Hot weather and hungry datacentres lift Australia’s energy demand to record highs but batteries quell prices

Across the national electricity market, renewable energy provided 46.5% of all generation – a new high for the first three months of the year. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

More datacentres and warmer conditions helped push electricity demand to record highs in the first three months of the year, according to Australia’s Energy Market Operator, while growth in batteries kept average wholesale prices down.

Electricity demand – from households, business and industry – reached record levels of 25GW in Q1 2026, an increase of 1.2% compared with the same quarter last year. Across the grid, this growth was offset by record output from rooftop solar.