Colin Packham

Australia’s electricity grid must be dramatically overhauled, with planning powers shifted to the states and away from national energy agencies, opposition spokesman Dan Tehan says, as tension erupts over rising network costs and investor profits.

Power retailer Zen Energy, the brainchild of renewables evangelist Ross Garnaut, faces an uncertain future after the loss-making business sunk deeper into the red, and a sale campaign failed to unearth a rescuer.

The major fire at the Geelong refinery – a facility which supplies half of Victoria’s and 10 per cent of the nation’s fuel – has been blamed on equipment failure and could disrupt production for months.

The major fire at the Geelong refinery – a facility which supplies half of Victoria’s and 10 per cent of the nation’s fuel – has been blamed on equipment failure and could disrupt production for months.

Australia is at risk of under-building long-duration energy storage as governments back batteries that last hours, not days.

Santos will scale back spending across parts of its domestic gas business and redirect capital towards higher-margin LNG and oil projects

ExxonMobil’s reported interest in Woodside Energy has reignited debate about the future of Australia’s largest oil and gas producer, with investors and industry observers assessing whether a leadership transition and a subdued share price have left the company more exposed to takeover interest than at any point in recent years.

Queensland has spent $140m overhauling two coal-fired generators at Callide Power Station as it seeks to draw a line under years of breakdowns, outages and one of the most serious failures in the state’s electricity system.

The Italian contractor building the troubled Snowy 2.0 may still reap higher profit margins from the development amid an intensifying battle over who bears the cost of any fresh blowout on Australia’s biggest renewable energy project.

Australia’s corporate leaders have warned the country’s energy capacity will struggle to support the growth of power-guzzling data centres, posing a potential roadblock to the march of artificial intelligence.