The Australian summer has passed with only the occasional blackout, although a possibly grim winter, once unseasonably warm weather in NSW has passed, may be a tough test of an electricity market where almost all new investment is flowing into unreliable renewables.

But the task of coping with any new demands due to the weather has been made easier by the abandonment of the 20th century idea that the power grid should deliver power to all consumers as and when they want it, hopefully at affordable prices.