Analysis

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NSW’s electricity Check Up confirms challenges of transition

NSW’s Electricity Supply and Reliability Check Up report released last week confirms the massive challenge represented by the energy transition and the need for flexibility to get it right. It has effectively provided the NSW Government with a risk management strategy. Overall, the report contains a broad range of recommendations that form a generally pragmatic response to the hurdles that have emerged through the energy market transition to date.

BY Sarah McNamara Sep 14 2023

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Deep Dive: 2023 NSW Election Commitments

With the New South Wales state election less than two weeks away, the campaign is heating up. The Perrottet Government is seeking a fourth term in office with its self-described agenda to “Keep NSW Moving Forward.” In contrast, NSW Labor and its leader Chris Minns are promising a new direction and campaigning for a “Fresh Start for NSW”. We take a look at election commitments from the major parties and their implications for the energy industry.

BY Mitchell Cutting and Jemma Townson Mar 16 2023

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NSW Election - Direct Pitch to Industry - NSW Treasurer and Minister for Energy Matt Kean MP

Ahead of the NSW Election, the Australian Energy Council put a number of industry's questions to NSW Treasurer and Minister for Energy Matt Kean. You can read his pitch to you here.

BY Australian Energy Council Mar 16 2023

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NSW Election - Direct Pitch to Industry - NSW Shadow Minister for Energy & Climate Change Jihad Dib MP

Ahead of the NSW Election, the Australian Energy Council put a number of industry's questions to NSW Shadow Minister for Energy & Climate Change Jihad Dib MP. You can read his pitch to you here.

BY Australian Energy Council Mar 16 2023

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Alternative large-scale storage comes to Broken Hill

Grid-scale, longer duration storage remains an important element in the transition of our grid to more renewables. Pumped hydro is proven technology that continues to be developed in Australia, while the potential of future hydrogen systems gains attention, there is also renewed interest in a storage technology developed more than 50 years ago for large scale supply, but which has had limited development to date: compressed air energy storage (CAES).

BY Australian Energy Council Nov 03 2022

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NSW Clean Air Reforms: A delicate juggling act

The NSW EPA recently concluded its public consultation on reforms to the NSW Protection of the Environment Operations (Clean Air) Regulation. The Draft Regulations propose new air emissions limits on industrial facilities, including electricity generation, stating that the health benefits will offset the ‘significant costs to industry’. While it's uncomfortable to critique reforms that promise health benefits, questions remain over what the benefits are and whether the risks to electricity affordability and reliability have been fully captured.

BY Rhys Thomas Jun 30 2022

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Energy challenges highlighted by white paper

The NSW Productivity Commission recently released a white paper, “Rebooting the economy”, which, amongst other things, has highlighted some of the challenges facing the energy sector.

BY Carl Kitchen Jun 10 2021

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NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap: A highway to hell?

On 9 November the NSW Government published its 'Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap'. Is it the path to the promised land – or a highway to hell?

BY Duncan MacKinnon & Ben Skinner Nov 19 2020

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Green paper sends carbon signal

Unlike the Federal Government’s recent energy-related announcements, the NSW Productivity Commission’s Green Paper appeared quietly. While it did not attract the same high-profile focus, it put forward recommendations that could impact on the energy landscape.

BY AEC Oct 08 2020

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How competitive is the NSW wholesale electricity market?

In its interim report last year, the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission raised concerns about the highly concentrated nature of the National Electricity Market.” As the final report is due to be released in July, we examine this claim with a detailed look at the NSW wholesale market

BY Matthew Warren Mar 27 2019

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Retail prices: IPART sounds note of caution

The recent draft review of New South Wales power bills by the state’s Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) supports the view that competition should be left to deliver the best outcomes for consumers, if supported by a stable and predictable energy market framework.

BY Nick Leys Oct 11 2018

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Smart Meters: Is the competitive rollout working?

The introduction of competition in metering is the largest single change in electricity retailing since the introduction of full retail competition (FRC) itself. Like the introduction of FRC, there have been some problems at go live. So is Power of Choice working? We take a look at the rollout.

BY David Markham Oct 04 2018

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RiverLink: Don’t spend the savings all at once!

In 2016 a proposal for an electricity interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales was put on the table as a way to help address SA’s energy issues. An original interconnector proposal known as RiverLink with a projected cost of about $110 million was scrapped when the state’s electricity assets were privatised for about $5 billion in 1999.[i]

BY Duncan MacKinnon Jul 26 2018

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Feed-in tariff resets: Solar sabotage or real value?

Recent claims that the decision by the independent pricing regulator to reduce feed-in tariffs for PV equipped households in NSW will “sabotage” the solar industry show a lack of understanding on why the tariff scheme was introduced in the first place.

BY Nick Leys Jul 16 2018

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Capacity factors: Understanding the misunderstood

With the current debate about the future of the Liddell Power Station in New South Wales, some media have focused on the plant’s capacity factor.

BY Carol Tran Dec 22 2017

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Regulator shines a light on NSW wholesale market

This week the AER released its review into the “step change” in wholesale electricity prices in NSW since late 2016. This was the first review under the AER’s new wholesale market monitoring powers, so it was important opportunity to shed a clearer light on what is driving up wholesale electricity prices.

BY Carl Kitchen & Duncan MacKinnon Dec 08 2017

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The three Rs of electricity retailing: Regulators, Reviews and Risks

Last week New South Wales’ Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal released its latest look at retail competition in that state’s electricity market, adding its voice to warnings from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about the implications of energy re-regulation for consumers.

BY Sarah McNamara & Carl Kitchen Oct 27 2017

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Queensland and NSW put the heat on demand

In January as a result of statewide mean maximum temperatures well above average[i], Queensland recorded a new all-time peak for electricity demand of 9,412[ii] megawatts (MW) on 18 January. To the south, heatwave conditions pushed New South Wales’ very close to its record peak demand. The amount of power consumed on 10 February was only a few megawatts shy of the 14,764 MW[iii] recorded in the summer of 2010-2011.

BY Panos Priftakis Feb 16 2017