The wholesale 30-minute price of electricity exceeded $5,000 per MWh 3 times during October, November, and December 2025. This compares to 7 high prices in the previous quarter and 23 high prices in the same quarter last year.
The high price events all occurred in NSW across 3 separate days in November and December 2025:
- 25 November
- 26 November
- 19 December.
The AER must consider whether the following factors contributed to the significant price outcomes:
- available capacity
- network availability
- offer, bidding and rebidding behaviour in respect of the relevant market.
The AER may consider the following matters:
- broader and ongoing market trends that may be contributing to the significant price outcomes
- any events and behaviours that may be detrimental to effective competition or efficient market operation
- any other matter which the AER considers relevant.
Revised Significant price reporting guidelines
In 2025, we conducted a review of the Significant price reporting guideline (Guideline) published in 2022 which describes our approach for monitoring and reporting significant price outcomes. The review concluded the significant price outcome criteria of $5,000 per MWh was no longer fit for purpose. A revised guideline setting out a new significant price outcome criteria and approach was published in January 2026.
This report is the last report that falls under the guideline published in 2022 using the significant price outcome criteria of $5,000 per MWh. We will apply the revised significant price outcome criteria outlined in the 2026 guideline for reporting events from Q1 2026 onwards.