After a historic June quarter, the AER’s latest Wholesale Markets Quarterly takes a look at what followed in the wholesale gas and electricity markets from July to September.
Gas and electricity prices halved in August from record levels in July, but despite warmer weather easing demand, prices remained high compared to previous years.
Gas prices averaged around $26/GJ throughout the quarter while electricity prices were the second highest on record and double what they were the same time last year, ranging from $210/MWh in Tasmania to $257/MWh in South Australia.
Surplus local gas supply helped to delink domestic gas prices from soaring international gas prices and fill southern storage.
On the electricity side, in addition to lower demand, increased renewable generation, fewer baseload outages, an easing of fuel supply constraints, and lower gas prices contributed to lower prices.
High international energy prices will continue to put pressure on domestic prices, and forward markets continue to indicate high domestic gas and electricity wholesale prices will continue into 2023 and 2024.
| Electricity - $ per megawatt hour (volume weighted average) by State | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queensland | NSW | Victoria | SA | Tasmania | |
| Q3 2022 | $251 | $240 | $210 | $257 | $210 |
| Q3 2021 | $90 | $88 | $64 | $63 | $27 |
| Gas - $ per gigajoule averaged across the east coast gas markets (Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Victoria short term trading markets) | |||||
| Q3 2022 | $26.18 | ||||
| Q3 2021 | $10.85 | ||||