Australia's top polluter bets on batteries as fossil fuel costs climb
The electricity and gas giant was hit by a sharp investor sell-off on Wednesday, sending its share price sliding as much as 13 per cent, after posting earnings that missed market expectations and signalling its profit could fall further next year amid the rising cost of sourcing the fossil fuels it needs to keep producing power.
While AGL attributed the past year's earnings slump mainly to lower wholesale electricity prices and its decision not to fully pass on cost increases to its 4 million-plus customers, a series of planned and unplanned outages across its fleet of power stations had left the business unable to benefit from periods of higher wholesale prices, analysts said.
AGL chief executive Damien Nicks pointed to the stronger performance and financial contribution of the company's rapidly growing fleet of grid-scale batteries, which along with hydropower and gas-powered generators were increasing the 'flexibility' of its portfolio and mitigating the impact of coal plant outages.
'We saw the performance of our flexible asset fleet really coming into its own,' Nicks said.
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'Those flexible assets are doing exactly what we intend for them to be doing – the response of the batteries was fantastic.'
With response times measured in split seconds, grid-scale batteries are seen as essential to Australia's green energy shift because of their ability to soak up surplus renewable output in daylight hours and use it to plug gaps at later times or provide other services to stabilise the system during unexpected outages.
AGL has two batteries operating at Torrens in South Australia and Broken Hill in NSW, with another at the site of its decommissioned Liddell coal plant due to come online next year. Nicks said earnings from AGL's battery fleet would 'more than offset' the added costs it expected from negotiating coal and gas agreements at higher prices in the next three years.
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This gobsmacking four-day working week proposal sets us back 25 years
The ACTU's gobsmacking proposal for a national four-day working week would take our country's productivity back a quarter of a century, drive businesses to the wall and turn us into an uncompetitive international laughing stock. The idea that businesses could afford to pay the same for 20 per cent less output, while meeting customer demand and keep costs down for consumers is simply ludicrous. Anyone with a sense of self-awareness knows we face challenging times: poor productivity, major technological change, massive global upheaval, skills and labour shortages and more. Now is the time to work smarter, not less, to keep us competitive and economically viable. This proposal, less than a week before the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable to discuss boosting productivity and improving economic settings, simply fails the pub test. Fortunately, the federal government has been quick to kick it into the long grass where it should remain. The notion that paying people the same to work 20 per cent less means they will be more productive when they do work just doesn't stack up. It unfortunately shows the ACTU is not serious about identifying what is good for Australian workers or the community. At the current rate of productivity growth, it would take more than 25 years to generate enough productivity for business to break even with the proposal. That's a quarter of a century to get our productivity back to where it is now, while the rest of the world powers ahead. This would commit an entire generation's worth of national productivity gains to a union frolic, when so many other urgent and pressing issues need more investment in our country. If the unions were serious about increased workplace flexibility, they could have gone to the Fair Work Commission and proposed it as part of renegotiation of awards. This would open a proper discussion on trade-offs which link flexibility to productivity improvements. We need more flexible workplaces. Employers want it and many employees want it. One obvious area of need is to give both more options to change working times by agreement. Neither business nor workers benefit when rigid hours are forced on them. But this isn't where the ACTU went. They've simply tried to create a media headline by throwing out an unrealistic claim lacking any evidence or realistic prospect. They cited a small academic study whose authors concede they can't verify there would actually be economy-wide productivity gains. This isn't the serious and good faith discussion required at next week's Roundtable. This followed on from the Victorian government plan to give employees a legislated right to work two days a week from home. It seems the union movement and some in government don't want Australians to work at all. They want to turn back time, cut productivity and make Australia less attractive to much-needed investment. It also comes at a time when the country is desperately short of workers with the right skills for our needs. More than 340,000 jobs currently sit vacant - around 100,000 more than normal - and a third of the labour force work in occupations classified as in national supply shortage. Standing down 20 per cent of our workforce capacity will only make the skills shortages cruelling our industries - particularly in regional Australia - that much worse. This is reckless and irresponsible and seeks to prioritise feel-good headlines over sound policy and economic management. It would have serious impacts across the country, in particular in our regions, harming working people, businesses of all sizes and local communities. It also comes at a time when the Australian government is rightly trying to focus on doing the opposite - lifting productivity, which is the ultimate source of higher wages and prosperity for generations to come. The importance of reversing Australia's productivity crisis could not be clearer. The Reserve Bank of Australia, a day before the ACTU announced its "plan", said Australians faced declining living standards because of falling productivity. This threatens to be an intergenerational failure of epic proportions. The leaders of today should not betray the legacy of preceding generations by failing to bequeath an Australia in which each generation can build on the hard work and smart decisions of its forebears. Countries around the world are fighting tooth and nail to improve their competitiveness, including in the race to successfully seize the opportunities created by changing technologies such as artificial intelligence. The RBA is warning us that Australia is on a fast track to going backwards unless we can increase our productivity. We need to take notice and work smarter together to meet this challenge. The ACTU and governments at all levels should be reckoning with these issues and - with the productivity challenge the government has called out through next week's Economic Reform Roundtable - not indulge in luxury beliefs and fanciful notions which will only harm working Australians, their families and communities. The ACTU's gobsmacking proposal for a national four-day working week would take our country's productivity back a quarter of a century, drive businesses to the wall and turn us into an uncompetitive international laughing stock. The idea that businesses could afford to pay the same for 20 per cent less output, while meeting customer demand and keep costs down for consumers is simply ludicrous. Anyone with a sense of self-awareness knows we face challenging times: poor productivity, major technological change, massive global upheaval, skills and labour shortages and more. Now is the time to work smarter, not less, to keep us competitive and economically viable. This proposal, less than a week before the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable to discuss boosting productivity and improving economic settings, simply fails the pub test. Fortunately, the federal government has been quick to kick it into the long grass where it should remain. The notion that paying people the same to work 20 per cent less means they will be more productive when they do work just doesn't stack up. It unfortunately shows the ACTU is not serious about identifying what is good for Australian workers or the community. At the current rate of productivity growth, it would take more than 25 years to generate enough productivity for business to break even with the proposal. That's a quarter of a century to get our productivity back to where it is now, while the rest of the world powers ahead. This would commit an entire generation's worth of national productivity gains to a union frolic, when so many other urgent and pressing issues need more investment in our country. If the unions were serious about increased workplace flexibility, they could have gone to the Fair Work Commission and proposed it as part of renegotiation of awards. This would open a proper discussion on trade-offs which link flexibility to productivity improvements. We need more flexible workplaces. Employers want it and many employees want it. One obvious area of need is to give both more options to change working times by agreement. Neither business nor workers benefit when rigid hours are forced on them. But this isn't where the ACTU went. They've simply tried to create a media headline by throwing out an unrealistic claim lacking any evidence or realistic prospect. They cited a small academic study whose authors concede they can't verify there would actually be economy-wide productivity gains. This isn't the serious and good faith discussion required at next week's Roundtable. This followed on from the Victorian government plan to give employees a legislated right to work two days a week from home. It seems the union movement and some in government don't want Australians to work at all. They want to turn back time, cut productivity and make Australia less attractive to much-needed investment. It also comes at a time when the country is desperately short of workers with the right skills for our needs. More than 340,000 jobs currently sit vacant - around 100,000 more than normal - and a third of the labour force work in occupations classified as in national supply shortage. Standing down 20 per cent of our workforce capacity will only make the skills shortages cruelling our industries - particularly in regional Australia - that much worse. This is reckless and irresponsible and seeks to prioritise feel-good headlines over sound policy and economic management. It would have serious impacts across the country, in particular in our regions, harming working people, businesses of all sizes and local communities. It also comes at a time when the Australian government is rightly trying to focus on doing the opposite - lifting productivity, which is the ultimate source of higher wages and prosperity for generations to come. The importance of reversing Australia's productivity crisis could not be clearer. The Reserve Bank of Australia, a day before the ACTU announced its "plan", said Australians faced declining living standards because of falling productivity. This threatens to be an intergenerational failure of epic proportions. The leaders of today should not betray the legacy of preceding generations by failing to bequeath an Australia in which each generation can build on the hard work and smart decisions of its forebears. Countries around the world are fighting tooth and nail to improve their competitiveness, including in the race to successfully seize the opportunities created by changing technologies such as artificial intelligence. The RBA is warning us that Australia is on a fast track to going backwards unless we can increase our productivity. We need to take notice and work smarter together to meet this challenge. The ACTU and governments at all levels should be reckoning with these issues and - with the productivity challenge the government has called out through next week's Economic Reform Roundtable - not indulge in luxury beliefs and fanciful notions which will only harm working Australians, their families and communities. The ACTU's gobsmacking proposal for a national four-day working week would take our country's productivity back a quarter of a century, drive businesses to the wall and turn us into an uncompetitive international laughing stock. The idea that businesses could afford to pay the same for 20 per cent less output, while meeting customer demand and keep costs down for consumers is simply ludicrous. Anyone with a sense of self-awareness knows we face challenging times: poor productivity, major technological change, massive global upheaval, skills and labour shortages and more. Now is the time to work smarter, not less, to keep us competitive and economically viable. This proposal, less than a week before the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable to discuss boosting productivity and improving economic settings, simply fails the pub test. Fortunately, the federal government has been quick to kick it into the long grass where it should remain. The notion that paying people the same to work 20 per cent less means they will be more productive when they do work just doesn't stack up. It unfortunately shows the ACTU is not serious about identifying what is good for Australian workers or the community. At the current rate of productivity growth, it would take more than 25 years to generate enough productivity for business to break even with the proposal. That's a quarter of a century to get our productivity back to where it is now, while the rest of the world powers ahead. This would commit an entire generation's worth of national productivity gains to a union frolic, when so many other urgent and pressing issues need more investment in our country. If the unions were serious about increased workplace flexibility, they could have gone to the Fair Work Commission and proposed it as part of renegotiation of awards. This would open a proper discussion on trade-offs which link flexibility to productivity improvements. We need more flexible workplaces. Employers want it and many employees want it. One obvious area of need is to give both more options to change working times by agreement. Neither business nor workers benefit when rigid hours are forced on them. But this isn't where the ACTU went. They've simply tried to create a media headline by throwing out an unrealistic claim lacking any evidence or realistic prospect. They cited a small academic study whose authors concede they can't verify there would actually be economy-wide productivity gains. This isn't the serious and good faith discussion required at next week's Roundtable. This followed on from the Victorian government plan to give employees a legislated right to work two days a week from home. It seems the union movement and some in government don't want Australians to work at all. They want to turn back time, cut productivity and make Australia less attractive to much-needed investment. It also comes at a time when the country is desperately short of workers with the right skills for our needs. More than 340,000 jobs currently sit vacant - around 100,000 more than normal - and a third of the labour force work in occupations classified as in national supply shortage. Standing down 20 per cent of our workforce capacity will only make the skills shortages cruelling our industries - particularly in regional Australia - that much worse. This is reckless and irresponsible and seeks to prioritise feel-good headlines over sound policy and economic management. It would have serious impacts across the country, in particular in our regions, harming working people, businesses of all sizes and local communities. It also comes at a time when the Australian government is rightly trying to focus on doing the opposite - lifting productivity, which is the ultimate source of higher wages and prosperity for generations to come. The importance of reversing Australia's productivity crisis could not be clearer. The Reserve Bank of Australia, a day before the ACTU announced its "plan", said Australians faced declining living standards because of falling productivity. This threatens to be an intergenerational failure of epic proportions. The leaders of today should not betray the legacy of preceding generations by failing to bequeath an Australia in which each generation can build on the hard work and smart decisions of its forebears. Countries around the world are fighting tooth and nail to improve their competitiveness, including in the race to successfully seize the opportunities created by changing technologies such as artificial intelligence. The RBA is warning us that Australia is on a fast track to going backwards unless we can increase our productivity. We need to take notice and work smarter together to meet this challenge. The ACTU and governments at all levels should be reckoning with these issues and - with the productivity challenge the government has called out through next week's Economic Reform Roundtable - not indulge in luxury beliefs and fanciful notions which will only harm working Australians, their families and communities. The ACTU's gobsmacking proposal for a national four-day working week would take our country's productivity back a quarter of a century, drive businesses to the wall and turn us into an uncompetitive international laughing stock. The idea that businesses could afford to pay the same for 20 per cent less output, while meeting customer demand and keep costs down for consumers is simply ludicrous. Anyone with a sense of self-awareness knows we face challenging times: poor productivity, major technological change, massive global upheaval, skills and labour shortages and more. Now is the time to work smarter, not less, to keep us competitive and economically viable. This proposal, less than a week before the Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable to discuss boosting productivity and improving economic settings, simply fails the pub test. Fortunately, the federal government has been quick to kick it into the long grass where it should remain. The notion that paying people the same to work 20 per cent less means they will be more productive when they do work just doesn't stack up. It unfortunately shows the ACTU is not serious about identifying what is good for Australian workers or the community. At the current rate of productivity growth, it would take more than 25 years to generate enough productivity for business to break even with the proposal. That's a quarter of a century to get our productivity back to where it is now, while the rest of the world powers ahead. This would commit an entire generation's worth of national productivity gains to a union frolic, when so many other urgent and pressing issues need more investment in our country. If the unions were serious about increased workplace flexibility, they could have gone to the Fair Work Commission and proposed it as part of renegotiation of awards. This would open a proper discussion on trade-offs which link flexibility to productivity improvements. We need more flexible workplaces. Employers want it and many employees want it. One obvious area of need is to give both more options to change working times by agreement. Neither business nor workers benefit when rigid hours are forced on them. But this isn't where the ACTU went. They've simply tried to create a media headline by throwing out an unrealistic claim lacking any evidence or realistic prospect. They cited a small academic study whose authors concede they can't verify there would actually be economy-wide productivity gains. This isn't the serious and good faith discussion required at next week's Roundtable. This followed on from the Victorian government plan to give employees a legislated right to work two days a week from home. It seems the union movement and some in government don't want Australians to work at all. They want to turn back time, cut productivity and make Australia less attractive to much-needed investment. It also comes at a time when the country is desperately short of workers with the right skills for our needs. More than 340,000 jobs currently sit vacant - around 100,000 more than normal - and a third of the labour force work in occupations classified as in national supply shortage. Standing down 20 per cent of our workforce capacity will only make the skills shortages cruelling our industries - particularly in regional Australia - that much worse. This is reckless and irresponsible and seeks to prioritise feel-good headlines over sound policy and economic management. It would have serious impacts across the country, in particular in our regions, harming working people, businesses of all sizes and local communities. It also comes at a time when the Australian government is rightly trying to focus on doing the opposite - lifting productivity, which is the ultimate source of higher wages and prosperity for generations to come. The importance of reversing Australia's productivity crisis could not be clearer. The Reserve Bank of Australia, a day before the ACTU announced its "plan", said Australians faced declining living standards because of falling productivity. This threatens to be an intergenerational failure of epic proportions. The leaders of today should not betray the legacy of preceding generations by failing to bequeath an Australia in which each generation can build on the hard work and smart decisions of its forebears. Countries around the world are fighting tooth and nail to improve their competitiveness, including in the race to successfully seize the opportunities created by changing technologies such as artificial intelligence. The RBA is warning us that Australia is on a fast track to going backwards unless we can increase our productivity. We need to take notice and work smarter together to meet this challenge. The ACTU and governments at all levels should be reckoning with these issues and - with the productivity challenge the government has called out through next week's Economic Reform Roundtable - not indulge in luxury beliefs and fanciful notions which will only harm working Australians, their families and communities.
