Australia's surging power prices have been hit by the "perfect storm", and that's being felt in households around the country.
But an 11-point plan from Australia's energy ministers released after meeting on Wednesday isn't going to ease prices any time soon, with federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen saying there's no "silver bullet".
So what's this new plan about? And are there any quick fixes in it? Let's break it down.
What's been happening to energy rates?
Wholesale energy prices have been hit hard on the east coast. Why?
A cold snap, rising fuel prices thanks to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and, back home, old coal-fired power stations going offline have all combined to put pressure on the markets — the so-called "perfect storm".
And none of this is ending any time soon.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers referred to it in a speech last week, as gas prices in Victoria jumped 50 times higher than normal levels.
And once Australia's energy regulator passed on those big increases to benchmark power prices from the "perfect storm"?
The tariffs, known as default market offers, rose between 8.5 per cent and 18.3 per cent in New South Wales, up to 12.6 per cent in south-east Queensland and 9.5 per cent in South Australia.
That meant some retailers were facing huge price spikes to supply their customers.
One smaller energy retailer, ReAmped, even wrote to its customers and offered gift vouchers to urge them to leave while they could "still get a better deal".
So what's in this government plan?
The urgent meeting with state, territory and federal energy ministers came up with 11 points and of those, these are the ones getting the most attention.
One part of the plan would see energy retailers pay power providers to keep spare energy capacity in case it's needed. That's called a capacity mechanism.
It's something that could have helped those smaller retailers, according to the former head of Australia's Energy Security Board, Dr Kerry Schott.
"I'm partly frustrated that had the capacity mechanism been in place, we wouldn't be in a position that's as bad as it is," Dr Schott said.
The capacity mechanism was originally set to come through in 2025 but has now been fast-tracked under this plan.
Chris Bowen said the work on this was already "well advanced" and the Energy Security Board would have a draft in "the next couple of days".
But there could be hurdles.
Mr Bowen has said it needs to include "new technologies, renewable energy and storage" in the mix, but he hasn't explicitly ruled out coal.
Under the Coalition, some state energy ministers had refused to back it because they wanted to include coal-fired power stations — Victoria's government dubbed it "CoalKeeper".
Bruce Mountain, director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre at Victoria University, said if the mix includes fossil fuels, that could be difficult.
"It's got nowhere [in the past] because states have said they're not giving money to coal and gas and oil," Professor Mountain said.
What else is on the table?
Mr Bowen has stressed that while no, there won't be any quick fixes, there's now a plan to let the regulator buy gas and keep it in storage for times like the last few weeks, when prices have skyrocketed.
Mr Bowen said it was one of the most important points and would allow gas to be kept in storage for a "crisis situation."
Origin Energy head Frank Calabria says it would help ease pressure on supply and be a step in the right direction.
"There was not an immediate fix for the high prices but there are some immediate actions that are included in the plan that I think can bring some relief," he said.
But despite gas prices spiking, Mr Bowen said it hadn't been a "gas-led crisis".
"It's been a crisis brought about by a whole lot of circumstances. Probably foremost is coal-fired power outages, the fleet is very old, and we've had floods in coal mines," he said.
Other ideas, like a windfall tax from energy companies, have been ruled out by the federal government.
But Professor Mountain said it's something that should be reconsidered, in light of the profits coming from higher prices thanks in part to the war in Ukraine.
"The idea of the windfall tax is to recognise that the gains of the coal and gas companies are not entirely of their own making," Professor Mountain said.
"I think it continues to be something that the government could consider."
He said incentivising a storage target for renewables was the "missing ingredient" in the plan so far.
"We need to shift our surplus to other times of the day so we don't rely on coal and gas," he said.
"Had we done that [already], we would face much lower bills than we have now.
What about stopping gas exports?
That's the so-called "gas trigger", which lets the Federal Government keep some gas that was set to be exported, for use in the Australian market.
Why hasn't it been pulled?
It takes six months to kick in, but that's something the new federal government is looking into.
Mr Bowen said it's a "pretty blunt instrument at the moment" and it wouldn't help in today's crisis.
"We did discuss gas and gas reservations, but that's entirely a matter for the Commonwealth and yesterday we focused on matters of joint responsibility."
