Paul was one of the founders of Global-Roam in February 2000. He is currently the CEO of the company and the principal author of WattClarity. Writing for WattClarity has become a natural extension of his work in understanding the electricity market, enabling him to lead the team in developing better software for clients.
Before co-founding the company, Paul worked as a Mechanical Engineer for the Queensland Electricity Commission in the early 1990s. He also gained international experience in Japan, the United States, Canada, the UK, and Argentina as part of his ES Cornwall Memorial Scholarship.
Recent events in the NEM are causing me to wonder whether we’ve suspended logic, and reason, in charting a workable course through this energy transition?
With four of our team attending CEC ACES in Sydney this coming week, here’s an interim guide to 14 observations we’ve made in Conference Season for Winter 2026 (to date).
Following the published note of scepticism/concern about the energy transition from several industry CEOs in the AFR on Friday, we take a quick look at the replacement capacity needs just for Loy Yang A power station to illustrate the enormous scale of the challenge.
2 Commentson "ABC reports ‘Rio Tinto’s Gladstone coal-fired power station could be retired early’"
This is just the usual posturing we are seeing from industry claiming they will shut down and then having the Government throw money at them to stay open.
Very blatant that they choose to make this announcement with the new QLD Energy Plan to be released in less than a fortnight.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/01/gladstone-queensland-biggest-coal-fired-power-station-could-close-six-years-early
Alison Reeve from the Grattan Institute just told ABC News that power mainly goes to alu smelters which need reliable supply 14/7
When you look at the last 7 days “baseload” was 550 MW. But Gladstone also provided up to 1,230 MW during peak demand
This is just the usual posturing we are seeing from industry claiming they will shut down and then having the Government throw money at them to stay open.
Very blatant that they choose to make this announcement with the new QLD Energy Plan to be released in less than a fortnight.