An important & long overdue review of the Australian electricity market is being initiated by Climate & Energy Minister Chris Bowen. https://lnkd.in/gQSj4GcM
The Australian Financial Review writes: "NEM was set up in 1998, when coal-fired power was the dominant energy source, but its rules remain largely unchanged, despite the huge growth of renewable energy. Changes are now rapidly needed to spur investment in new plants after the expiry of government subsidies that were expected to propel wind & solar towards 50% of supply by the end of next year and as coal plants head for closure."
The panel members are: experienced energy economist Tim Nelson (resigning from Iberdrola Australia to do this role full time ✅ ); former Australian Energy Regulator chairwoman Paula Conboy, NACD.DC GAICD; Ava Hancock, who advised then-NSW energy minister The Hon. Matt Kean on the NSW energy road map; & Philip Hirschhorn, a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) partner.
Tim Nelson say ideas such as a reserve of generation capacity operating outside the wholesale market may be considered, as well as other concepts used overseas or by capital-intensive industries: “Nothing’s off the table in a sense of considering what those mechanisms might look like.”
Climate Energy Finance trusts that intergenerational equity is front & centre of the considerations (consider a high shadow carbon price in all economics), we need to work rapidly towards facilitating a near full decarbonisation of the Australian energy system, weaning ourselves off expensive subsidised fossil fuel imports by electrification of everything (Rewiring Australia), & leveraging the brilliant public resource of 20 million batteries-on-wheels (1000GWh of battery storage collectively by 2040) that can soak up near-free on-grid excess solar & return it to the grid at times of peak on grid demand. DER & CER are fast to deploy, enormously scaleable (we now have 25GW of rooftop solar, well on the way to 100GW by 2050), and this optimises new supply whilst we wait for new grid transmission. And we need to optimise the existing use of grid T&D 24*7 by upgrading existing lines utilisation (eg Neara) & use of BESS at a scale never before contemplated. Renew Australia For All calls for $5bn from Treasurer Jim Chalmers in MYEFO as a downpayment.
We need to keep some methane gas peakers, sure. Getting >95% will be difficult, but given the ongoing gouging by multinational fossil fuel firms keeping our domestic gas prices 5x that in the Middle East & the US (our major export competitor nations who only export the surplus, not almost everything (total regulatory capture Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) CEO Mike Westerman!)), these are expensive back up suppliers who mainly serve to underpin an extension of the existing monopoly methane gas pipeline assets owned by the Chinese government et al.
Smart Energy Council Wayne Smith Climate Capital Forum Blair Palese
