‘I know a lot of people hate this’: ESB Chair explains why we need a coal subsidy
In its first briefing following the publication of its Post 2025 Market Design Options Paper, the Energy Security Board’s Independent Chair, Dr Kerry Schott, spoke candidly about what will inevitably be a “messy” transition to renewables.
First green hydrogen + gas plant to be built in NSW, ‘kick starting’ hydrogen industry to coincide with loss of major dispatchable asset
EnergyAustralia is set to build a 316 MW green hydrogen + gas peaking power plant in New South Wales by 2023, in time for the closure of Liddell coal-powered plant, which is one of the country’s biggest dispatchable electricity generators.
NSW feed-in-tariffs to drop in line with falling wholesale electricity prices
Recommendations by the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal will see payback times for solar systems extended, but also favour battery uptake.
Long-awaited design for Australia’s energy transition published, coal plant subsidy stirs outcry
Two years in the making, Australia’s Energy Security Board today published its shortlist of options for redesigning the electricity market. “Our energy system is experiencing the fastest and most substantial change in the world,” the Board’s Independent Chair, Dr Kerry Schott, said. Addressing this, the paper essentially outlines a number of ways in which Australia could structure its transition to renewables smoothly and reliably. Stakeholders will now be able to provide the feedback on the options before the Board makes it recommendations to ministers in the middle of the year.
South Australia sets record as rooftop solar sees electricity prices consistently plunge below zero
Rooftop solar has caused South Australia’s average daytime prices fell below zero consistently for the first time in the NEM’s history, the Australian Energy Market Operator said in its quarterly report released today.
Deakin University’s enterprising plans for its new microgrid
Microgrids afford an opportunity to essentially become a power station operator. That opportunity, says Dr Adrian Panow, the Director of Deakin’s Energy Initiative, unearths a number of urgent questions ranging from the technical all the way to the ethical. They are questions cross-faculty researchers at Deakin University, now home to a sizeable microgrid, plan to interrogate.
Big battery market gets a leg up as rule maker proposes rewards for fast grid responses
The Australian Energy Market Commission, the country’s rule maker for electricity and gas markets, has this morning released proposals to reward fast frequency services in the National Electricity Market for the first time.
CEFC loan enables industrial property developments with ‘potential to revolutionise energy use’
International developer Frasers Property Group, which owns Australian-based Frasers Property Australia, has secured a $300 million sustainability linked loan with $75 million provided by the Australian government. The loan will see innovative clean energy technologies installed two Australian industrial projects in New South Wales and Victoria.
Hunter Valley coal void moves closer to filling with pumped hydro
AGL is transforming its operations in a number of ways, from restructuring the company itself, to building energy storage facilities for flexible distribution of renewable energy into the future.
South Australia unveils new export limits for rooftop solar
South Australia’s electricity distributor SA Power Networks has announced plans to introduce new ‘flexible’ export limits for rooftop solar PV in some areas of the state in a bid to manage the growing amount of distributed energy resources and associated network congestion.
