Highlights from the Australian market
- NSW is letting gas into its renewables scheme, with ASL consulting on a firming LTESA tender designed specifically to support gas-fired plants, a sharp contrast to the federal Capacity Investment Scheme, which excludes gas.
- ASL’s 2026 Firming IIO Report sets a 1,500 MW pathway for new NSW firming capacity by May 2033 to cover the retirement of Bayswater and Vales Point, with projects needing to deliver for at least eight hours and a first tender due in 2027.
- Victoria has given final state approval to WestWind Energy’s 1.5 GW Warracknabeal Energy Park, a 219-turbine wind farm with two 300 MW batteries that would be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, though critics warn it depends on transmission lines like VNI West and the Western Renewable Link that are far from built.
- The Climate Council warns coal and gas miners are using a Safeguard Mechanism loophole, classing projects as expansions rather than new facilities to avoid stricter best-practice limits, which it estimates will add 4.5 Mt of CO2 a year by 2035.
- A new ACCR report argues WA doesn’t need Woodside’s Browse project to avoid a domestic gas shortfall from 2030, since exporters could supply more from existing projects, a claim rejected by Woodside, industry veterans and the Cook Government.
- SA Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis has hinted for the first time that SA may miss its 100% net renewables target for 2027, possibly slipping into 2028, after delays to the SA–NSW interconnector stalled new wind investment, though the state’s pipeline is now rebounding to nearly $32.5 billion of projects under construction or approved.
- Buru Energy has referred its Rafael conventional gas project in the Kimberley to the WA EPA, claiming it could meet all of the region’s gas demand with first gas by early 2029, though environmentalists warn it could be a “Trojan horse for fracking”.
News from Japan
- Paywalled: With METI requiring new grid-connected BESS to hold JC-STAR cybersecurity certification from April 2027 and no Chinese manufacturers yet approved, Korean and Taiwanese makers such as Samsung SDI, Recharge Power and Cold Electric are moving to fill the gap in Japan’s battery market.
New whitepaper
Endgame Analytics’ latest whitepaper puts Byron Bay under the microscope. Using connected vehicle data from Compass IoT, we modelled what an extra 6,000 visiting EVs would mean for peak demand on the local substation.
The case study looks at a peak visitor day, when around 40,000 visitors join the town’s 11,500 residents, and assumes half of all visiting vehicles are electric.
Download the whitepaper: Electrifying the Light Vehicle Fleet – Endgame Analytics
Podcast of the week
Zugzwang: Episode 5 – Networks, power poles and the EV charging gap
The latest episode of Zugzwang: The market modelling podcast is now available!
Jack Simpson and Oliver Nunn are joined by Endgame Director Martin Chow and Russell Pendlebury, General Manager of Regulation and Policy at Energy Networks Australia, to dig into proposed rule changes that would let networks install curbside EV chargers on ordinary suburban power poles, and what it means for equity, network costs and bills.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0346ILtbXgKJJIlOy64p1i
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zugzwang/id6801348317
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ3gvq2Ccils