sent transition optimism to new levels in what continues to be a resilient and lower-cost summer for the grid.

A resilient summer was capped with the extension of two coal-fired power plants as state governments hedged against rising prices 

The end of year report dump continued this week, with a tweaked GenCost model and the NEM review getting everyone but Queensland to endorse its final recommendations.

Two major pieces of work landed with a thud this week in the form of the market operator’s draft integrated system plan and the rule maker’s draft pricing review.

This week was all about data centres and system security. The 2025 Transition Plan for System Security from the Australian Energy Market Operator issued a warning on shortfalls in investment as the market decouples from a reliance on coal generators for system security. While the demand from data centres, while significant, might not be as bad as the numbers suggest. 

This week the pre-Christmas deluge took hold with an eleventh-hour deal on environment protection laws, a rethink on the reliability standard and fresh warnings of the step-up in projects needed to meet emissions reduction goals.

This week saw a COPitulation and a call from bankers to stay the course on net zero.

Bipartisan support for net zero was fractured, and we learnt Australia’s biggest battery project might not be the shock absorber planners were expecting it to be, in a week that saw the energy wars return to the front page of major mastheads.

A Melbourne Cup day announcement of free electricity during the solar peak became the front runner for energy surprise of the year as insiders warned of unintended consequences.