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Electricity

This Month

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
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APA’s AGM in October attracted protesters concerned about the development of Beetaloo gas.

New pipeline unlocks Beetaloo gas for NT customers in 2026

A deal signed with pipeline owner APA Group looks set to stoke controversy over the development of a massive new onshore gas resource.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
EnergyAustralia executive, operations and projects, Sue Elliott, at the Mount Piper power station near Lithgow in NSW last Thursday.

EnergyAustralia’s fight for future of NSW coal plant

The large Mount Piper generator may be needed by the market for another 15 years, but in a vastly different role that will require policy support.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Much less new transmission would be needed under the Coalition’s nuclear plan.

Dutton’s nuclear costings underpinned by ‘distorted numbers’

Critics point to what they call four miscalculations in the modelling by Frontier Economics.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Potentia Energy CEO Werther Esposito in Sydney on Friday.

Revamped Potentia Energy scours market for big battery investments

The company once known as Enel Green Power Australia has plenty of cash to splash on renewable assets.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy is about to be tested.

CSIRO doubles down on nuclear power as too costly, slow

The science agency’s latest report on future energy needs comes just ahead of the long-awaited costings for Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy policy.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
A BHP pilot boat near the mining giant’s iron ore facilities at Port Hedland in the Pilbara.

The Pilbara plots its path from diesel to clean, green mining

Port Hedland is bang in the middle of the country’s industrial engine. There are ambitious plans to decarbonise with miles of transmission and new generation.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
David Di Pilla.

Di Pilla finds big super backers as he clinches $950m clean energy buy

The veteran dealmaker’s HMC Capital is acquiring a portfolio of renewable generation assets from Neoen and becoming a major player in the energy transition.

  • Updated
  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
ETU bans have led to $25 billion worth of projects being delayed.

Breakthrough in crippling dispute holding up housing, roads for months

One of the most damaging industrial actions in the country may come to a stop after Ausgrid power workers ended four months of work bans after striking a deal.

  • David Marin-Guzman
APA’s Port Hedland solar farm and battery project will help BHP cut emissions from its port operations.

APA plots path from gas to become a Pilbara solar and batteries giant

The company, which opened its latest electricity project in Port Hedland on Tuesday, expects to tick off on more investments in the region within a year.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
“We have long raised concerns about the timing of Project Energy Connect,” Tom Koutsantonis, South Australia’s Minister for Energy and Mining, said.

South Australia in urgent bid to restart diesel power plants

A $2.3 billion power cable linking SA and NSW is behind schedule, stoking concerns that SA – which has no coal-fired power – could face reliability issues.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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November

Tim Nelson and three other experts have been tasked with rewriting the rules for the National Energy Market.

‘Nothing’s off the table’: Expert panel to overhaul electricity market

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has tapped former AGL Energy executive Tim Nelson and three other industry specialists to review the National Energy Market.

  • Updated
  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Origin Energy’s Unit 3 at its huge Eraring coal power plant on the Central Coast should be back online this weekend.

Generators scramble after NSW’s near miss on blackouts

More than 2000 megawatts of coal power capacity is due back online within 10 days, as generators scramble to avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s close shave on the NSW power grid.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
People watch as the sun rises over Ben Buckler Point in Bondi on November 27, 2024 in Sydney, Australia.

Energy efforts run into reality

The risk of power blackouts is real and rising this summer – along with the costs of frantically trying to avoid that happening,

  • Jennifer Hewett

Electrification and renewables could slice 20pc off energy bills: AEMC

The agency that writes the rules governing the electricity and gas markets estimates big savings for families if they move away from petrol cars and gas.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

Labor’s super tax plan felled by an aversion to simplicity

Readers’ letters on the fate of the superannuation tax; bitcoin fallacies; Victoria’s gift to the nation: governance at Cbus; the electricity market; advice from F1 drivers; and a Labor MP’s extinction pledge.

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