Two major pieces of work landed with a thud this week in the form of the market operator’s draft integrated system plan and the rule maker’s draft pricing review.

This week was all about data centres and system security. The 2025 Transition Plan for System Security from the Australian Energy Market Operator issued a warning on shortfalls in investment as the market decouples from a reliance on coal generators for system security. While the demand from data centres, while significant, might not be as bad as the numbers suggest.

This week the pre-Christmas deluge took hold with an eleventh-hour deal on environment protection laws, a rethink on the reliability standard and fresh warnings of the step-up in projects needed to meet emissions reduction goals.

This week saw a COPitulation and a call from bankers to stay the course on net zero.

Bipartisan support for net zero was fractured, and we learnt Australia’s biggest battery project might not be the shock absorber planners were expecting it to be, in a week that saw the energy wars return to the front page of major mastheads.

A Melbourne Cup day announcement of free electricity during the solar peak became the front runner for energy surprise of the year as insiders warned of unintended consequences.

This week the home battery program hit new highs while grid-scale wind and solar projects reaching a final investment decision hit a new low.

This week started with a landmark critical minerals deal with the US and ended with warnings the deal would fail to pay off if long awaited environmental planning reforms fail to pass parliament.