The Energy Week

Plans for fresh regulations to ensure data centres support the transition started to emerge this week; and not everyone was ready for the July 1 delivery of the mandated Solar Sharer Offer.

The market operator’s keenly anticipated system plan arrived this week with a fresh reality check on the missing projects needed to meet renewable energy targets. 

This week Australia’s energy rule maker set out a path for landmark pricing reform that could take a decade to deliver, but reshape the signals sent to consumers to ensure they not only stay connected but help support the grid.

Australia this week signed on to a new global electrification target as a large part of the world leans into fossil fuel alternatives on the back of the war in Iran.

There was a long-awaited win for the demand-side and energy prosumers this week with a new ‘FlexCost’ model, and a fresh call for a new state-owned entity to build and deliver renewable electricity to power Australian industry.

The impact of lower wholesale energy prices was reflected in new lower default market offers released this week.

In a week of firsts for renewable energy projects, New South Wales launched its largest ever generation tender and the Victorian government greenlit the largest windfarm in the southern hemisphere.

Climate and energy policy measures in the budget were a mixed bag with experts lamenting many missed opportunities for reform amid the energy crisis.

State budgets delivered cost of living relief this week as the fuel crisis and rising interest rates bite. Meanwhile, support for renewable energy looks set to be trumped by crisis response measures in next week’s Federal Budget.

Australia’s utility scale battery boom is helping push down wholesale energy prices, but this week showed just how much the transition still relies on transmission and distribution.

Network tariffs were front and centre this week as the rule maker delivered a new model making the case for higher fixed charges, and big energy users warned transmission blowouts were already hitting the network component of their energy bills.

As Australia’s fuel crisis went from bad to worse this week in the wake of a refinery fire, state politicians stepped up their focus on electric vehicle charging to meet the coming demand wave.

This week the Australian government agreed to underwrite oil purchases and Queensland set its sights on fast tracking new oil exploration projects.

News of a declining Australian gas demand was overshadowed this week by geopolitics as markets continue to brace for a global LNG supply squeeze.

Oil settled above US$100 a barrel this week as combatants in the Iran war set their sights on energy infrastructure and analysts braced for long-term impacts.

The global energy crisis sparked by the Iran war hit home this week in the form of a national fuel crisis that threatens to drive up interest rates and emissions.

A week into the Middle East war, spiking oil and LNG prices have markets and governments spooked.

Results season continued this week and the research sector sounded the alarm on declining investment in R&D.

Results season continued this week with gas majors Santos and APA Group getting back to their core businesses.

Results season kicked off this week with AGL and Origin Energy leaning on battery revenue as the energy transition matures.

This week saw Australian governments splashing cash on long duration storage, reviving a hydrogen hub and subsidising EV loans.

A fresh batch of energy market data for the December quarter sent transition optimism to new levels in what continues to be a resilient and lower-cost summer for the grid.

A resilient summer was capped with the extension of two coal-fired power plants as state governments hedged against rising prices 

The end of year report dump continued this week, with a tweaked GenCost model and the NEM review getting everyone but Queensland to endorse its final recommendations.

Two major pieces of work landed with a thud this week in the form of the market operator’s draft integrated system plan and the rule maker’s draft pricing review.

This week was all about data centres and system security. The 2025 Transition Plan for System Security from the Australian Energy Market Operator issued a warning on shortfalls in investment as the market decouples from a reliance on coal generators for system security. While the demand from data centres, while significant, might not be as bad as the numbers suggest. 

This week the pre-Christmas deluge took hold with an eleventh-hour deal on environment protection laws, a rethink on the reliability standard and fresh warnings of the step-up in projects needed to meet emissions reduction goals.

This week saw a COPitulation and a call from bankers to stay the course on net zero.

Bipartisan support for net zero was fractured, and we learnt Australia’s biggest battery project might not be the shock absorber planners were expecting it to be, in a week that saw the energy wars return to the front page of major mastheads.

A Melbourne Cup day announcement of free electricity during the solar peak became the front runner for energy surprise of the year as insiders warned of unintended consequences.

This week the home battery program hit new highs while grid-scale wind and solar projects reaching a final investment decision hit a new low.

This week started with a landmark critical minerals deal with the US and ended with warnings the deal would fail to pay off if long awaited environmental planning reforms fail to pass parliament.

The sluggishness of the transition hit home this week as Origin Energy flagged greater volatility than anticipated, and a new report from the World Meteorological Agency showed carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere hit a record high in 2024.

Attention turned to Queensland this week with a federal government bailout for Glencore’s Mount Isa copper smelter, and the release of the state’s new energy roadmap.

This week saw the closure timeline for Queensland’s largest coal-fired power station brought forward, and the life of a South Australian gas fired power station extended,  as quarterly grid data showed the transition was still a story of one step forward, two steps back.

Climate news dominated this week as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made his pitch for Australia to host COP31, and US President Donald Trump took his ‘green energy scam’ remarks to the UN General Assembly.

This week started with a dire warning on the costs to Australia’s people and property of climate change, and ended with a new Net Zero Plan from the government pledging to cut emissions by between 62 and 70% by 2035.

Each Saturday, the Energy Week delivers a concise and insightful summary of the key stories from Australia's dynamic energy sector in around 5 minutes. We cut through the noise to deliver the biggest developments in policy, technology, and project investment.