The real lesson from South Australia’s electricity ‘crisis’: we need better climate policy

The Grattan Institute says we
 need better climate policies.

Australia’s energy markets got a big shock in July this year, when wholesale electricity prices spiked in South Australia, alarming the state government and major industrial customers. Commentators rushed to find the immediate culprits. But the real issues lie elsewhere.

As shown by the Grattan Institute’s latest report the market worked. Having soared, prices fell back to more manageable levels. The lights stayed on.

Yet South Australia’s power shock exposed a looming problem in Australia’s electricity system – not high prices or the threat of blackouts, but an emerging conflict between Australia’s climate change policies and the demands of our energy market.

Read the piece on The Conversation from the Program Director, Energy, at the Grattan Institute, Tony Wood - “The real lesson from South Australia’s electricity ‘crisis’: we need better climate policy.”