At 30 June 2008 esaa represented 44 Full Members, two New Zealand-based Affiliate Members, and 107 Associate Members.

esaa Full Member businesses had some $121 billion in assets and infrastructure investment in 2004-05, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In 2006-07, the electricity and downstream natural gas supply industry contributed 1.5 per cent of Australia’s Gross Domestic Product of $953 billion.

Australia’s energy supply industry employed 49,000 people during 2006-07.

Electricity

Australia’s electricity supply industry contribution to GDP in 2006-07 was $13.1 billion or 1.4 per cent.

The sector’s total assets amounted to $109 billion in 2004-05.

Installed capacity comprises 47,400 MW in grid-connected capacity and a further 4200 MW in embedded and non-grid capacity.

Total greenhouse gas emissions were 194 mtCO2-e in the 2005 inventory year.

Electricity transmission and distribution comprises 884,000 circuit kilometres.

There are 9.68 million electricity connections throughout the country.

Average electricity supply reliability in 2006-07:

• The average time each customer was without supply in the year was 281.66 minutes.
• The number of interruptions per customer was 2.28.
• The average number of minutes per interruption was 123.37.

Total principal electricity generation in 2006-07 was 226,600 GWh, comprising 56.7 per cent from black coal, 24.5 per cent from brown coal, 12.2 per cent from natural gas, 6.1 per cent from hydro, and 0.6 per cent from oil and other fuels.

Consumption by sector:

• Residential – 27.8 per cent
• Commercial – 22.4 per cent
• Metals – 18.1 per cent
• Aluminium smelting – 11.6 per cent
• Manufacturing – 9.2 per cent
• Mining – 9.1 per cent
• Transport and storage – 1.0 per cent
• Agriculture – 0.8 per cent.

Natural gas

Australia’s natural gas supply industry contribution to GDP in 2006-07 was $1.4 billion or 0.1 per cent.

The sector’s total assets amounted to more than $12 billion in 2004-05.

Australia had a total of 143,000 PJ of proved and contingent natural gas reserves at December 2005.

Total natural gas production in Australia in 2006-07 was 2089 PJ.

Total natural gas transmission and distribution pipeline length is approximately 107,000 kilometres.

There are 3.9 million natural gas connections throughout the country.

There was an average of 0.09 unplanned outages per 1000 customers.

Primary natural gas consumption was 1115 PJ comprising:

• Electricity generation – 35.0 per cent
• Manufacturing – 32.9 per cent
• Mining – 14.1 per cent
• Residential – 11.3 per cent
• Commercial – 3.6 per cent
• Transport and storage – 3.1 per cent
• Agriculture – < 0.05 per cent.