Retail electricity prices in Queensland have risen in nominal terms by 82% since 2006/07. The primary driver of these increases in retail charges has been network charges. The Government established the Independent Review Panel on Network Costs to assess the potential for reform of the government-owned electricity distribution and transmission corporations - Ergon Energy, Energex and Powerlink.
Retail electricity prices in Queensland have risen in nominal terms by 82% since 2006/07. The primary driver of these increases in retail charges has been network charges. The Government established the Independent Review Panel on Network Costs to assess the potential for reform of the government-owned electricity distribution and transmission corporations - Ergon Energy, Energex and Powerlink. This Interim Report summarises the Panel's initial findings and recommendations for reform.
World Bank Technical Paper 240. Uses the findings of more than 50 studies on the historic and projected costs of renewable energy technologies to develop a common basis for comparing the costs of photovoltaics, solar-thermal, and biomass technologi
Recently, independent system operators (ISOs) and others have published reports on the costs of transmission congestion. The magnitude of congestion costs cited in these reports has contributed to the national discussion on the current state of U.S. electricity transmission system and whether it provides an adequate platform for competition in wholesale electricity markets. This report reviews reports of congestion costs and begins to assess their implications for the current national discussion on the importance of the U.S. electricity transmission system for enabling competitive wholesale electricity markets. As a guiding principle, we posit that a more robust electricity system could reduce congestion costs; and thereby, (1) facilitate more vibrant and fair competition in wholesale electricity markets, and (2) enable consumers to seek out the lowest prices for electricity. Yet, examining the details suggests that, sometimes, there will be trade-offs between these goals. Therefore, it is essential to understand who pays, how much, and how do they benefit in evaluating options (both transmission and non-transmission alternatives) to address transmission congestion. To describe the differences among published estimates of congestion costs, we develop and motivate three ways by which transmission congestion costs are calculated in restructured markets. The assessment demonstrates that published transmission congestion costs are not directly comparable because they have been developed to serve different purposes. More importantly, critical information needed to make them more comparable, for example in order to evaluate the impacts of options to relieve congestion, is sometimes not available.
Large industrial and commercial electricity consumers are paying amongst the highest prices in Europe for electricity. This has resulted in the possibility that electricity costs will prevent large companies from being able to expand their businesses in Northern Ireland and, in some cases, may eventually lead to the loss of some businesses. This would result in job losses to the economy and increased electricity costs to both business and domestic consumers. The 17.8% increase in electricity prices for most domestic consumers which came into effect from July 2013 also gives considerable cause for concern. The increase, coupled with the wide fluctuations in electricity prices creates an uncertain environment for consumers, many of whom are already in fuel poverty. The Single Electricity Market Operator should undertake a review to consider how generation costs can be made more transparent and the Utility Regulator should undertake further work to improve the transparency in network charges. The way in which renewable generators are rewarded should be reviewed and the price paid for renewable generation from the price of electricity generated from fossil fuels should be de-coupled. The requirement for a capacity payment mechanism to be in place for any form of electricity generation should also be considered. Mutual Energy must work to ensure that a permanent solution to the faults on the Moyle Interconnector is put in place. Before the NI Sustainable Energy Programme comes to an end, the Executive should plan a further programme to promote and improve energy efficiency for vulnerable consumers
This book provides an updated and expanded overview of basic concepts of energy economics and explains how simple economic tools can be used to analyse contemporary energy issues in the light of recent developments, such as the Paris Agreement, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and new technological developments in the production and use of energy. The new edition is divided into four parts covering concepts, issues, markets, and governance. Although the content has been thoroughly revised and rationalised to reflect the current state of knowledge, it retains the main features of the first edition, namely accessibility, research-informed presentation, and extensive use of charts, tables and worked examples. This easily accessible reference book allows readers to gain the skills required to understand and analyse complex energy issues from an economic perspective. It is a valuable resource for students and researchers in the field of energy economics, as well as interested readers with an interdisciplinary background.
The paper ‘Challenges and Approaches to Electricity Grids Operations and Planning with Increased Amounts of Variable Renewable Generation: Emerging Lessons from Selected Operational Experiences and Desktop Studies’ focuses on analyzing the impacts of variable renewable energy on the operation and planning of the the power system (mostly, generation system). It is aimed at informing stakeholders in power utilities, regulatory bodies and other relevant audiences, on the fundamentals of technical challenges and approaches to operate electricity grids with renewable energy. It covers renewable energy as a whole, but in particular, focusses on wind and solar energy. It also presents three case studies of countries, including China, Gemany and Spain. The total worldwide installed capacity of wind and solar projects is growing rapidly, and several countries are noticing increased penetrations of wind and solar in their electricity generation mix. In addition to operating experience being gained from adding wind and solar capacity, several grid integration studies have been performed that assess potential grid and operating impacts from adding higher amounts of wind and solar capacity. Perhaps just as important, the electric power industry and those that conduct research on grid integration have not found a maximum level of variable generation that can be reliably incorporated, and it is clear that it is as much an economic question (how much cost in additional reserves or grid impacts is acceptable) as a technical question regarding grid operators’ ability to adapt to the new challenges. In addition, while their contributions to capacity or “firm” power and associated costs are different from those of conventional power sources, variable renewable generation technologies can contribute to long-term system adequacy and security. The paper describes on the contribution of variable power sources to long-term supply adequacy requirements, i.e. how much sources like wind and solar power contribute to “firm supply” in a system. It also describes methods to find out to what extent they contribute and at what cost. It also aims at providing indicative answers to how costs to system operations be determined and when and how an integration study be done to estimate the short-term reserve costs of renewable energy. The concepts in the paper should be of interest, especially to grid planers. For grid operators, the paper summarizes a menu of strategies that the operational practices and desktop research tell about managing wind in a system at different levels of penetration. It also elucidates available strategies, amongst other crucial questions of operational impacts and challenges that operators need to be aware of, to integrate variable generation.
Energy Reviews: Unified Gas Supply System of the USSR (1985) explores some important aspects of the development and operation of the unified gas system of the Soviet Union. It pays particular attention to both the basic characteristics of and the long-term trends in its development and shows how the USSR has solved the problems involved in creating such a system.
