With up to $10 million of funding from ARENA, TasNetworks is investigating how further Bass Strait interconnection might form a key part of Australia’s future electricity and telecommunications grid.

Increasing renewable generation does create challenges for managing the power system. But energy market authorities have taken significant steps since the SA blackout to ready the grid ready for a future with much more wind and solar generation. This report identifies further necessary reforms.

This research shows that gas and coal power plants broke down 135 times in 2018, breaking down at a rate of once every 2.7 days. While this could be expected of an aging coal fleet, the analysis shows that Australia’s newest coal power plants (so-called “HELE” plants) are faring just as poorly.

Australia’s newest coal plants, including ‘supercritical’ or so-called ‘High Efficiency, Low Emissions’ generators, have higher breakdown rates per gigawatt than older power stations, according to this research from the Australia Institute.

As heatwaves across Australia heighten concern for high electricity prices as households try and stay cool, this research argues that the problem in electricity pricing is structural, and the Prime Minister’s proposed ‘big stick’ approach to breaking up electricity companies will likely exacerbate the problem, rather than fix it.