Market

Australia has voted for a change of Government, and as the Labor Party settles-in living with the largest crossbench in history, the timing of the handover from the Coalition carries challenging circumstances. Energy prices are no exception.

The planets have aligned leading to unprecedented market prices in all mainland States, that will add to growing cost of living pressures. Despite election promises of lower power prices, the immediate future is moving in the opposite direction.

Summers are often a very strategic quarter, and this summer is no exception. Our reading of the tea leaves suggest that Snowy Hydro is successfully keeping NSW spot prices contained, to leverage their position.

We have drawn light-hearted parallels between the Australian Open and the National Energy Market. We hope you enjoy.

Origin Energy announced early last year they planned to run Eraring less often. Despite a unit outage since August, Origin is sticking with the strategy. In the meantime NSW spot prices have been strong, and forward prices have been escalating.

As the year approaches an end, we thank all visitors and subscribers to energybyte. We also wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Christmas and New Year. Finally, we recap on market prices over summer, which appear very hot, perhaps too hot and unlikely to be reached.

Basslink which connects the mainland and Tasmania was placed into voluntary administration. This article recaptures the history, reviews the financial performance of Basslink against HydroTas Board's expectations, and then finally discusses potential buyers.

The Price Shock experienced by the wholesale electricity market over the May to July period in QLD and NSW has been the biggest shock to the spot market in history, and the forward price movements are rivalling the record setting year of 2007.

Victorian network charges have undergone significant change and the new 5-year regulatory period has led to changes to network tariffs occurring on 1 July instead of 1 January each year, thereby aligning with the other States.

Record spot prices put stresses on market players and pool exposed customers. It would not be surprising if a small retailer fails over the next few months, in a similar way as previous shocks.

April spot prices rallied after a very soft summer quarter, and now May is tracking even stronger following the realisation…

Declining power prices have been met by rising environmental certificate prices, dampening expectations of lower power costs. The forward power…