Former Sydney Water CIO, Chris Ford, has joined the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) as its new chief information officer.

NSW government-owned energy supplier, Country Energy, has entered into a managed print services contract with HP to reduce time spent by IT staff managing printers by as much as 95 per cent. Country Energy has 4525 staff and 169 offices across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. It has about 800,000 customers. Alan Montgomery, group manager for business services at Country Energy, said back in 2007 about 31 IT staff serviced some 800 printers at the utility.

Former Babcock & Brown utility Alinta Energy Group says its lenders have agreed to extinguish its $3.5 billion of debt in return for ownership of its assets. The move comes amid accusations by the Western Australia government that the Perth-based Alinta's woes were caused by greed.

Google continues to broaden it business focus, now seeking permission to buy and resell electricity.

Energy providers have urged the federal government to recognise the benefits of existing fibre infrastructure in the national broadband network (NBN) roll out and to consider the 'Smart Network' opportunities.