Privatisation and competition were supposed to make electricity cheaper. Instead, Australia’s quasi-federal energy system has made it easier to pass the buck when things go wrong.
High gas prices have left Adelaide’s Pelican Point power station running at less than half its capacity.
Peripitus/Wikimedia Commons
South Australia’s government was angry about the blackouts enforced by electricity regulators. But with much of the state’s gas power offline, the regulators had little choice.
Solar panels can be both a headache and an opportunity for network companies.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Managing voltage on the electricity network has always been an issue. But solar panels have the potential to make the situation better, not worse as some have feared.
With the right mix, the grid can go fully renewable for the same cost and reliability as fossil fuels.
Pixabay/Wikimedia Commons
The Turnbull government is funding energy storage as a crucial missing piece of the electricity grid puzzle. Analysis suggests an affordable, fully renewable grid doesn’t require any heroic assumptions.
You shouldn’t have to crank up the aircon.
chanus/shutterstock.com
Power-hungry houses that rely on air conditioning to make up for their bad design mean that the electricity grid has to cope with summer demand peaks – and everybody pays.
Was Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly right about the relative cost of electricity in Australia and the US?
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The potential shutdown of Victoria’s Hazelwood power station could leave a large gap in coal-fired baseload generation. But other coal power stations have plenty of spare capacity to fill the gap.
Australa’s electricity network is going through a period of major transformation.
Indigo Skies Photography/Flickr
There’s a wealth of climate policies to choose from this election – but what will they do electricity prices?
In Nigeria 96% of households are connected to the grid, but only 18% of these connections function more than about half the time.
Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters
Africa still has numerous electricity challenges to overcome, but several countries are getting it right when it comes to providing electricity to their people.
Lots of wind blowing – often at night when there’s little demand for power.
ncbob/flickr
Smoothing out variable wind and solar is a growing problem. Instead of storing energy with batteries, utilities can adjust the power of millions of devices in buildings and homes.