Rulemaker warns current 'patchwork' of policies won't fix power prices

The energy market rule maker has slammed the government’s "patchwork" approach to policy, warning a focus on short term fixes was undermining the prospect of lasting solutions to high power prices.

PM Scott Morrison has hitched his wagon to "fair dinkum" power.

The Australian Energy Market Commission's submission to a senate inquiry into the federal government’s so-called Fair Dinkum Energy policy, released on Friday, offers a withering assessment of the state of play.

The government's policy proposals include a regulated basic electricity price for households and the power to break up companies found to be behaving poorly in the market.

It unveiled the policies after ditching the National Energy Guarantee, which enjoyed widespread support from many stakeholders, and in the wake of an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s electricity review which found the energy market was ‘broken’ and not operating in customers interest.

Read the story from The Age by Cole Latimer - “Rulemaker warns current 'patchwork' of policies won't fix power prices.”

AEMC admits, reluctantly, the renewables will push prices down

Australia’s principal rule maker, the Australian Energy Market Commission, has belatedly admitted that the much delayed surge in investment in wind and solar will cause wholesale electricity prices to fall in Australia, but it is clearly not happy about it.

In a report that appears to be deliberately misleading about the impacts of wind and solar, the costs of coal generation, and the impacts on wholesale prices, the AEMC says that rises in consumer bills this year, due to the jump in wholesale prices, should be reversed in the next couple of years.

The fall in wholesale prices from the influx of renewable energy has long been predicted by most analyses, but its impact has been delayed because of attempts – supported by the AEMC – to kill the renewable energy target, causing an effective three-year investment strike.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Giles Parkinson - “AEMC admits, reluctantly, the renewables will push prices down.”