Capital
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The NSW Government is spending $183.2 million on road upgrades to support the movement of oversize and over-mass vehicles transporting components for wind and solar projects. The upgrades will be targeted at identified pinch points and vary from road widening, relocating traffic signs, installing new turn lanes and extending drainage and culverts. The funding sum will be split with $50 million for roads in the the Central-West Orana renewable energy zone (REZ), $65 million for South-West REZ, and $68.2 million for New England REZ.
Snowy Hydro’s $1.3 billion Kurri Kurri gas power plant has been delayed yet again, with the Hunter region facility – already two years late and $690 million over budget – now set to come online in late May, based on AEMO data. Operators are also weighing deferring testing of the 660MW generator on diesel, given current supply issues.
Policy
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called a National Cabinet meeting for next Monday to discuss a nationally coordinated approach to fuel conservation with state premiers. It follows separate efforts by state governments including Western Australia and New South Wales to communicate the severity of the fuel crisis to the general public without causing alarm over potential fuel rationing policies, which Energy Minister Chris Bowen has so far said are unnecessary.
Australia’s port operators are warning of a generalised supply crisis if the federal government doesn’t improve their access to predictable supplies of diesel fuel by reclassifying stevedoring operations as a top priority under emergency fuel management provisions. Major port operator DP World Australia urged the industry to be temporarily escalated from its current ‘Tier 3’ designation to a ‘Tier 1’ designation that would, head Nicolaj Noes said, “maintain supply chain continuity and reduce market disruption.” (The Aus)
Japan would consider new LNG windfall taxes to be a blow to Australia’s reputation as a reliable energy partner, ambassador to Australia Kazuhiro Suzuki has hinted during a speech in which he warned that retrospective taxing “would be really bad news” and that “surprise…is always bad.” Unexpected changes could send Japanese investors to explore opportunities elsewhere, Suzuki has separately warned. (AFR)
The UK Government has barred Chinese turbine manufacturer Mingyang from building a turbine factory in Scotland or installing any of its products in British waters. The UK’s largest energy retailer Octopus Energy has slammed the decision, while rival manufacturer Vestas saw its share price surge. (Recharge News)
 Projects
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A shortlisted cohort of up to nine battery energy storage system (BESS) projects will begin to come online later this year, after Transgrid completed technical modelling and announced it is negotiating with BESS builders to help it select a battery fleet "that provides optimal value for NSW consumers”. Contracting for this service will help stabilise the grid, Transgrid executive general manager for network Jason Krstanoski said. Transgrid expects to source as much as 5GW of stabilising services from third-party owned batteries by 2033.
Tasmania’s opposition Labor and Greens parties have asked the State Government to explain how AI company Firmus has succeeded in securing a 104MW supply from energy retailer Aurora to support its new St Leonards data centre – a year after the state’s Boyer Paper Mill, one of Tasmania’s largest power consumers, was knocked back when it tried to secure an additional 45MW for the electrification of its coal-fired burners. Premier Jeremy Rockliff declined to provide more details but said that “AI is the future, we cannot stop it. We need to embrace the opportunity of a new industry, a clean industry coming to Tasmania.” (ABC)
Regulation
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WIth an eye on stopping potential price gouging at the pump, the federal government has passed legislation that doubles the penalties for false or misleading conduct and cartel behaviour across the economy. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill 2026 allows for such behaviour to attract fines of up to $100 million per offence, promising what treasurer Jim Chalmers called “even bigger penalties for servos and suppliers that rip off Australian motorists.”
Oil and gas services company Qteq has been fined $5 million, and its executive chairman Simon Ashton fined $1 million, after the Federal Court ruled on ACCC action alleging Ashton and Qteq tried to bring suppliers into cartel arrangements on five occasions between 2017 and 2019. The individual penalty against Ashton is the highest penalty ever awarded for a competition law breach by an individual in Australia. The contracts “included provisions not to supply services to large oil and gas companies, to rig a multi-million-dollar tender, and to market share,” ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in announcing the decision. “Each of Qteq’s attempts to secure these illegal arrangements was unsuccessful only because the other parties rejected Qteq’s offers.”
Gas production in Victoria is expected to fall by 52.8% by 2030, AEMO has forecast in its newly released 2026 Victorian Gas Planning Report (VGPR) – which also anticipates that daily supply capacity will drop by 35.2%, and annual consumption by 10.5%, over the same period. Adequate gas stores are expected to satisfy demand across southern Australia as winter peak demand periods approach.
In response to rule change requests from Yurika, PLUS ES, AEMO and Intellihub, the AEMC has published a draft determination that would address concerns that metering coordinators are finding it difficult to meet their obligations to test, inspect and repair meters when they face external issues such as a lack of site access or defects at metering installations. The rule change would oblige the person who appoints a metering coordinator to support meter maintenance obligations; expand the exemption framework for meter malfunctions; introduce an exemption framework for testing and exemptions; and oblige previous metering coordinators to share the most recent test certificate with new coordinators at a metering installation. Submissions are open until May 7.
Declared wholesale gas market (DWGM) participants would be able to provide cash as a form of credit support under the National Gas Rules (NGR), under a rule change request from Delta Electricity about which the Australian Energy Market Commission has published a consultation paper. The request comes as Delta argues bank guarantees – traditionally the only form of guarantee allowed under the NGR – are becoming increasingly difficult to source as financial institutions stop providing credit support to firms with exposure to fossil fuels. This, the company argues, could prevent otherwise profitable and solvent businesses from operating because they cannot provide credit support to AEMO. Submissions are open until April 30.
Technology
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Germany can develop a working fusion power plant by 2045, Claudia Eckert, president of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, acatech, has said in presenting a new roadmap that lays out technical hurdles and milestones for an effort she said would be a paradigm shift for the German fusion ecosystem. Reaching the milestone, she said, will require “massively accelerating the implementation of development steps, and pooling resources” as well as accelerating the training of skilled workers, constructing neutron sources, and the industrialisation of component production.
Climate
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India announced a long-awaited upgrade to its climate commitments pledging to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its electricity capacity to 60 per cent by 2035. The world’s most populous country has increased its climate targets, with India now aiming to generate 60% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035 – after reaching its previous target of 50% last year, five years before its previous targets. As outlined in the newly passed Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0), the government is also planning to reduce its emissions intensity by 47% by 2035, compared to 2005 levels.
