Wholesale electricity prices have fallen, despite a record high winter electricity demand, because of rooftop solar, wind turbines, large-scale solar, and battery storage.
The latest quarterly Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) report shows wholesale spot prices fell 27 per cent compared to the July to September period last year.
The wholesale price was also down 15 per cent compared with April-June.
The market operator’s national Energy Market excludes WA and the NT. Electricity generators bid to supply the market operator, and AEMO pushes out the cheapest option every five minutes to match demand.
The wholesale market prices influence, but do not set retail prices.
While the July-September energy usage set a new record high, the weather was relatively warm, reducing heating needs.
AEMO policy general manager, Violette Mouchaileh, said increased battery charging and discharging contributed to “significantly lower evening peak prices”.
“Electricity use continues to grow, but more solar and storage is changing when energy is produced, drawn from the grid and shifted across the day.
“Batteries continue to shift record amounts of renewable energy into the higher-demand evening period, when households and businesses typically need more power.”
Victoria stood out as the most power-hungry state in the three month period, accounting for almost all of the 1.3 per cent year-on-year demand growth.
The market operator puts this down to “ongoing electrification”, higher industrial demand, and rising data centre consumption.
Renewable energy generation surpassed gas for the first time too.
The operator’s data shows households with rooftop solar and batteries are drawing three-quarters less electricity from the grid burning the evening peak, compared to homes with only solar.
Fossil fuel use is also decreasing. Gas-fired generation fell 34 per cent to its lowest July-September reading since 2000.
Black coal generation fell 2.9 per cent, though brown coal generation was up 8.9 per cent.
The whole grid’s total emissions and emissions intensity was broadly unchanged.