Australian Energy Week 2025 puts costs, customers and confidence centre stage

Even more than in past years the focus of Australian Energy Week 2025 was on customers and costs as a critical part of the energy transition.

The event in Melbourne in mid-June drew more than 1,250 attendees to hear 150 speakers.

"The future is creeping up on us": Regulatory reform and system reliability under scrutiny

Anna Collyer, chair of the Australian Energy Market Commission, summed up a key thread of the conference when she told participants: "The future is creeping up on us and we have no choice but to deal with the known unknowns of the energy transition if we are going achieve better customer outcomes.”

Meanwhile Damien Nicks, chief executive of AGL, told attendees: “The opportunity to get regulation right is enormous. There are too many layers, and if we don’t get regulation right today the transition is going to get harder to deliver and at a cost to the customer.”

Industry leaders call for smarter systems, better buffers, and lower bills

A former head of AGL now chief executive of Transgrid, Brett Redman, declared “it is time to put more buffer back into the system.”

Redman said “We’ve really stripped the supply system very, very thin. We are in a world now where you cannot predict exactly what will happen.”

He added: “Because we’ve stripped out all our buffers, it’s left us fairly exposed. And the risk to transition is that people lose confidence in the system. Because on those days where things go wrong, no one’s going to want to hear explained to them how statistically that seemed very unlikely... even as people are taking cold showers.”

Redman said: “We need to bring in the new capacity while maintaining the old capacity, so we maintain reliability through the transition. If we don't get this right, we end up in difficult situations. To add some cushion for consumers and industry, we have to think about further accelerating the rollout of transmission, additional gas peaking and carefully planning for the maintenance and retirement of coal.”

EnergyAustralia managing director Mark Collette posed a key question for the conference: “What will make energy cheaper?” He said the supply sector needs to focus on designing smarter systems that reward customers, reducing infrastructure needs and "making better use of what we already have” — adding that “cheaper energy is not just about lower bills; it is about creating an energy system that underpins future industry, supports Australian productivity and improves lives".

Bowen pledges regulatory overhaul and accelerated investment

These views came as federal Climate & Energy Minister Chris Bowen appeared before the conference audience to acknowledge that the “default market offer” imposed by regulation is not working as intended in putting downward pressure on retail electricity prices and in forcing greater competition among retailers. “We have work under way to deliver a better regulated pricing mechanism which will put downward pressure on electricity bills and also ensure the energy market better utilises the huge uptake of rooftop solar and batteries,” he said.

Bowen also used his address to announce that the federal government will act to shorten the assessment time for tenders for new projects under its capacity investment scheme. 

He said the government’s target of achieving 82 per cent renewable generation by 2030 remains “ambitious and achievable,” adding that ““we need to get renewables and storage online for a more affordable, more reliable system.”

He also acknowledged that the renewables sector "still faces hurdles, including social license challenges, workforce constraints and approval times,” which, he said, are being addressed through the work of Australian Energy Infrastructure Commission. 

Coordinated reform the key to delivering a reliable, affordable transition

The conversations at Australian Energy Week 2025 made one thing clear: while the energy transition is advancing, its success depends on maintaining public confidence, affordability, and system resilience. Speakers from across the sector highlighted the urgent need to better coordinate regulation, investment and system design to avoid unnecessary costs and disruptions. The message from Melbourne was unmistakable: achieving the 2030 renewable energy target remains possible—but only if reforms align with customer needs and new infrastructure is delivered at pace.