Diesel price hikes are outpacing petrol, the ACCC has reported as its ongoing fuel price monitoring revealed that in the past week alone the average retail diesel price across Australia’s five largest cities had climbed to $3.035 per litre — up 10%, or $0.278 per litre. This was ahead of the price rise for petrol, which surged 8% week-on-week to reach $2.522 per litre. The city price rises were again outpaced by diesel price rises in regional areas, where prices rose 10% to $3.076 per litre – leading ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh to warn that the ACCC “remain concerned about supply issues for both petrol and diesel impacting a range of locations".

Even as Iran moves for formalise a toll for shipping passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the energy crisis is driving an upsurge of interest in electric vehicles. The AFR is reporting the federal government is reconsidering its intention to wind back its $1.3 billion in annual EV tax breaks. Meanwhile the Coalition is demanding the government redirect around $2 billion worth of home battery subsidies to fund a halving of the existing 52.6c/litre fuel excise for three months.

Surging consumer interest has driven a “full-blown installation boom” as UK consumers embrace solar PV installations to push back against the current crisis, Octopus Energy has reported – with solar sales climbing 54% since the start of the conflict, heat pump sales climbing 51% and EV charger sales up 20%. The company has fast-tracked heat pump installations to cope with the surge in interest as consumers abandon existing oil-based heaters.

Persistent tropical cyclone Narelle has disabled gas production across four of Australia’s largest gas projects, threatening supply at a time when the Iran conflict continues to upend global LNG supplies. Among the damage Narelle caused was the disruption of service to an offshore platform at Chevron’s Wheatstone project, while Woodside’s Karratha Gas Plant copped a “production interruption” and Santos’s Varanus Island facilities tripped after being hit by winds of up to 180km/h. (ABC)

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The federal government has established new fuel security powers that it says will shield Australia against any future fuel supply chain disruptions through a host of measures, including amendments to the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act that will allow Export Finance Australia to underwrite additional fuel deliveries and strategic reserves "as needed”. The measures will only be used for additional supply “where it would be cost prohibitive for private suppliers to source on commercial terms without government support,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Tasmanians can travel free of charge on the state’s buses and ferries until July 1, premier Jeremy Rockliff has announced as the government reported a 20% surge in public transport use over the past week as residents adapt their travel policies based on the disruption in fuel supplies. The announcement comes as Transport Victoria similarly announced that the state’s residents will enjoy free travel on public transport from tomorrow until April 30. NSW has confirmed it will not follow suit.

Some 15 new data centre projects worth a collective $51.9 billion will be progressed through the NSW Investment Delivery Authority (IDA), the state government has announced as it released a NSW Data Centre Consultation Paper designed to shape sustainable development of the sector – which already accounts for 12% of all non-residential building investment. The the government is accepting feedback on theconsultation paper until May 8.

In the US, data-centre operators and other large energy consumers should be subject to mandatory transparency requirements to hold them accountable for the impact of their consumption on local communities, a bipartisan cohort of US senators has argued in urging that country’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) to stop allowing data centre builders to hide consumption figures behind NDAs and “often confidential” contracts.

Japan will allow increased use of coal-fired power plants as it formulates a rapid response to the supply challenges imposed by the current energy crisis. Coal-fired generators had previously been blocked from capacity auctions in an effort to promote renewables growth, but the new policy will allow coal-fired generators to participate in auctions for the fiscal year, which in Japan starts next month. The proposal will offset the use of around 500,000 metric tonnes of LNG, which has come under supply pressure as the disruption in the Middle East pushes the Japanese government to flex towards Australia and search for alternatives to supplement lost supply.

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None of the 15 wind farms supported by the federal government’s Capacity Investment Scheme have begun construction, casting doubt over the government’s target of 82% clean power by 2030. Rapidly rising costs, planning and transmission bottlenecks and other delays have undermined the economics of many of the projects with CIS support, and department officials been in informal discussions with renewables developers about potential changes to the scheme. (AFR)

Deliveries of oil from Queensland’s new Taroom Trough region could be reaching Ampol’s Brisbane refinery by 2028, Omega Oil and Gas chief executive Trevor Brown has confirmed amid an increasing push to develop the Bowen Basin reserve for commercial use. Brown welcomed “a real collaboration between industry and government to get things moving as fast as possible”, with fast-tracking promised if the reserves – which sit 3km under the surface – prove viable. (AFR)

Surging production from wind farms has underscored the value of wind and solar as a “crucial buffer against volatile and expensive gas,” Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit head of energy Jess Ralston has said after the UK National Energy System Operator revealed the country had set an all-time record for wind generation of 23.88MW on March 25 – at which point wind power was providing 60% of Great Britain’s electricity needs, equivalent to enough to power 23 million homes. Wind power “lowered the wholesale power price by a third last year,” Ralston said, and is “helping shield UK electricity prices from rising as steeply as gas.”

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The AER is consulting on a Transgrid application to recover an additional $1.142 billion in capital expenditure from its customers for its work on Project EnergyConnect, the long-running and budget-blowing interconnector linking the power grids of South Australia, NSW and Victoria. The proposal – which would add the costs to the $2.121 billion the AER approved in 2023 for the NSW component of the project – would see an additional $173 million in revenue recovered from consumers during 2027-28, equivalent to an average $18 per residential customer. Submissions are open until April 28.

Proposed updates to the AER’s Annual Information Orders for 2026-27 and 2027-28 would improve electricity network businesses’ reporting obligations by clarifying ambiguous requirements, rectifying information specification errors, updating glossary definitions, addressing issues requiring an exemption from the current Orders, and streamlining reporting by minimising the need for additional guidance. The updated orders, which are open for submissions until May 11, would replace existing orders with updated drafts that the agency said would “help reduce regulatory burden by increasing the clarity of reporting obligations.”

Electricity prices in regional Queensland will drop by 9.7% for households and 11.3% for small businesses next year, the state government has announced, following the draft determination from the Queensland Competition Authority.

AEMO is calling for expressions of interest from stakeholders to join the 2028 Integrated System Plan (ISP) Consumer Panel, which will help shape the next ISP by representing a range of consumer perspectives and experiences across transmission, distribution, generation, storage, regulation and consumer energy resources. Appointments involve 4 to 8 hours weekly during the two-year ISP development period. Expressions of interest are due by 5:00pm AEST on April 17.

The Essential Services Commission (ESC) has banned Shantey (Energy Efficient Upgrades) from the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program after it was found to have provided false information about its energy efficiency projects and breached consumer protections by engaging in banned sales activity, failing to collect co-payment from customers for alleged multiple upgrades, and staging photos to falsely claim upgrades – including bringing 'replacement' water heater units to a premises that didn’t even have one.

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A 12 month, Australian-first trial of new transmission technology by Powerlink will use 22 powerline mounted sensors to evaluate the how temperature, wind and other conditions affect the Dynamic Line ratings that determine how much power the 200km of HV lines can carry at any given time. “Even a slight increase in wind speed could safely increase the capacity of line transfers by up to 40%,” Powerlink acting interim chief executive Stewart Bell said, promising that “done well, congestion across our network will decrease.”

An all-electric Windrose prime mover has completed the country’s first-ever end-to-end delivery of a full load of consumer goods from distribution centre to customer door. The prime mover – which was electrified by zero-emission truck company New Energy Transport – covered 460km with 84% less cost than a diesel prime mover, and 25 minutes faster. But vehicle manufacturers say that differing state legislation on axle weights and load share is restricting the ability of electric trucks to realise their full potential in Australia's transport sector.

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Tasmania’s streak of years with net-zero emissions could be under threat, with the latest statutory review of the state’s Climate Change (State Action) Act 2008 finding that the state’s reliance on forestry-driven carbon sequestration and storage meant its net-zero status might not be maintained over time. The state claims to have achieved net-zero emissions in 2014, but in the face of steadily increasing real emissions the report warned that its reliance on accounting techniques rather than concrete changes could soon expose its net-zero status as “a temporary accounting outcome”. (ABC)