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. But in New South Wales, where datacentre demand grew 18% in one year, grid electricity demand grew by 1.8%, despite the rise in rooftop solar. Previous Aemo forecasts have suggested datacentre power demand could triple in five years , to exceed the energy used by electric vehicles by 2030. Grid demand grew in Victoria too, off the back of a near doubling in datacentre demand, Aemo’s quarterly report showed.…