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Electricity

Yesterday

Project EnergyConnect (pictured)

Why Transgrid’s $4.1b EnergyConnect is a huge problem

The massive cost blowout of Australia’s largest energy transmission project will come at the expense of energy consumers.

  • Ted Woodley

January

Zenith Energy designs, builds and operates power solutions for remote mine sites.

Zenith Energy first round offers due; APA Group takes its leave

The Adam Watson-led APA is understood to be instead focusing – at this time – on organic opportunities within its existing business. 

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Australia hit a milestone in the December quarter with coal power supplying less than half the National Electricity Market for the first time.

Coal drops below 50pc for first time as solar powers to record

Renewables supplied a record 46 per cent of the National Electricity Market in the December quarter when a milestone was reached with coal power.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Woodside’s Louisiana LNG site.

Why Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ mantra won’t work in Australia

The US president’s rationale that cheaper gas will power a manufacturing renaissance and reduce household bills can’t be applied to fix the energy woes here.

  • Tony Wood
NextDC chief executive Craig Scroggie says DeepSeek, or other more efficient AI models would still ultimately use the same amount of power overall.

DeepSeek dents outlook for AI-fuelled power boom

NextDC’s CEO says data centre power use will not fall after US energy stocks were smashed by expectations DeepSeek will pierce AI-fuelled electricity demand.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Paul Smith
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The CEFC has evolved into a taxpayer funded green bank.

As CEFC billions roll in, the green bank faces a political test

Extra funds of $2 billion for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation invite questions over its future, as the opposition’s Ted O’Brien says “the whole thing is absurd”.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Offshore wind is well established in Denmark but remains in its infancy in Australia.

WA minister splits with Canberra on offshore wind

WA energy minister Reece Whitby said offshore wind may be better suited to the west coast after several developers dropped plans for WA projects, opening up a divide with his federal counterpart

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Tom Rabe
Much of the CEFC funding in 2025 would go to clean generation and large transmission projects.

Labor pumps $2b into green bank despite Trump’s fossil fuel push

The first extra funding for the country’s green bank since it was set up in 2012 contrasts with the pullback on clean energy under Trump 2.0.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Tankers will arrive on Australian shores in 2026.

Time’s up? LNG imports destined for Australia next year

After years of warnings, importing gas looks to be the only way left to head off an energy shortfall in Victoria, a move likened to “importing sand to the Sahara”.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
An impression of a Westinghouse small modular reactor.

Costs, delays threaten ‘new era’ for nuclear power: IEA

Small modular reactors have the potential to be a “game-changer” but only if expenses can be slashed, the International Energy Agency says.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Industrial action by tug workers could disrupt LNG exports from Gladstone over the next two weeks.

Gladstone industrial action threatens LNG exports

Any disruption to shipments from the Queensland port could temporarily boost gas supplies for the domestic market just as the ACCC is warning of potential shortages in the southern states.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the Capacity Investment Scheme will help Australia achieve its 2030 climate targets.

Green power scheme’s flaws emerge after making crucial progress

Action is needed to turbocharge the build-out of clean generation, but the shortcomings in Labor’s game plan mean 2030 climate targets remain in doubt.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Households with rooftop solar are partly insulated from the changes in the electricity market.

Power price surge adds to ‘headwinds’ for energy bills

Average wholesale electricity prices doubled in the December quarter, with NSW suffering the biggest jump amid a run of hot weather and coal unit outages.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Laura Caspari, Managing Director of renewables at Engie

Engie woos data centres to set up near wind and solar farms

The French utility giant has ambitious plans to help meet Australia’s clean energy targets, but its executives say we need to think outside the box to get there.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

December 2024

Households who haven’t switched electricity plans in more than a year are paying $238 more annually than customers on newer offers, according to the ACCC.

More than 80pc of Aussies paying too much for their electricity

Households that have not changed power plans in more than two years are paying $317 more annually than customers on newer offers, according to the ACCC.

  • Michael Read
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South Australia’s Northern coal power station in Port Augusta was closed in 2016 and subsequently blown up.

Power findings show ‘failure of privatisation’: SA energy minister

Minister Tom Koutsantonis says the behaviour of large power generators reported by the Australian Energy Regulator is “extremely concerning”.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Yallourn coal station in Victoria. Coal and gas plants dominate the market when solar is offline.

Energy grid’s power imbalance could blow out bills, AER warns

In a review to be released on Friday, the energy regulator also said the government should consider the need to diversify ownership as it underwrote projects.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Project EnergyConnect will link South Australia’s grid to NSW’s.

Milestone reached to unlock Snowy 2.0 power

The government’s green bank has committed its single biggest investment to the HumeLink transmission project, which is considered critical to the cleaner energy transition.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Australia is considering more new coal mines than any other country, despite climate protests.

Coal demand hits record with Australia bulking up

Australia is over-represented on the world stage as a source of new coal output, the International Energy Agency found.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
BHP suspended its WA nickel operations earlier this year after heavy losses, helping cut demand for gas in the state.

Nickel shutdowns ease WA’s gas shortage fears

While gas for Western Australia’s domestic users is adequate for the next few years, a shortfall may emerge in 2028, the market operator says.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/electricity-hul