{"id":393531,"date":"2025-08-07T08:59:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T06:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=393531"},"modified":"2025-08-07T09:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T07:00:03","slug":"australia-becomes-a-top-five-battery-nation-just-as-we-find-out-how-expensive-batteries-are-478-mwh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=393531","title":{"rendered":"Australia becomes a Top Five Battery Nation just as we find out how expensive batteries are \u2014 $478\/MWh!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Battery prices on fire in Australia last quarter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Renewable Crash Test Dummy suffers yet another nasty price surprise. We have more batteries than last year but the average price per megawatt hour has doubled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June there were a few hellfire price spikes where the prices on the National Energy Market launched up to an obscene $10,000 a megawatt-hour and then levitated there for hour after hour. These spikes had a width like we rarely see. Now, with the latest AEMO Quarterly Report<\/a> we know that the spikes were due to the batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the left, the price spike of June 26th. On the right, the timing of the battery discharging\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And just so everyone can see how much energy the batteries provided \u2014 note the patch marked \u201cBattery\u201d below in the daily load curve of June 26th.\u00a0 The black line across the top is \u201ctotal demand\u201d. Most of the area under that curve was provided by the evil, but reliable, fossil fuels. Batteries contributed just 0.7% of total NEM generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Graph<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These spikes were so bad they moved the quarterly average costs<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The average daily price for June 26th was 24 long hours at $1,408\/MWh. It was the fourth highest price day in NEM history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quarter two used to be the sleepy shoulder season for grid managers, now it\u2019s a white-knuckle ride. Below are the winning bids on the national market graphed by their fuel type. In Quarter 2 last year when batteries won bids the whole market earned, on average $245\/MWh. But in Quarter 2 this year, batteries won a higher percentage of the time (because we ran out of cheaper options), and the average winning bid was $478\/MWh.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Bar<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

If only we\u2019d built another gas plant instead of buying big batteries and then burning money on $600 million dollar <\/a>price spikes<\/a>.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The gas plants saved the day (somewhat) with prices of $170\/MWh \u2014 or nearly a third of the price of the Big Batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that brown coal prices also jumped from $12\/MWh last year to $59\/MWh this year \u2014 showing that even after the price quadrupled, brown coal is still cheap. (Ignore the negative prices on solar and wind power, which just show how subsidized they are.)  We could run the whole grid on brown and black coal if we wanted to \u2014 with a peaking gas plant or two \u2014 just like we did for decades when electricity bills were cheap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you afford to set up an AI Data centre in Australia \u2014 it depends on the weather<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Quarter 2 is now the most expensive quarter of the year, and very weather dependent. Things were warm and sunny in April and May and prices were only three times what they used to be twenty years ago.<\/a> The real bonfire was in June when a few cold fronts were followed by chilly windless days. Look at the difference in those monthly prices!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Bar<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Poor Giles Parkinson at Reneweconomy<\/em> thought batteries would reduce the price spikes, not exacerbate them. The big hope, of course, is that batteries will save the forced transition, and make solar and wind power more useful. He is baffled and disappointed that market players are doing what market players do, and are trying to maximize profits. (Don\u2019t they realize that thousands of renewable grifters depend on the illusion that batteries are cheap?)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bad bidding behaviour: Big batteries the dominant force as daily electricity prices pushed to record highs<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Reneweconomy<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia\u2019s growing fleet of big batteries are now entrenching themselves as the major force behind the huge price spikes that have become a regular feature of Australia\u2019s National Electricity Market, and which were the dominant factor in soaring wholesale prices in the June quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big batteries had been expected to be a softening influence on price spikes on the grid, given their cost of fuel (charging) is significantly lower than peaking gas stations, and based on the assumption that they would bring new competition to the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But market power is market power, whatever the technology that is deployed. The costs of battery storage may well have fallen, but their market power has grown, and so has their asking price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s perhaps proof, if any was needed, that the owners of big batteries will not behave any differently from the owners of peaking gas and pumped hydro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s largely because they are one and the same group, the same oligopolists who have dominated the grid for decade<\/strong>s, and they are not about to break their addiction to unchecked market power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Giles, those same oligopolists gave us cheap electricity for decades until we screwed up the free market and tried to turn it into a socialist weather-control machine. That\u2019s the point of free market competition. It makes greedy people work for the greater good. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You cheered on the oligopolists when they drove cheap coal fired plants out so they could profit from subsidized wind and solar plants in a rigged market. Reap what you sow, eh? Did you think they would be nice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the government started to pick winners, subsidize losers, and allow predatory giants (and foreign interests) to have cross ownership of competing generators there is no free market and the whole country gets screwed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFERENCE<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

AEMO Quarterly Report 2, 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Renewable Crash Test Dummy suffers yet another nasty price surprise. We have more batteries than last year but the average price per megawatt hour has doubled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":393541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"Discover how Australia's big battery costs surged as they dominate the energy market, causing unprecedented price spikes in Q2 2025.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Australia's Big Battery Surge: Prices and Market Dynamics","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691822666,691818216,691822719,691819691,691837077],"class_list":{"0":"post-393531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-big-batteries","11":"tag-electricity-prices","12":"tag-national-energy-market","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0AQP6DlaW0MbKO6NfZtEhzYGBTFKQuPAkS5DpWMo2tl91UCd7bFsWz5TJ5dmEGy6-bLG115GkMtlGMIuAbkdqZorPqzd9hYeWBWUVxGkUWkmkab8_K5d1rKMqSun66wqWPUDPYJK9bjD0DFDfRZYJDUFGFCpP-1.jpeg?fit=1280%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1Enh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":215869,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=215869","url_meta":{"origin":393531,"position":0},"title":"Aussie Senator Malcolm Roberts Slams False Net Zero Inflation Claims","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"27\/08\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"WIND AND SOLAR CANNOT SOLVE HIGH POWER PRICES AND INFLATION","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-1236.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-1236.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-1236.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-1236.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/image-1236.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":219987,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=219987","url_meta":{"origin":393531,"position":1},"title":"Net-Zero Nonsense: Nothing Cheap About Mandated CO2 Emissions Reduction Targets","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Net-zero carbon dioxide emissions targets are just the latest woke wheeze to grip our political betters.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1036.png?fit=743%2C503&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1036.png?fit=743%2C503&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1036.png?fit=743%2C503&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1036.png?fit=743%2C503&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":211154,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=211154","url_meta":{"origin":393531,"position":2},"title":"Claim: \u201cAction on climate change is action on the cost of living\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"31\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Essay by Eric Worrall According to the Climate Council, climate action will solve Australia\u2019s skyrocketing cost of living. 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