Anita, Gilles and Lachlan from ERM explain why corporate buyers can't count on abundant renewable supply, as expiring contracts, data centre growth, coal retirements and delivery risks converge on a 2030 contracting cliff in the NEM.
Anita, Gilles and Martin from ERM discuss how coal retirements, the proposed ESEM and new data centre obligations are shifting renewable offtakes beyond energy-only PPAs, rewarding sellers who can package energy, shaping and firming.
A summary of key takeaways from an Australian perspective at the 2026 CIGRE Paris session — where the ongoing challenges of IBR interactions and the impact of data centres appear to be consistent themes across power systems globally.
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).
At 07:56:24 local time on Wednesday 22nd July 2026 in PJM, the frequency spiked to ~60.1Hz in response to a ~3,000MW sudden drop in demand.
We appreciated the opportunity to host a table at the Queensland Energy Club lunch on Friday 22nd May 2026 in Brisbane.
From NERC on Monday 4th May 2026 is this Level 3 Alert published by NERC with respect to ‘Computational Load Modeling, Studies, Instrumentation, Commissioning, Operations, Protection, and Control’:
Through (late February and ) March 2026, there’s been a series of different publications from different organisations, domestically and internationally, relating to Large Loads (and specifically Data Centres).
On 30th March 2026, the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) has released this new white paper: ’Historical and Modern Large Loads Characteristics, Context, and Industry Actions to Meet Grid and Customer Needs’.
On 25th March 2026, the ESIG Large Loads task force released its 24-page report ‘Large Load Disturbance Events’:
On 3rd March 2026, the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG) has released the report ‘Large Load Performance Requirements – Current Practices and Recommendations’.
On 17th March 2026 the NERC published the 66-page ‘Aggregated Report on NERC Level 2 Industry Recommendation: Large Load Interconnection, Study, Commissioning, and Operations’.
On 11th March 2026, the NERC published the White Paper ‘Assessment of Gaps in Existing Practices, Requirements, and Reliability Standards for Emerging Large Loads’ published
On Monday 23rd March 2026, the Federal Government published ‘Expectations of data centres and AI infrastructure developers’ .
On 12th March 2026, the AEMC noted that they propose ‘... new grid standards for data centre connections’.
Mitch O'Neill examines how data centres have rapidly replaced hydrogen in planning models as the dominant new source of electricity demand, and what their power density and locational constraints may mean for the grid.
Dan provides his review for ACES 2025, and tries to answer some of the questions we were pondering going into the conference.
A primer ahead of the CEC’s Clean Energy Summit in Sydney next week, highlighting just a few of the many questions on our minds.
Warwick Forster looks at the evolving role of data centres in portfolio management and corporate sustainability ambitions.
A short note (and link to) the Mandala report titled ‘Empowering Australia’s Digital Future Data Centres: Essential digital infrastructure underpinning everyday life’.