The business-as-usual approach to power supply is no longer sustainable. The vast majority of the electricity supply in Queensland is provided by coal-fired power stations. Coal is one of the worst greenhouse gas creating fuels, contributing hugely to climate change. The last projections prepared by the Australian Greenhouse Office [note 1] show energy generation emissions [...]
Things have changed significantly in the past 18 months. A snapshot of the key changes:
Recognition across the political spectrum that an emissions trading scheme must be adopted. The Federal Government is due to deliver by June 2008 a report on the economic impacts of climate change policies and interim emission reduction targets to [...]
The forecast information published and provided as justification for the investment in network infrastructure can be summarised as follows: [note 5]
In the last 40 years electricity demand in the region has grown by around 500%
…forecasts indicate electricity demand will grow by about 30% over the next seven years, and by as much as [...]
The cost to the end user, spread across all users, is that Powerlink and Energex, between them are now spending or planning to spend $5.3bn (Energex $2.71bn and Powerlink $2.6bn) from 2005-2012. This significantly understates the cost of provision of electricity, by breaking up the costs of provision into smaller discrete chunks, where [...]
The Least Cost Planning (LCP) Approach originated in the electricity industry in the US in the 1980’s [note 7] and has been applied to the water and transport sectors in Australia. The principle of LCP is that customers do not actually need electricity; instead they require the services that are provided by this commodity. In [...]
Demand management consists of analysing and identifying the drivers of demand, the main uses of power and the policies for reducing or stabilising energy demand. Listed below are examples of demand management programs:
Installation of smart meters and variable pricing for different times of day (estimated 10-15% saving) [note 9]
In California, the peak period pricing reduced [...]
The main sources of alternative renewable energy are accessible through mature and available technologies. The recent announcement of Federal Government’s Mandatory Renewable Energy Target of 20% by 2020 should provide a significant boost to this sector and encourage investment. Since external environmental costs are not currently factored into fossil fuel based power generation the renewable [...]
