Rumours are rife that Australia’s largest electricity company AGL is about to break up with itself. Next Tuesday AGL CEO Brett Redman is expected to announce a green re-invention of the company, selling off or de-merging some of its highest emissions coal generators to re-focus the company on the rapid decarbonisation anticipated over the next …
Observers of Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) would be forgiven for thinking the era of high prices has left us for the time being (at least until the next coal plant closes). A minor dampening of demand from COVID and a more significant one from a mild summer has coincided with growing renewables on our …
South Australia: take a ride on the electricity price roller coaster Read More »
The impending closure of the Yallourn power station poses a major reliability problem for Victoria. After Hazelwood in 2017, it will be the second of the state’s four giant brown coal generators to close. That’s the withdrawal of more than 3000 megawatts of dispatchable generation, and the emissions that go with them. Victorian Energy Minister …
Last week saw several media reports of a new analysis of the NEM predicting five large coal plants may close by 2025 (over and above Liddell, already scheduled for closure in 2022-23). The report is by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Affairs (IEEFA), in partnership with Green Energy Markets. It’s a big call …
Australia’s two large, listed electricity gentailers have recently delivered some bad news to their shareholders. AGL announced a massive write-down of $2.7bn ahead of their half year results, while Origin warned of lower profits than expected. As usual these announcements serve as a Rorschach test. At least one commenter sees them as a kind of …
Fortescue Metals is apparently about to transition into an energy business. Or maybe a steel business. Or a technology company. Or all of the above. That’s according to its Chairman Andrew Forrest who kindly telegraphed Fortescue’s seismic shift in corporate strategy at a recent public lecture. Companies are normally relatively discrete about how and where …
Published in the Australian Financial Review February 27 2020. If the Morrison Government wants its big talk on climate technology targets to be taken seriously, it will need to embrace the grim realities of what pushing innovation looks like. Renewables is just the start. Over the next 30 years we will need to find better …
The pace of renewables growth in Australia is being slowed by delays in getting new generation connected and increased curtailment of existing generation due to grid constraints. The Clean Energy Regulator’s (CER) December 2019 quarterly report has downgraded renewables output for 2020 to between 35,000 and 37,000 GWh as the pace of new renewable investment …
Renewable target slowed by constraints: regulator Read More »
Published in The Australian Financial Review on January 31, 2020. On Friday the National Electricity Market made an important shift in strategic direction from which it may never return. It left the orbit of a market based system towards one which is centrally planned. Not with a bang but a whimper. The event seemed innocent …
