AEMO On Air

As artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services continue to grow, data centres are becoming an increasingly important part of Australia's electricity demand profile. In this episode of AEMO On Air, Margarida Pimentel, AEMO's Group Manager Onboarding and Connections, discusses what data centres are, how they connect to the power system, and what their growth could mean fo...

Following the release of AEMO's 2026 Integrated System Plan (ISP) , AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman joins AEMO On Air to discuss the roadmap shaping Australia's energy future as electricity consumption continues to grow through electrification and ageing coal-fired power stations progressively retire. In this episode, Daniel explains why the ISP continues to identify renewables, connected to n...

What is the Integrated System Plan and why does it matter?   With the upcoming release of the 2026 Integrated System Plan (ISP) this week, our latest AEMO On Air podcast episode goes behind the scenes of the long-term roadmap for the National Electricity Market with AEMO Group Manager System Planning, Eli Pack.   Eli explains how the ISP is developed, who uses it, and how input from around 2,000 s...

What does it take to solve the biggest challenges facing Australia’s energy transition? In this episode, we sit down with two rising stars from the Zema Energy Studies Scholarship program – Madeleine Neaves and Frederick Madriaga – to explore the research helping shape Australia’s future energy systems. Madeleine, a Monash University Engineering PhD candidate, is researching how future grids maint...

Batteries are now playing a central role in Australia’s electricity system, and the latest data shows just how quickly that shift is happening. In this episode of AEMO On Air, Kerry Galloway, AEMO’s Manager of Market Insights unpacks the key details of the Q1 2026 Quarterly Energy Dynamics (QED) report. In the National Electricity Market (NEM), more than 4,400 MW of new battery capacity has been a...

The energy transition is global and so are the challenges. Across the world, system operators are grappling with the same fundamental shifts, rapid growth in renewables, decentralised generation and increasingly complex system dynamics. In our latest AEMO On Air episode, we’re joined by Luke Robinson, Group Manager – System Modelling to explore how global collaboration is helping system operators...

AEMO has released our 2026 Gas Statement of Opportunities (GSOO) – an annual outlook examining gas demand and supply across Australia’s east coast over the next 20-plus years. In this episode of AEMO On Air, we chat with Alice McLaren, AEMO’s Manager of Market Operability in System Design, to break down what the latest analysis means for industry, governments and consumers. As Alice explains: “We’...

Following the release of AEMO’s Transition Plan for System Security (TPSS) in December 2025, this episode explores what it takes to keep Australia’s power system secure as the energy transition accelerates.  In the third and final instalment in our system security series, Dr Niraj (Nij) Lal talks to Lars Narushevich, Specialist Engineer in System Security Planning at AEMO, to break down the fundam...

Season 3 of AEMO On Air is underway   🎙️   In the first episode for 2026, we speak with Kerry Galloway, AEMO’s Manager of Market Insights, about a milestone quarter for Australia’s energy transition following the launch of AEMO’s Q4 2025 Quarterly Energy Dynamics (QED) report. For the first time ever, renewables and storage supplied more than half of total energy needs across the east and west coa...

Australia’s electricity system is transforming at speed and the choices made, specifically in the coming decade, will shape costs, reliability and emissions outcomes for generations. In this episode of AEMO On Air, we sat down with Nicola Falcon, AEMO’s Executive General Manager of System Design, to unpack the Draft 2026 Integrated System Plan (ISP) and the big themes shaping this story. With elec...

This week we released the 2025 Transition Plan for System Security (TPSS) and in our latest episode of AEMO On Air, Chris Davies, AEMO’s Group Manager – Future Energy Systems, unpacks what it means for Australia’s energy future. As coal power stations continue to exit the power system, replacement system security services are needed to unlock the growing potential of renewable energy, including ro...

Australia’s energy transition is accelerating and the next Integrated System Plan (ISP) will be central to guiding it.  In this episode of AEMO On Air, we speak with Nicola Falcon, Executive General Manager – System Design, about how the ISP is developed, why it matters, and why it’s increasingly the envy of countries without a comparable long-term plan to navigate their transition.  Nicola explai...

One in three Australian homes now have rooftop solar, that’s more than 4 million systems nationwide providing, on some days, over half of the east coast’s electricity.    Australia is leading the world in distributed energy, with home batteries and electric vehicles rapidly changing how our power system operates. But as solar becomes a dominant force in the grid, maintaining stability and security...

In this episode of AEMO On Air, we unpack the key findings from AEMO’s Quarterly Energy Dynamics (QED) report for Q3 2025 – a quarter defined by record renewable generation, greater market stability, and falling wholesale electricity prices across the NEM. AEMO’s Manager of Market Insights, Kerry Galloway, joins us to break down the data behind the trends, from new renewable records to what it all...

In this first episode of our three-part series on power system security, new AEMO on Air host Nij is joined by Yvonne Coughlan, one of our Group Managers in Operations. Yvonne shares her journey from working across European power systems, including her time at Ireland’s system and market operator, EirGrid, to her work at AEMO. She reflects on the parallels and differences in global energy transiti...

AEMO's annual Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) harnesses the latest data from the energy sector to deliver a 10-year look ahead at the investments needed to support reliability in the National Electricity Market (NEM). In this episode of AEMO On Air, Ben Jones, our Manager of Reliability Forecasting, explains how the delivery of all projects in the investment pipeline – generatio...

In July we hit the half-way mark in the development of the 2026 Integrated System Plan (ISP) with the publication of a number of key reports, including the Inputs, Assumptions and Scenarios Report (IASR) and the new Gas Infrastructure Options Report (GIOR). The ISP is the strategic roadmap for Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM) and it outlines the investment and infrastructure requ...

AEMO’s latest Quarterly Energy Dynamics (QED) report shows renewable energy reached new highs in Q2 2025 across both the National Electricity Market (NEM) and Western Australia’s Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM). In this episode of AEMO On Air, AEMO’s Manager of Market Insights, Kerry Galloway, unpacks the data behind a 38% renewable share in the NEM, record contributions in the WEM, and a major...

In this week’s episode of AEMO On Air, we welcome our new host, Dr Niraj (Nij) Lal – a Principal in the Future Energy Systems Group in AEMO System Design.   A passionate science communicator and energy expert, Nij is also a Visiting Fellow at ANU and a familiar voice to many Australian families through the ABC’s children’s science podcast ‘Imagine This’, as well as through his work on ‘Play School...

In this week’s episode of AEMO On Air, we sit down with Edwina Knevett, Engineer – System Design, to explore AEMO’s second Enhanced Locational Information (ELI) report. The report offers a lens to help future investment decisions across the National Electricity Market (NEM), providing critical locational insights to help navigate congestion, curtailment, and network losses as we transition from co...

What makes Western Australia's power system so different – and what does the future hold? In this episode of AEMO On Air, we’re joined by Katie McKenzie, Group Manager – WA System Design & Transformation, to break down the latest Wholesale Electricity Market Electricity Statement of Opportunities (WEM ESOO). Katie unpacks the key findings from the report, dives into the unique design of W...

In our latest episode of the AEMO On Air podcast, AEMO’s Manager of Market Insights, Kerry Galloway breaks down the Q1 2025 Quarterly Energy Dynamics (QED) report – highlighting record-breaking growth in renewable generation across the National Electricity Market (NEM). Kerry also discusses how a change in fuel mix, led by higher renewable and battery generation and Australia’s world leading take-...

In this episode of AEMO On Air, we spotlight two emerging leaders helping shape Australia’s energy future.   Join us as we sit down with Merry Hoang and Jaleel Mesbah, recipients of the Zema Energy Studies Scholarship – a world-class PhD program in partnership with Monash University.   This scholarship was created to honour AEMO’s founding CEO, Matt Zema, and is dedicated to supporting the next ge...

AEMO's Onboarding and Connections team plays a vital role in Australia's energy transition, connecting new generation and storage into our grid. In this latest episode of AEMO On Air, we talk to Group Manager Onboarding and Connections, Margarida Pimentel about her team, the Connections Scorecard report and the importance of working closely with industry to bring new energy projects to l...

Last year, AEMO released its first Transition Plan for System Security, mapping out how we will contribute to maintaining power system security as the National Electricity Market (NEM) and WA’s Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) move toward a world without coal fired power stations. In this episode of AEMO On Air, we chat with Chris Mock, Manager of Engineering Strategy – System Design, about the...