Australia has one of the longest interconnected power systems in the world, stretching almost 5000 km from North Queensland to South Australia, equaling the distance from Moscow to Lisbon.

Australia’s physical energy infrastructure is expected to require renewal and expansion costing around $30 billion over the next ten years.

Australia used electricity to light city streets in the late 1880s.

The National Energy Market provides a trading pool of $8 billion worth of power to serve more than 8 million customers.

Power consumption has risen 770 percent in forty years.

The phasing out of incandescent lights by 2010 will initially reduce carbon emissions by 800,000 tonnes p.a., soaring to an estimated 4 million tonnes p.a. by 2015.

Wind power currently contributes only 1 percent of the national electricity supply.

The Australian Government is investing $75 million under its Solar Cities program to promote solar power.

Australia is the world’s eighteenth largest consumer of energy, ranking ninth on a per person basis.

Good results in English, Maths (preferably Advanced Maths), Physics, Chemistry are not essential but certainly desirable for Power Engineering studies.

Links to Australian universities offering power engineering courses can be found at Link to Learn.

Information on power engineering bursaries can be found at API Bursary website.

There are currently 9.68 million electricity customer connections in Australia.