AEMO Head Avoids Endorsing a Government Guarantee that Renewables will Reduce Energy Prices – Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

The Australian Energy Market Operator, the industry body tasked with overseeing electricity supplies in East Coast Australia, has shied away from endorsing an Aussie government claim that renewables will reduce prices.

The full video is well worth watching, the commentators go into an in depth explanation of why renewables are the most expensive form of power, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

The guy in the screenshot above is Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, who persists in claiming if you spend enough money on renewables prices will come down – a view apparently not shared by the head of the Australian Energy Market Operator Daniel Westerman.

The senator who pushed AEMO head Daniel Westerman into giving a straight answer on whether he endorsed the view renewables will bring down prices was LNP Federal Senator Matt Canavan, whom I spoke to in person at the recent Aussie CPAC conference. Matt Canavan together with my local MP Keith Pitt appear to be leading an effort to bring a sensible discussion about coal back into mainstream Aussie politics.