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This paper draws on the notion of energopower (Boyer 2014) to show the foundational role of electricity in the (re)production of political power in Australia. I show how conflicts surrounding electricity have reconstituted state-market-society relations and rescaled governance. I study a series of notable national-scale interventions and argue that, through the contingent and chaotic play of events in the political sphere, market-oriented governance regimes for electricity have been weakened, and the issue of electricity decarbonisation has become 'weaponised' for electoral benefit. I explain how national political leadership in Australia has stepped in from a constitutionally-weak position to govern electricity under pressure for environmentally-driven adaptation. I show four statecraft techniques that reconstitute electricity in new ways: discursively linking electricity governance to socio-environmental futures; national interest framings that are weaponized for electoral gain; tactical governance through parliamentary compromise and appeasement; and jettisoning market logics in favour of state intervention. This study recognises the limits of centralized state-making under a Federalist system but shows the potential for statecraft to reshape scalar-territorial relations and strengthen the role of the central state vis-à-vis the market. Vital resources like electricity are not just struggled over but, under the right conditions, can come to shape political power. There is neither infinite potential for state rescaling through the performance of legitimacy, nor do rigid scalar hierarchies simply block reconfigurations of state power. To understand the potential for resource struggles to re-scale state power attention must be paid to the techniques of statecraft that support and undermine legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to explain the relationship between high frequency electricity demand, intra-day temperature variation and time. Using the Generalised Additive Model (GAM) framework we link high frequency (5-minute) aggregate electricity demand in Australia to the time of the day, time of the year and intra-day temperature. We document a strong relationship between high frequency electricity demand and intra-day temperature. We show a superior model fit when using Daylight Saving Time (DST), or clock time, instead of the standard (solar) time. We introduce the time weighted temperature model that captures instantaneous electricity demand sensitivity to temperature as a function of the human daily activity cycle, by assigning different temperature signal weighting based on the DST time. The results on DST and time weighted temperature modelling are novel in the literature and are important innovations in high frequency electricity demand forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multilevel perspective (MLP) has emerged as an influential framework for analyzing sustainable transitions. Whilst the MLP has recently incorporated valuable geographical perspectives this paper argues that more nuanced accounts of socio-spatial dimensions are still needed to explain how and why some regions miss opportunities for energy transitions. It does this through a study of the restructuring of the Victorian electricity system in Australia in the 1990s and the resulting failure to build demand side management into the energy market design and regulatory framework. The failure of the demand management niche requires a compelling explanation as to why, despite increasingly porous and seemingly unbounded flows of knowledge and capital and emergent actor networks, the territorial-scalar embeddedness of the electricity regime was reinforced. Drawing on geography literature the paper argues that a multidimensional analysis can do the following: address criticisms of the a-spatial and residual character of the landscape level; situate transitions within a geographical political economy context; and reveal the variations and semi-coherency of regimes shedding light on the degree of regime stability and the opportunities for niches to break through. This paper expands the conversation between theories of geographical political economy and sustainable transitions arguing that the geographies of capitalism and the state need to feature more than as a backdrop to socio-technical change, and instead should be brought directly into the MLP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the intraday price volatility process in four Australian wholesale electricity markets; namely New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. The data set consists of half-hourly electricity prices and demand volumes over the period January 1, 2002 to June 1, 2003. A range of processes including GARCH, RiskMetrics, normal Asymmetric Power ARCH or APARCH, Student APARCH and skewed Student APARCH are used to model the time-varying variance in prices and the inclusion of news arrival as proxied by the contemporaneous volume of demand, time-of-day, day-of-week and month-of-year effects as exogenous explanatory variables. The skewed Student APARCH model, which takes account of right skewed and fat tailed characteristics, produces the best results in all four markets. The results indicate significant innovation (ARCH effects) and volatility (GARCH effects) spillovers in The conditional standard deviation equation, even with market and calendar effects included. Intraday prices also exhibit significant asymmetric responses of volatility to the flow of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a popular method of increasing the portion of renewable energy generation in electricity supplies. The Australian Federal Government introduced a RPS that, in addition to accelerating the uptake of renewable energy, is designed to provide an ongoing base for the development of commercially competitive renewable energy and contribute to the development of an internationally competitive renewable energy industry. The design parameters of the RPS and the existing electricity market framework within which it operates are important considerations in determining the success of this policy initiative in meeting all its objectives. On the basis of the Western Australian experience, this paper argues that while conceptually the RPS may be a useful tool for increasing the portion of electricity generated by renewable resources, and supporting the development of a competitive renewable energy industry, its effectiveness depends upon the policy framework within which it operates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic discussion continues as to whether a fleet of grid-connected wind farms, widely dispersed across a single grid network, can provide a reliable electricity supply. One opinion is that wide geographical dispersion of wind farms provides sufficient smoothing of the intermittent and highly variable output of individual wind farms enabling the wind farm fleet to provide for base load demand. In an examination of the 5-minute time-averaged wind farm operational data for 21 large wind farms connected to the eastern Australian grid - geographically the largest, most widely dispersed, single interconnected grid in the world (AER, [1]) - this paper challenges that opinion. The findings also suggest that the connection of such a wind farm fleet, even one that is widely dispersed, poses significant security and reliability concerns to the eastern Australian grid. These findings have similar implications for the impact of wind farms on the security of electricity grids worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In theory, well designed electricity markets should deliver an efficient mix of technologies at least-cost. But energy market theories and energy market modelling are based upon equilibrium analysis and in practice electricity markets can be off-equilibrium for extended periods. Near-term spot and forward contract prices can and do fall well below, or substantially exceed, relevant entry cost benchmarks and associated long run equilibrium prices. However, given sufficient time higher prices, on average or during certain periods, create incentives for new entrant plant which in turn has the effect of capping longer-dated average spot price expectations at the estimated cost of the relevant new entrant technologies. In this article, we trace generalised new entrant benchmarks and their relationship to spot price outcomes in Australia's National Electricity Market over the 20-year period to 2018; from coal, to gas and more recently to variable renewables plus firming, notionally provided by--or shadow priced at--the carrying cost of an Open Cycle Gas Turbine. This latest entry benchmark relies implicitly, but critically, on the gains from exchange in organised spot markets, using existing spare capacity. As aging coal plant exit, gains from exchange may gradually diminish with 'notional firming' increasingly and necessarily being met by physical firming. At this point, the benchmark must once again move to a new technology set... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposals to reform default 'flat-rate' electricity tariffs are rarely met with enthusiasm by consumer groups or policymakers because they produce winners and losers. Proposals to initiate more cost-reflective time-of-use rates will be met with cautious interest if the basis of customer participation is 'opt-in'. Using the smart meter data of 160,000 residential customers from the Victorian region of Australia's National Electricity Market, our tariff model reveals that households in financial hardship are the most adversely affected from existing flat-rate structures. Even after network tariff rebalancing, Hardship and Concession & Pensioner Households are, on average, beneficiaries of more cost-reflective tariff structures once Demand Response is accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions whether it is cheaper for households in Australia to use electricity or gas for space heating, water heating and cooking. Claims that gas appliances are technically less efficient than electrical appliances; How reference to a MJ basis can make gas cheaper that electricity; Utilization of an alternative perspective based on econometric methods to determine which is cheaper, gas or electricity.