Climate Special on The Drum

The Drum host Ellen Fanning is joined by Aylin Cunsolo, Tony Wood, Ketan Joshi, Anika Molesworth and Ewan Jones  to discuss warnings of a climate catastrophe.

They discuss how Australia stacks up globally, and can we be optimistic about the future?

Watch the “Climate Special” from The Drum on ABC TV.

Security and Stability in the NEM: Energy Futures Seminar

Read our summary and listen to the event audio from our most recent Energy Futures Seminar featuring Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel.

Dr Alan Finkel.

The final report from the 'Independent Review into the Future Security of the National Electricity Market' led by Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel, was presented at The University of Melbourne on Thursday 22 June as part of our second Energy Futures Seminar for 2017, co-hosted by the Melbourne Energy Institute and the Grattan Institute.

Dr Finkel was joined by Audrey Zibelman, CEO of the Australian Energy Market Operator, Tony Wood, Director of Energy Programs at the Grattan Institute, and Sabra Lane, Journalist and Presenter of AM on ABC Radio. Discussion focused on what the findings from Dr Finkel’s recently released report will mean for the future of the NEM.

Both the report and Dr. Finkel’s presentation emphasised the importance of achieving security, reliability, cost and emissions objectives for the NEM.

Dr Finkel said ‘Our vision with this report is for Australia to have a world-class electricity system that supports our economy and prosperity. We found that the ‘business as usual’ case is not sustainable – we need to manage the transition going forward, and we need to optimise the energy system. The review proposes we can achieve this through an orderly and managed transition, comprehensive system planning, and stronger policy and governance. The Commonwealth Government has accepted 49 of the 50 recommendations, which we are very pleased with, and we look forward to working with the government through this transition.’

Tony Wood from the Grattan Institute.

In her own presentation, Ms Zibelman said ‘Energy market design and regulation are the main issues in the sector. The Australian Energy Market Operator’s job is to make sure the needs of consumers are being met, and we support the recommendations made in this report. The greatest threat to markets is power insecurity, and the government must deliver the essentials.’

Mr Wood ended the panellists opening remarks, saying ‘The report, while not perfect – and frankly no report of this kind was ever going to be – is a very good start. We must balance market and regulations; the Energy Security Board proposed by the report is a good proposal but will be a challenge at state level. Nostaligia for energy prices has no place in this debate. Just as we cannot go back to candles, nor are electricity prices going to go backwards.’

There was significant discussion with the audience covering the emissions abatement trajectories used in the report, as well as the report’s recommendations on generator reliability and security. Several audience members questioned whether the report goes far enough in its plan for decarbonisation. On this, Dr Finkel said ‘if we can achieve the outcome trajectory that we want, we should use the mix that has naturally unfolded to deliver the best system.’

As part of the Review, the Melbourne Energy Institute was commissioned to assess the security of the power systems that might arise under different emissions reduction policy scenarios. This work was led by our Chair of Power Systems Engineering, Prof. Pierluigi Mancarella.

Recently appointed CEO of the
Australian Energy Market
Operator, Audrey Zibelman.

Our work supported the Review’s findings that business as usual is not an option. Regardless of the abatement policy chosen, operation of the NEM must be reformed in order to maintain system security and reliability.

Our work then suggested how a range of emerging technologies and services could take part in a reformed NEM to enhance system security. Such measures include demand response, energy storage of several forms, and synthetic inertia in newer wind turbines, all of which can provide Fast Frequency Response (FFR).

For those interested in looking further at the Review report, as well as the supporting reports from engineering consultants Jacobs and MEI, they are available on the Review website.

Listen to a recording of the June 22  event at the University of Melbourne’s Carillo Gantner theatre - "Security and Stability in the NEM: Energy Futures Seminar."

Concern that focus is on renewable energy rather than emissions reduction

Spelling it out. Eiffel Tower displays the
 message 'No plan B' during the UN
 Climate Change Conference in Paris on
December 11, 2015.

As climate talks commence in Marakesh in Morrocco this week (COP22) a noted energy expert says Australians need to change the narrative around climate change.

Tony Wood of think tank The Grattan Institute said as it now, Australia would struggle to meet its own emissions reduction levels promised in Paris last year.

That is to reduce CO2 emissions to 26-28 per cent of the levels they were at in 2005.

Mr Wood described the climate change discourse in Australia as toxic, and that many people in government did not even believe anything should be done to tackle it.

Read the ABC story - "Concern that focus is on renewable energy rather than emissions reduction.”

The real lesson from South Australia’s electricity ‘crisis’: we need better climate policy

The Grattan Institute says we
 need better climate policies.

Australia’s energy markets got a big shock in July this year, when wholesale electricity prices spiked in South Australia, alarming the state government and major industrial customers. Commentators rushed to find the immediate culprits. But the real issues lie elsewhere.

As shown by the Grattan Institute’s latest report the market worked. Having soared, prices fell back to more manageable levels. The lights stayed on.

Yet South Australia’s power shock exposed a looming problem in Australia’s electricity system – not high prices or the threat of blackouts, but an emerging conflict between Australia’s climate change policies and the demands of our energy market.

Read the piece on The Conversation from the Program Director, Energy, at the Grattan Institute, Tony Wood - “The real lesson from South Australia’s electricity ‘crisis’: we need better climate policy.”

Tony Wood explores Labor's twisty journey to climate change response

T

Tony Wood.

ony Wood explores the difficulties and challenges faced by Labor in articulating its response to climate change.

The program director, Energy, at the Grattan Institute has written about “The latest turn in the twisty history of Labor’s climate policies” on The Conversation.

Her said, “Developing and effectively implementing a response to the “great moral challenge of our time” has so far beaten two Labor Prime Ministers and looks challenging for the current alternative prime minister, Bill Shorten.

“Whatever the status of this week’s leaked policy document, a reflection on the Labor Party’s gyrations on climate change policy over the past decade may provide some insight into what we might see next. The political drama will be heightened next month, when the government announces its post-2020 emissions reduction target and then its own policy to meet that target. “

Just a few pages of 'The Corporation' will illustrate Direct Action's weaknesses

R

ead Joel Bakan’s “The Corporation” and it will be evident within pages that this will simply not work.

Tony Wood, energy program
director with
 the Grattan Institute.

Our power companies that respond, without question, to the fundamentals of corporations and that is that their first and only responsibility is to make a profit for shareholders.

The social and environmental needs of the communities they serve barely make it onto the agenda.

An ABC story - “Top polluters to set own limits virtually penalty free, according to Direct Action policy paper” – reports that “Australia's 140 top polluters will set their own limits for future pollution virtually penalty free, according to the Government's latest Direct Action policy paper.”

The story reports that Grattan Institute energy program director Tony Wood said the ideas proposed in the paper simply would not work.

"The safeguard mechanism was always a critical element of the Direct Action plan, but there is nothing in this safeguard mechanism that puts any absolute limit on a whole range of sectors," he said.