Delivering a competitive Australian power system
Due to its reliance on fossil fuel, Australia's power system is now among the least resilient of its global competitors. The three part series, "Delivering a competitive Australian power system" seeks to address this issue.
Part 3: A Better Way to Competitive Power in 2035
This paper, the final in a three part series examining the competitiveness of Australia’s power system, seeks to identify a pragmatic strategy to transition Australia to a resilient power economy at reasonable cost and in an age of uncertainty.
The resilience of a country’s power economy refers to its ability to meet power requirements while withstanding supply shocks and environmental constraints. For a country’s power economy to be competitive, it must be both affordable and resilient.
Download part 3 full report (PDF, 3.2MB)
To achieve a competitive and resilient power system, Australian strategy needs to focus on:
- Increasing the diversity of its energy fleet
- Decreasing the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of its energy fleet
- Increasing the security of its fleet through robust storage options
- Improving the distribution efficiency of its power system
Part 2: The challenges, the scenarios (February 2013)
The second report considers possible scenarios for delivering a competitive Australian power system in 2035. Accordingly, it examines where the Australian power economy needs to be positioned to address the issues that global change presents, including rising prices, carbon constraints and public support for renewable energy.
Download part 2 full report (PDF, 3.9MB)
This report highlights the immediate need for major investment in multiple technologies and significant policy intervention to reach emissions targets and public expectations. It reveals that Australian industry and government face two basic choices:
- Start now on a course of action that will lead to abatement, reduced pressure on electricity prices and offer increased technology choices by 2025, or;
- wait until technology options like carbon capture and storage (CCS) and nuclear power become viable, and implement the technologies in relative haste to meet climate change requirements.
Part 1: Australia’s global position (December 2011)
In the first paper, we compare the strategic direction of Australia's power system to other resource rich countries.The resilience of a country’s power economy refers to its ability to meet power requirements while withstanding supply shocks and environmental constraints. Analysis of power economy is traditionally conducted from the bottom up and based on complex, regional, supply and demand projections. This report seeks to take a more strategic, top down approach, providing a nation-wide analysis over much longer time frames.