Australia politics live: household energy bills to fall up to 10% in July as renewables, batteries soar; WiseTech staff face AI redundancy

Australia now the world’s third-biggest nation for utility-scale batteries behind China and the US. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast ‘This is very good value for money for Australia’: Bowen defends COP role Chris Bowen , who has also taken on the role of president of negotiations at the Cop climate summit, says that Australia’s involvement is “very good value for money”. Mr T [is] out there saying it’s $200m. He’s lying. Secondly, these things do cost money. It cost money when John Howard chaired Apec. It cost money when Tony Abbott chaired G20. They were good for the country and the Labor party supported them because we’re a patriotic party. So this is an opportunity for Australia to play an outsized role in the climate negotiations. This is a 12-month presidency. Most of the money has not yet been spent to answer your question, Mel. This is very good value for money for Australia. More Renewable Energy in the grid; Renewable batteries absorbing some of the coal and gas being used at peak times during the night; Reforming the default market offer to ensure “that only the absolutely necessary prices or costs are included.” What we’re seeing is batteries working to what we call flatten the peak. So the biggest pressure on prices is in the night-time when coal and gas are called upon more. When we’re calling on batteries more, which saves the renewables from the middle of the day for the night, that is really putting very significant downward pressure on prices. There have been impacts on gas production but we’re really mainly seeing the impact on oil at the moment. But we’re not complacent. Continue reading...