Alan Finkel, Australia's chief scientist, is due to release his review of Australia's energy market on Friday afternoon. The review has the potential to dramatically shake up the future energy supply of this country. So what do you need to know about it?

First, what is the Finkel review?

The Finkel review is the shorthand name for a review of the national electricity market, commissioned by federal and state energy ministers last year.

It was prompted - in part - by the blackouts in South Australia, which focused national attention on energy security.

The review will provide governments with a blueprint for energy security across the grid. It will also look at affordability and sustainability, as more renewable energy flows into the electricity system, and coal-fired power stations close.

The panel's chairman, Dr Finkel, is being assisted by four energy experts.

Hang on - what is the national electricity market?

The national electricity market is the longest geographically connected power system in the world.

It supplies the eastern and southern states and territories - Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

It generates around 200 terawatt??? hours of electricity annually, accounting for about 80 per cent of Australia's electricity consumption.

What will the review say?

The review will recommend a Clean Energy Target, which will require a set percentage of power to be generated from low-emission sources, such as renewables and gas.

It will also recommend a benchmark target, which means only a certain amount of carbon dioxide can be produced for each megawatt hour of power.

Energy retailers and industrial users would be ??required to source a mandated amount of certified clean power.

Gas-fired generation and coal-fired power stations that are fitted with carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), as well as renew??ables, would receive a subsidy in the form of tradeable clean-??energy certificates.

What's the difference between a CET, a carbon tax, an ETS and an EIS?

The CET is the latest in a long line of energy policy acronyms - each designed to drive down the pollution created by power generation, and each with its own troubled history.

The CET is not a carbon tax, an emissions trading scheme, an energy intensive scheme or a renewable energy target.

A carbon tax puts a price on the amount of carbon dioxide created by power generation - but it doesn't limit the amount that can be created.

In an emissions trading scheme, carbon isn't priced by the tonne but there is a cap on how much can be emitted. The cap is allocated to companies through permits for every tonne of carbon dioxide they produce - allowing them to emit a certain amount based on the emissions they usually produce - but they cannot exceed the cap. If a company needs more emissions permits, they may buy them from a company that requires fewer permits. An ETS is designed to charge the companies that pollute more, and reward companies that pollute less.

An emissions intensity scheme imposes limits on how much pollution a power station can freely emit. Cleaner generators that emit less pollution than the limit earn credits, and sell them to high-emitting generators above the baseline. It is the approach the Australian Energy Market Commission found would be more cost-effective than alternatives, including the renewable energy target and direct government intervention to phase out coal-fired power. But it has already been ruled out by the Turnbull government.

What do people think about the idea of a Clean Energy Target?

The Turnbull government hopes it will be a policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that can attract bipartisan support and give business the chance to make long-term investment decisions.

The opposition has offered its qualified support, saying consensus would end the decade-long war over climate change and energy policy.

Big business is begging politicians to stop arguing and get on and deliver a policy that will last longer than the life of one government - or leader.

The Climate Change Authority and the Australian Energy Market Regulator still prefer an emissions intensity scheme, but say a low-emissions target could be a sensible fallback option.

Will it solve the climate wars that have ravaged Australian politics?

Fingers crossed, but political history is not on its side. Climate change policy is a giant killer in Australian politics - it brought to an end the leadership of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, and ended Malcolm Turnbull's run as Liberal opposition leader in 2009.

Donald Trump's anti-climate change stance has only encouraged the noisy minority of Coalition MPs who remain sceptical about climate change and who could use it as a stalking horse to reignite leadership talk within the Coalition.

The opposition's qualified support is significant, and the CET could just be the kind of compromise politics loves to produce.

But Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg has a huge job ahead of him to produce a policy that will be acceptable to the climate change sceptics in the Coalition, and to Labor.

What will it mean for power prices?

According to the Australian Energy Market Commission, three things contribute to your electricity bill - wholesale and retail prices (based on supply and demand), the cost of getting the power into your home (poles and wires) and environmental policies. Environmental policies are the smallest component of the cost.

Poles and wires are the biggest contributor to your bill and there's a complicated history behind it. It comes back to a $45 billion upgrade that was spent between 2009 and 2014 and turned out to be of questionable value.

The fact that that upgrade turned out to have been based on a forecast that electricity demand would jump - which turned out not to be the case - isn't much help because the money was spent and we're still paying for it.

People who use gas power have also been hit by higher bills because the development of new gas export terminals has led to a tightening of supply.

Also, keep in mind you're effectively being charged twice for your power - once when the retailer buys it from the wholesale provider and again when you buy it from the retailer.

Energy retailers can charge whatever they like because they are for-profit companies, they do.

Bearing this in mind the Turnbull government has also charged the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission with looking at why prices are so high.

So although Dr Finkel's report will talk about power costs, it will be largely in the context of what a CET would mean for electricity generators and suppliers.

What you're paying for power - and why - is the responsibility of the ACCC to investigate.

Follow us on Facebook