Australia Govt: AER and ESB market reports

Two market reports have been released today, focusing on the challenges of energy affordability and the transition towards renewables. The reports, when read together, present a full picture of the energy market as it is now and navigating the road ahead.

State of the Energy Market
The State of the Energy Market report from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) reflects on a year of change and market firsts in the east coast wholesale and retail gas and electricity markets.

Declining energy affordability is an increasing concern for consumers. Households and businesses have installed record volumes of rooftop solar capacity every year since 2015. Rooftop systems in the National Energy Market (NEM) now total more than 15GW of capacity, about 20% of the NEM’s total generation capacity.

AER Chair Ms Clare Savage said, ‘Consumers need to feel confident that Australia’s transitioning energy market is working for them, and we are focused on doing everything we can to make that happen.’

Health of the National Electricity Market
The Health of the NEM report identifies key risks including consumer affordability and the interconnectedness of Australia’s electricity and gas markets. The report confirms the need for large-scale investment in new transmission, renewable generation and flexible capacity.

The report identifies the resilience of market design to cope with changing circumstances and improving the visibility of, and confidence in, available energy supplies – particularly in times of market stress – as emerging priority areas off the back of events earlier this year.

ESB Chair Ms Anna Collyer said, ‘The energy transition is a complex coordination exercise on a national scale that will affect all parts of the supply chain.’