Setting course for 2050: A deep dive into the Draft 2026 Integrated System Plan
Description
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 electricity demand forecast to nearly double by 2050, driven by electrification of homes, industry and transport, plus rapid growth in data centres, the draft ISP lays out a clear, least-cost roadmap to replace retiring coal while keeping the lights on.
We dig into why renewables, firmed by storage, backed up by gas and connected with networks remains the least-cost and reliable pathway, and how today’s investments in rooftop solar, batteries, large-scale renewables and networks are already lining up with that plan.
And Nicola explores what’s changed since the last ISP, including technology costs, along with deeper analysis on gas supply infrastructure and distribution network cost to support further consumer energy resource benefits.
Read the Draft 2026 ISP here: https://bit.ly/3KBBcik
Media release: https://bit.ly/4rOf7hc
ISP Toolkit: https://bit.ly/48OgVOA
Infographic: https://bit.ly/3KXNkdC
Interviewer: Catie Low
United States
