In this Weekly Dispatch:
- South Australia experienced its worst wind drought in seven years, with prices hitting the market price cap twice and gas surging from under 5% to more than 50% of generation.
- Firmus has signed a 12-year, 600 MW wholesale energy supply deal with commodities trader Gunvor to power its planned South Australian AI Factory campuses, with Gunvor backing 1.2 GW of new renewable generation and 1.5 GWh of battery storage by 2032.
- WA has launched consultation on its Future Energy System Outlook (FESO), a scenarios-based study out to 2050 for the South West Interconnected System.
- The Australian Energy Regulator has formally separated from the ACCC to become a standalone Commonwealth entity from 1 July, gaining direct control of its own staffing and corporate services while its regulatory functions and independence remain unchanged.
- South32 has agreed to sell its aluminium value chain (including Worsley Alumina in WA, Hillside Aluminium in South Africa and three Brazilian assets) to Alcoa for up to US$5.6 billion, as it refocuses on copper, zinc, silver, lead and manganese.
- None of China’s major battery makers have yet received Japan’s JC-STAR cybersecurity certification, which will be required for grid-connected BESS and solar/wind equipment from FY2027, fuelling concerns the scheme is a de facto China-exclusion tactic.
- TEPCO has confirmed its total ¥100 billion (~AUD 900 million) community payout to Niigata Prefecture tied to the restart of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Unit 6 (1.36 GW).
- Podcast of the week: Bloomberg’s Switched On — “Battery Boom Is Upending Australian Power Market Rules”, on how Australia’s battery boom is eroding the arbitrage returns that drove its early growth.