Capital
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EnergyAustralia, the country’s third-largest electricity and gas supplier, has embarked on a major initiative to lift the performance of its retail arm after suffering a near 86% plunge in full-year operating earnings. The business, owned by Hong Kong-listed CLP Group, lost 83,000 customers and has begun an initiative to modernise its back-end systems to improve retail efficiency and customer experience. (AFR)
Newcastle startup Kardinia Energy will receive $2.15 million from the federal government’s Industry Growth Program to support commercial pilots of the printed solar technology it developed in conjunction with researchers at the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources (NIER). Kardinia’s technology, which was tested at scale at Coldplay’s recent Australian concert, uses electronic inks that can be run through a conventional industrial printer to make what NIER professor Paul Dastoor called “product at extremely low cost, at extremely large scale… and when that product is finished, it’s 100 per cent recyclable.”
Retailer Engie has agreed to buy UK Power Networks, Britain’s biggest electricity distribution company, for £10.5 billion from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Infrastructure Holdings. (FT)
Energy systems
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The Irish government has reopened the country’s energy grid to new data centres, four years after regulator CRU imposed strict rules regarding location, dispatchable and on-site generation expectations, and demand-side flexibility. Since then, only one data centre project has come online – leaving Ireland out of the global explosion in data centre capacity. The reversal comes after the CRU’s Decision Paper on the Large Energy User Connection Policy codified terms for data centre operators including behind-the-meter generation equal to 100% of the grid connection; siting facilities in “unconstrained locations of the grid”; and matching 80% of the sites’ annual electricity demand with renewable energy investments in Ireland. (DCByte)
 Projects
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Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation is calling for expressions of interest for offtake of the renewable energy to be generated at its Project Baru Marnda, which will include around 1.05GW of wind, a supporting solar array and battery energy storage system (BESS) within WA’s Pilbara region. The site is expected to be operational by 2031, with support expected from large energy users, heavy industry, hydrogen and battery developers, minerals processors, infrastructure operators, and major Pilbara projects welcome to advance use cases. (NIT)
Western Australia’s Equus Energy (ASX: EQU) is pushing towards financial close as it solidifies plans to backfill gas capacity at Woodside’s Karratha Gas Plant, which is expected to run out of gas by 2035. Equus has already signed non-binding terms with Woodside to tap into its pipe infrastructure, which it will revive by tapping a reserve of around 320 million barrels of oil equivalent that it bought from global energy giant Hess when it suspended the Equus project and left Australia in 2016. (The Australian)
Policy
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The battle over who will power data centres ramped up a notch this week, as US president Donald Trump took the opportunity during his State of the Union address to announce that he would shortly meet with the CEOs of Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Google parent Alphabet to pressure them to sign his Rate Payer Protection Pledge. The non-binding commitment – intended to motivate the fast-growing AI giants to bring, build or buy their own sources of power rather than draining power from the public grid – has been welcomed as “pragmatic”. Invited but potentially sending apologies are xAI, Oracle and OpenAI – whose CEO Sam Altman infamously justified AI’s power consumption by comparing it to the large amount of energy it takes to “train a human”. (AFR)
Regulation
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The AEMC has released a pair of draft rules designed to head off predicted shortfalls of gas by improving the management in the east coast energy system with a package of “targeted, practical reforms designed to give the market and AEMO better visibility and tools to anticipate and manage any supply risks.” The draft rules on enhancing reliability and supply adequacy advise clearer warning signals and better forecasting, while a proposed Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) mechanism would protect consumers by imposing price limits on contracted SoLR services, and increase transparency by publishing notices when SoLR contracts are activated. Submissions close on April 9 and April 23, respectively, with an information session to be held on 13 March.
Climate
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Fiji and Tuvalu will host pre-COP meetings and a special leaders’ component, respectively, in advance of the UN’s COP31 meeting in Antalya, Türkiye in November. The special sessions, which were announced at the Pacific Islands Forum, will be held in October and will provide “an unprecedented opportunity for the world to listen to the Pacific and understand the existential threat climate change poses for the region,” minister for Pacific Island affairs Pat Conroy said. Australia holds the negotiations presidency for COP31.
Large emitting corporations should anticipate ongoing legal action from shareholders, regulators and activists despite the Federal Court’s recent finding for Santos in the landmark ACCR v Santos court decision, an analysis of the finding from law firm Hamilton Locke has advised. Companies should “continue to focus on ensuring all representations regarding emissions and the energy transition are accurate and evidence based,” it says.
Research
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The newly signed Australia-Indonesia Treaty on Common Security should be tapped to identify “big, impactful projects in renewable energy”, a new Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) analysis has argued – with two-way investment flagged as a way of engaging Australian companies to build momentum behind projects such as Danantara’s $7 billion (US$5 billion) worth of waste-to-energy projects. Such collaborations “would bring real economic benefits to both countries while making their strategic ties even stronger,” ASPI argues.
People
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Pilot Energy (ASX: PGY) has announced Brian Siddall as CEO, effective immediately. Siddall has previously worked for firms including Beach Energy (ASX: BPT), Santos (ASX: STO) and Origin Energy (ASX: ORG), and takes over for outgoing CEO Brad Lingo. (Listcorp)