Where these numbers come from
The Australian Energy Market Operator publishes a Carbon Dioxide Equivalent Intensity Index: the average emissions intensity of electricity generated in each region of the national market, in grams of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour, derived from actual reported emissions rather than estimates.
We ingest it daily. The figures below cover **28 December 2025 to 25 July 2026 — 210 days** for each of the five national-market regions.
This is emissions data, not price data. Nothing here changes what you pay, and we are careful never to present it as though it does. If you are on a fixed rate, your cost per kilowatt-hour does not move with the grid.
The seven-month averages
- Victoria — 718 g/kWh
- The highest in the national market, and by a distance. Ranged from 363 to 935 across the period. Brown coal is the reason.
- New South Wales — 594 g/kWh
- Black coal dominated, ranging 414 to 747.
- Queensland — 594 g/kWh
- Statistically level with NSW on average, but a narrower range: 534 to 681.
- South Australia — 125 g/kWh
- A different order of magnitude, on wind and solar. Ranged from 8 to 431 — the widest spread of any region, because it swings with the weather.
- Tasmania — 5 g/kWh
- Effectively decarbonised, on hydro. Ranged 0 to 74. Around 140 times cleaner than Victoria on average.
What the spread tells you
The averages are striking, but the ranges are more interesting. Victoria moved between 363 and 935 g/kWh — a coal-heavy grid still has better and worse days, largely driven by how much wind and solar is running.
South Australia's range is the widest relative to its average: from 8 g/kWh on a windy, sunny day to 431 on a still one. That is what a renewables-dominated grid looks like — very clean most of the time, with a fossil-backed floor for the times it is not.
Tasmania barely moves, because hydro is dispatchable and does not care about the weather on any given afternoon.
The practical implication for a household is about timing rather than switching. In a state with a wide range, when you run things genuinely changes the emissions attached to them. In Tasmania it makes almost no difference, because there is very little carbon there to avoid.
What this does and does not mean for your bill
It does not mean Victorians pay more or Tasmanians pay less. Price and emissions intensity are separate things, set by different mechanisms.
It also does not mean your own electricity is "clean" or "dirty" in a way you personally control. Electrons are not labelled. Regional intensity is the average of everything generated in that region at that time.
What it does mean is that shifting flexible load — a dishwasher, an EV charge, a pool pump — into the cleaner part of the day has a genuinely different emissions payoff depending on where you live. In South Australia the difference between the cleanest and dirtiest hours is large. In Tasmania it is close to irrelevant.
We show the greenest window for your own region in the daily briefing, framed strictly as an emissions decision and never as a saving.