The federal government has commenced a review into how Australia’s largest electricity grid, the National Electricity Market (NEM), will operate in the coming decades.
An expert independent panel, led by Associate Professor Tim Nelson, with Paula Conboy, Ava Hancock and Philip Hirschhorn, will undertake widespread consultation and make its final recommendations to Energy and Climate Ministers in late 2025.
The panel will look at National Energy Market (NEM) wholesale market settings to ensure the market promotes investment in firmed renewable energy generation and storage capacity into the 2030s and beyond.
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The NEM is one of the world’s largest interconnected networks with around 40,000km of transmission lines and cables and supplying electricity to more than 23 million people.
It covers all states and territories apart from Western Australia and the Northern Territory and was originally designed to support a baseload power grid predominantly fuelled by coal generators.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said, “The review will provide a comprehensive assessment of what the market will need next, once the current CIS tenders end in 2027, to ensure that investment pipeline remains strong.
“We’re doing the work now to ensure our grid will be stable and there will be enough clean, cheap, reliable renewable generation and storage to power Australia’s needs.”
Dan Cass, executive director of electrification advocacy group Rewiring Australia, said the government’s review of the National Electricity Market (NEM) must deliver a “new deal” for consumers to deliver permanent cost of living relief.
“Australia desperately needs a new deal in energy markets that puts consumers on the same footing as institutional investors and big energy companies,” Cass said.
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“Consumers are the biggest and most reliable investor in new energy capacity through solar, batteries, electric appliances and electric cars.
“Over the next 20 years everyday Australians will invest up to eight times more in energy technologies including EVs than big institutional investors. They must be front and centre of this transition.
“The Australian Government is right to establish this review because Australia’s energy system urgently needs a complete overhaul or it will continue to be plagued by supply shortfalls and price gouging driven by unreliable and dirty coal power stations.”
