Year in review In 2021 global energy markets reminded us of the brutal reality of how inelastic they are in the face of short term change. Just as the pandemic cratered demand and collapsed prices in early 2020, so covid-recovery revived energy prices in 2021. Australian motorists noticed this, as did American motorists, prompting the …
Italian utility giant Enel launched its Australian retail electricity business last week, promising to be “a one-stop shop ‘greentailer’ delivering energy from Australia’s abundant renewable resources for the country’s clean energy future”, according to its country manager. Meanwhile, Shell’s takeover of Powershop has sparked an activist campaign for Powershop customers to switch away from what …
With the world’s eyes on the COP26 event in Glasgow in recent weeks, we may be looking on the wrong direction for the next major step on decarbonisation. Bilateral trade pacts centred around a US-EU alliance may be the way forward and may give Australia pause for thought on its own approach. The first step …
On Friday, Australia’s energy ministers met and quietly signed off on the Post-2025 package of reforms presented to them by the Energy Security Board. It was not, however, the triumphant return of the market that some had hoped for. Rather energy ministers agreed to give themselves more power to manage the energy transition. This may …
The problem with a rapidly changing electricity system, is sometimes it changes so fast that by the time you have installed a technical solution, it is already redundant. That may be the case with $180 million worth of large spinning machines which are just about to come on line in the live experiment that is …
Can you be made redundant before you’ve started work? Read More »
Major international news stories in recent days have centred around energy challenges in Europe and China. Europe and China are on opposite sides of the world and get their energy from (mostly) different sources. Europe’s problems are driven by gas while China’s are driven by coal. Global oil benchmarks reached a three year high this …
HumeLink is the latest in the series of major transmission projects to come out of AEMO’s Integrated System Plan (ISP). It is shaping up to be a set of transmission lines linking Bannaby, Maragle and Wagga Wagga in southern NSW. Its key role is to allow the transfer of energy from Snowy 2.0 to NSW …
Like any big package of reform proposals, the Energy Security Board (ESB’s) post 2025 market design (P2025) recommendations is trying to be many things to many people. One of the most important things is that it is trying to rescue the NEM from collapsing into individual state-based systems, each with their own rules and schemes. …
A long-awaited bill has been introduced to lay the regulatory groundwork for allowing offshore wind farms to be built in Australian waters. Will this spark a tsunami of projects? Offshore wind is more expensive to build and maintain, but more efficient than “conventional” onshore wind. While the size of onshore wind turbines average around 3MW, …
