Complexity multiplies for infrastructure to power the transition

Be really curious to get your perspectives on the Iran war and the implication that that has also for power markets.

Maybe startling with you, Anthony, in Australia.

What's the perspective down there at the moment and where's the focus from investors?

Thanks, Ralph.

What we're seeing down here is just an increased level of interest in the Australian power market from global financial investors as well as strategic players.

And it was interesting to say recently, SEMCorp, a Singaporean listed power company by one of Australia's largest integrated utilities.

So we're certainly seeing increased demand through electrification.

And the data center demand is very real down here in Australia.

And that's really started to play out over the last couple of months with some very significant hyperscale contracts being signed up down in this market of a scale that we just haven't seen before.

So we're seeing increased capital going into the transmission side and the grid piece.

And then more broadly on the supply side down in Australia, we've got a fleet of generation that's still largely coal fired.

The renewable build out is taking a bit longer than expected, given the need to sort of up quite a diverse set of generators away from what was also located in central points.

So as a result of that, we've got increased power prices and that's a dynamic that the sophisticated global financial investors are quite focused on.

It's super fascinating.

I think everybody's talking about essentially the demand growth, electrification and the investment that's needed.

I think in Europe that's the same, but I would say the Iran war has certainly had more of an impact here.

I guess it's the sort of second energy crisis that we've had directly affecting Europe post Ukraine.

And I think certainly policymakers are thinking about how to try and soften the blow from, you know, higher power price and higher energy prices.

And that has some ramifications on policy decisions.

Clearly, the growth is also there and people are investing.

But there is a question around affordability, how much can we realistically invest in the transition, given that actually energy prices and power prices are relatively high at the moment.