The Australian Energy Council’s Chief Executive Sarah McNamara says there are multiple factors affecting the developing energy crisis.
“There are a number of factors at play here that have all happened at once,” she told Sky News host Chris Kenny.
The short-term domestic factors are insufficient onshore gas development, unexpected coal plant maintenance outages, global gas and coal shortages due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and reduced energy production from renewables in the cooler months.
“All of these factors have put upward pressure on the wholesale market price, and we’re grappling with the impacts of that now.”
Ms McNamara said the improvement of coal plant maintenance processes may see the situation “get a little bit better” in the coming months.
“Really though, we’re going to need to ride this one out.
“Fortunately, most of the market is contracted, and retailers do hedge their risks to protect customers from the full force of the wholesale market price spikes,” she said.
