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    Energy security

    Yesterday

    A coal seam gas drill near Dalby in Queensland. Arrow Energy, a joint venture with Shell and PetroChina, is working in the area.

    Shell, PetroChina to expand huge Surat coal seam gas project

    The investment, expected to cost billions of dollars, will supply export customers and the domestic market, where regulators have warned of looming shortages.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith

    This Month

    Delta is studying potential battery investments at the Vales Point power station north of Gosford in NSW.

    Vales Point coal plant owner eyes gas plant, batteries

    Delta joins Squadron Energy and others in studying potential investments in new gas power plants to support the transitioning electricity system.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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    Closing Eraring would have driven up power bills: research

    Electricity prices would be $55 a megawatt-hour higher if Origin were to close the coal power plant next year, the government was told.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Prysmian’s most advanced cable-laying vessel, the Leonardo Da Vinci, will install the cable across the Bass Strait.

    Marinus Link makes billion-dollar cable commitment

    The order should ensure the $3 billion-plus project to build a second power link to Tasmania starts up in 2030 when the energy market operator says it’s needed.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Transgrid is battling local opposition to the Humelink project.

    Humelink budget trimmed but cost worries persist

    The energy regulator has disallowed about $314 million of costs to build the contentious transmission line from Transgrid’s original proposal.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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    July

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    Eraring output at five-year high as coal dependence persists

    Origin Energy lifted provisions on plant sites by $235 million and warned of a big jump in coal costs for the generator.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    A molten salt tower solar thermal power station in Jiuquan, China. Molten salt is used as thermal storage to continue producing electricity even when the sun is not shining.

    No wind or sun? Try using compressed air and molten salts

    “You want as many cards up your sleeve as you can,” says Hydro Tasmania chief executive Ian Brooksbank of emerging renewable generation technologies.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    The battery will be installed close to an ageing coal power plant that is due to close in 2027.

    Origin Energy ups battery investments with $450m Eraring project

    The second power storage system to be installed at the NSW Central Coast site will have more than double the duration of the first one.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Wind farms produced much less electricity in the June quarter than is typical for the period.

    Cold snap confirms energy price surge, and need for gas and coal

    Light winds through much of the June quarter drove a return to gas and coal power, and pushed up wholesale prices drastically in some states.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Australian Energy Regulator chairwoman Clare Savage at the Clean Energy Summit in Sydney.

    Nuclear awakening ‘a decade or two late’, says AER

    Clare Savage said it would take 25 years to put the political and regulatory frameworks in place for nuclear power – much longer than the Coalition says.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    AEMO chief executive Daniel Westerman at the Clean Energy Summit in Sydney. He said it would take too long to build nuclear plants.

    AEMO chief warns no chance of nuclear replacing ageing coal plants

    Daniel Westerman, who runs the energy market operator, said gas generation would remain the “ultimate backstop” as fossil fuels exit the electricity grid.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    EnergyAustralia is proposing to build its Wooreen Energy Storage System at the site of its gas-fired Jeeralang power station in the Latrobe Valley.

    ICA Partners shops stake in EnergyAustralia’s Wooreen battery project

    EnergyAustralia has put a 50 per cent equity stake in its “shovel-ready” Wooreen battery energy storage system project on the table and tapped ICA Partners to drum up interest.

    • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
    The battery system will be built near Wellington in NSW.

    Akaysha signs $650m debt deal for giant NSW battery

    The system to be built near Wellington will be one of the largest in the world. The BlackRock-owned group has also struck a supply deal with EnergyAustralia.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Snowy Hydro’s gas power portfolio includes the Colongra plant in NSW.

    Snowy Hydro pushes gas power ambitions with major storage deal

    The 25-year contract will underpin the expansion of the Iona project, and underscores expectations the fuel will remain part of the energy mix past 2050.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Households face higher gas bills, which are increasing more substantially in larger cities like Sydney and Melbourne.

    Gas bill rises hit households despite east coast price caps

    Increases of up to 11 per cent from the biggest retailers will saddle families with steeper energy costs despite a mandated pause in electricity tariff rises.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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    Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill says the deal shows ongoing demand for Australian LNG in Asia.

    Woodside signs up Taiwan as long-term LNG customer

    Taiwan’s state-owned CPC is already a big customer for Australian liquefied natural gas via Ichthys and Prelude, but the new deal will potentially run into the 2040s.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Part of the $2.3 billion EnergyConnect transmission line being built between South Australia and NSW.

    Downer EDI pitches in on flailing EnergyConnect construction

    The troubles at the cable project are being closely watched because its failure would imperil the entire build-out of the transmission grid, sources say.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Jenny Wiggins
    Brett Redman.

    Transmission ‘will get easier’ after EnergyConnect: Transgrid CEO

    Brett Redman’s comments come as speculation mounts Transgrid will need to bring other contractors in to complete the delayed $2.3 billion transmission project.

    • Updated
    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Part of the $2.3 billion EnergyConnect transmission line being built between South Australia and NSW.

    $2.3b energy project faces cost blowouts

    The problems plaguing the EnergyConnect scheme add to major delays at other projects key to Australia’s energy transition including the $12 billion Snowy 2.0.

    • Jenny Wiggins and Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Wind turbines are susceptible to lulls in wind speeds for days or weeks at a time.

    Coal power on comeback trail as wind, solar falter

    Electricity generation from coal has surged for the first time in nine years, wrecking emissions cuts and hammering home the disarray of Australia’s energy transition.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith