The Changing Nature of the Australian Electricity Industry

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Author(s)
Nelson, Tim
Bashir, Stephanie
McCracken-Hewson, Eleanor
Pierce, Michael
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2017
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The electricity supply industry has historically offered a homogenous good supplied via economically regulated transmission and distribution networks. Competition was introduced into the contestable generation and retail supply chain components as part of the 1990s Hilmer reform process. After a century of incremental technological developments, the industry is now being transformed by new distributed energy technologies and a global focus on reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Policy‐makers did not anticipate these changes. A number of key reforms are likely to be required. These include: assessing whether the ...
View more >The electricity supply industry has historically offered a homogenous good supplied via economically regulated transmission and distribution networks. Competition was introduced into the contestable generation and retail supply chain components as part of the 1990s Hilmer reform process. After a century of incremental technological developments, the industry is now being transformed by new distributed energy technologies and a global focus on reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Policy‐makers did not anticipate these changes. A number of key reforms are likely to be required. These include: assessing whether the return on capital provided to network operators is appropriate given changing economic conditions; determining the role of competition in the provision of “behind the meter” energy services; and integration of climate change policy with wholesale energy market design.
View less >
View more >The electricity supply industry has historically offered a homogenous good supplied via economically regulated transmission and distribution networks. Competition was introduced into the contestable generation and retail supply chain components as part of the 1990s Hilmer reform process. After a century of incremental technological developments, the industry is now being transformed by new distributed energy technologies and a global focus on reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Policy‐makers did not anticipate these changes. A number of key reforms are likely to be required. These include: assessing whether the return on capital provided to network operators is appropriate given changing economic conditions; determining the role of competition in the provision of “behind the meter” energy services; and integration of climate change policy with wholesale energy market design.
View less >
Journal Title
Economic Papers
Volume
36
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Economic Society of Australia. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: The Changing Nature of the Electricity Industry, Economic Papers, Vol 36(2) 104-120, which has been published in final form at DOI. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving (http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-828039.html)
Subject
Applied economics
Applied economics not elsewhere classified