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The section pages show what is current in each part of the beat. This page lists everything we have published, so a story stays findable after it stops being news.
Generation + projects
Muswellbrook finished Australia’s first pilot 2G biorefinery. The market study commissioned for it says the fuel market is shrinking
Ethtec's Hunter Pilot Biorefinery at Muswellbrook was completed on budget, and is Australia's first pilot-scale second-generation ethanol project. The Arup market study commissioned by Ethtec and supported by ARENA reports NSW ethanol content in fuel sales fell from 2.3 per cent in 2021 to 2.1 per cent in 2024 against a legislated 6 per cent minimum, and names sustainable aviation fuel as the primary driver instead.
30 August 2026
Generation + projects
Singleton Council commented twice and backed it the third time. Its HVO submission puts closure at $4.8 billion
Singleton Council resolved on 21 July 2026 to formally support the Hunter Valley Operations North and South continuation projects and lodged a 13-page submission with the Independent Planning Commission. Its 2023 and 2024 submissions provided comment only and raised air quality, Scope 1 emissions, housing and mine closure concerns. The new submission models closure at a $4.795 billion output loss and 2,984 jobs in Singleton alone.
30 August 2026
Generation + projects
The decision on mining Hunter Valley Operations to 2042 and 2045 has slipped. The Commission asked for more time on 27 August
The Independent Planning Commission is determining whether HVO North and HVO South continue as open cut coal mines, extracting about 430 million tonnes of run-of-mine coal through to 2042 and 2045. Submissions closed on 5 August. On 27 August the Commission requested further information from the applicant and requested an extension of time. The outcome is listed as pending.
28 August 2026
Market + rules
Data centres want to connect more power than NSW uses on an average day. Who pays for that is open for comment until 14 September
As of July 2026 data centres are seeking NSW network connections totalling up to 28 GW, and about 13 GW of that is in advanced discussions. The NSW Government says 13 GW is more than the state's average daily electricity demand. It is consulting on rules to recover the network cost from data centre operators rather than households. Submissions close 14 September 2026 at 5pm.
28 August 2026
Market and rules
AEMO's first reliability run on Eraring's 2029 date finds no gap. It counts 26 GW of projects that are not committed
The 2026 Electricity Statement of Opportunities, published August 2026, is the first NEM reliability assessment built on Eraring closing in April 2029. It identifies no reliability gap requiring a T-1 or T-3 instrument. AEMO also states that the assessment included about 26 GW of anticipated projects, that without them a T-3 instrument would have been requested for New South Wales for 2029-30, and that because no T-3 is requested there is no opportunity to request a T-1 for that year later.
28 August 2026
Market + rules
The state's investment fast-track has endorsed 31 projects worth $86 billion. Two of them are in the Hunter
The NSW Investment Delivery Authority endorsed 16 projects worth $34.4 billion in March, then 15 data centre projects worth $51.9 billion three weeks later. AGL's Hunter energy hub at Muswellbrook and the Port of Newcastle clean energy precinct are on the list. A third, the Hunter Gas Pipeline, carries the region's name but is proposed for Narrabri. Endorsement is not an approval.
28 August 2026
Market and rules
All three NSW networks pushed back on the ring-fencing rule change. Only Ausgrid is arguing about kerbs
We read the Package 1 submissions from Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy to the AEMC's Electricity Network Regulation Review. All three decline to support Nexa Advisory's rule change on ring-fencing, in three different registers. And on kerbside EV charging the split is stark: Ausgrid mentions kerbside 48 times and wants to solve the overnight home charge problem, while Essential Energy, which covers 95 per cent of NSW, does not mention it once.
26 August 2026
Generation + projects
The Tomago deal is a generation deal. It underpins nearly 3 gigawatts of new build
The $2.5 billion joint federal and NSW package for Tomago Aluminium was announced on 13 August 2026 as a jobs story. Read as an energy document it says something else: the investment underpins nearly 3 gigawatts of new renewable generation and firming capacity, sets up a demand-response programme at Australia's largest single electricity user, and turns on a contract that expires 31 December 2028.
25 August 2026
Networks
The Hunter line is on the landholder payments list under a name nobody here uses
The Strategic Benefit Payment Guidelines list the Hunter Transmission Project as Sydney Ring North. Its project operator is still to be appointed and its delivery status is network planning.
24 August 2026
Market and rules
The rules that set the biggest part of your power bill are under review, and submissions close 24 September
The AEMC's Electricity Network Regulation Review Package 2 consultation paper, published 13 August 2026, asks three questions about how network revenue is set, how networks are rewarded, and who carries risk. Network costs are the largest component of a power bill. Submissions are open until 24 September 2026.
20 August 2026
Generation + projects
Snowy Hydro says testing issues stopped Kurri Kurri starting on diesel. Its own calendar now shows no testing at all in August
Snowy Hydro's community updates page, updated 14 August 2026, says issues during recent testing prevented Kurri Kurri Power Station from fully starting up on its backup diesel fuel. The schedule published on the same page marks every day of August as no planned testing, with diesel testing on GT1 resuming 31 August to 9 September. In July the company said the diesel phase would run about four weeks from 16 July.
18 August 2026
Market + rules
The energy regulator names its priorities a year ahead. We checked all five against what it did
In July 2025 the AER published five compliance and enforcement priorities for 2025-26. Its 2025-26 report, released 30 July 2026, reports against each one in order, which makes the promise checkable. One produced completed enforcement, one produced live court proceedings, and three produced review, guidance, letters and monitoring. The AER has also decided to review its priorities every two years instead of every year.
17 August 2026
Networks + transmission
486 businesses can help build the Hunter’s transmission. Fifty of them can manufacture it
The Net Zero Economy Authority has counted, for the first time, who in the Hunter and Central Coast can work on transmission infrastructure. The answer is 486 businesses, of which 399 are mapped to service provision and 50 to manufacturing. What the count says, where the numbers disagree with each other, and the three components ICN says the region has a real case to make.
16 August 2026
Market + rules
Three of the biggest retailers, one Centrepay problem
The AER's 2025-26 compliance report puts AGL, Alinta and Origin in the same paragraph for the same thing: overcharging customers who pay through Centrepay. AGL was ordered to pay $25 million in 2024 and has appealed, with judgment reserved; Alinta paid $1.089 million after 15 infringement notices; and proceedings against Origin are before the Federal Court.
10 August 2026
Market + rules
The incentive that made transmission companies mind the wholesale price has been suspended, and the replacement is not due until late 2026
Version 6 of the AER's service target scheme suspends the Market Impact Component. A working group is looking for a replacement and reports by late 2026, which is the same window in which the Hunter connects its REZ, its batteries and its interconnectors.
5 August 2026
Market + rules
The five-year decision on what Transgrid can charge has started. Three parties made a submission
The AER published its Framework and Approach on 31 July, opening the determination that sets Transgrid's allowed revenue from July 2028 to June 2033. The first consultation drew no submissions at all. The second drew three, one of them from Transgrid.
4 August 2026
Local data
A full year of Hunter home batteries: 10,942 systems, and why June looks like a crash and is not
The first complete year of the federal home-battery scheme in the Hunter: 10,942 systems and 282,500 kWh across 29 postcodes. Comparing the Regulator's June workbook against its May one turns the reporting-lag warning into a measurement: the newest month undercounts by 78 per cent and takes about three months to settle.
3 August 2026
Networks + transmission
The Hunter Transmission Project has one of its two approvals. Construction still waits on Canberra
NSW has granted planning approval for the 110 km, 500 kV Hunter Transmission Project. Our ladder said it needed two ministers; this is the first. EnergyCo's own release says construction, expected to start late 2026, remains subject to Commonwealth approval. Affected private properties fell from around 70 to fewer than 20 after community feedback.
31 July 2026
Generation + projects
A 750 MW power station is burning diesel overnight at Kurri Kurri. That is what final commissioning looks like.
Snowy Hydro says final commissioning of Kurri Kurri Power Station began on or after 16 July 2026: back-up diesel testing, overnight, one generator at a time, for about four weeks, with a visible plume and odour. Its own page also says the impacts of recent testing are under investigation. The licence caps the station at 1,100 hours a year, and it is commissioning into the weakest quarter for gas generation since 1999.
28 July 2026
Local data
Bayswater and Eraring are running less, not breaking down more
AEMO's station-level data shows the Hunter's coal plants with rising availability but falling utilisation. Updated with Q2 2026: NSW black-coal output fell 4.1 per cent while availability rose 12 per cent, and utilisation fell at every NSW station. The numbers, from AEMO's own tables, with methodology.
18 July 2026
Local data
Thirteen months, 11,905 home batteries: the Hunter’s install data, postcode by postcode
Clean Energy Regulator postcode data shows 11,905 home batteries installed across Hunter postcodes in the scheme's first thirteen months, on top of 98,707 rooftop solar systems since 2001. Maitland's 2320 leads both counts. The monthly series and postcode table, charted from the Regulator's own workbooks, with the 12-month reporting-lag caveat explained.
18 July 2026
Generation + projects
The Eraring battery has quietly become a four-stage, 3,160 megawatt hour build
Origin's own stage table shows the Eraring battery growing from the 700 MW / 2,800 MWh project first assessed in 2022 to 700 MW / 3,160 MWh across four stages: the megawatts stayed put and the hours deepened. Battery 1 is complete and operating; Battery 2 targets Q1 2027. The full table, charted and dated, with sources.
18 July 2026
Generation + projects
Liddell’s stacks are down, and the battery replacing them is due about now
AGL demolished Liddell Power Station's 169-metre chimney stacks on 26 May 2026, and its $750 million, 500 MW Liddell Battery finished construction with full commercial operations expected by July 2026, a date that has moved across AGL's own statements from early 2026 to June to July. What AGL says is happening on the site, fully sourced.
18 July 2026
Generation + projects
Two offers in four days: Origin puts a $150 million number on Eraring’s coal
Origin says it offered Centennial Coal a 12-month and then a three-year contract for Myuna Colliery's coal at existing terms, and says Centennial's pricing demand is about $50 million a year above market. Myuna supplies all of Eraring's coal, the plant closes in April 2029, and the federal jobs authority has since asked the Fair Work Commission to cover both companies' workers. Every claim linked to its source.
18 July 2026
Market + rules
AEMO’s paperwork carries two Eraring closure dates. Its modelling is calmer than the talk
AEMO's 2025 reliability outlook still models Eraring closing in August 2027; its 2026 Integrated System Plan uses Origin's April 2029. Read side by side, with the dates attributed, the striking finding survives both: AEMO's own modelling forecasts no NSW capacity gap at Eraring's exit. The forecast NSW gap arrives 2033-34, triggered by Bayswater and Vales Point retiring. Documents linked and dated.
18 July 2026
Networks + transmission
Four transmission projects will shape the Hunter grid’s next decade. Exactly one is committed
AEMO's 2026 Integrated System Plan sorts the Hunter's transmission pipeline onto a status ladder: the Hunter-Central Coast REZ network project is committed for 2028, the 110 km Hunter Transmission Project is actionable for 2029 and needs two ministers' approval, a 692 km New England link through Bayswater is anticipated for 2034, and a $327-636 million expansion toward the Tomago smelter is still an option. Each rung, dated, costed and sourced.
18 July 2026
Networks + transmission
Stage 1 of the Hunter’s renewable energy zone network is finished. Here is what was actually built
EnergyCo says the first stage of the Ausgrid-delivered Hunter-Central Coast REZ network upgrade is complete: fibre-optic communications linking three Upper Hunter switching stations, 350 MW of the eventual 1 GW by 2028. What was built, the verified 590 and 220 jobs figures, and the 40 GW of commercial interest queued behind 1 GW of capacity. Fully sourced.
18 July 2026