• Global Insight 7: 6 June 2017

    June 6, 2017

    Global Insight 7: 6 June 2017

    Global Insight 7: 06-06-2017 Our weekly round up of stories that caught our eye from around the world on energy system change. Australia CSIRO releases a Low Emissions Technology Roadmap The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have released their roadmap this week to identify and value low emission technologies that can help Australia achieve their Paris Agreement targets whilst addressing the energy trilemma. The report recognises that improvements in energy productivity – the ratio of output divided by energy consumption – will lead to abatement no matter which course of action is taken. It

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  • New thinking: The RIIO EDI Review: Just how successful is RIIO?

    June 6, 2017

    New thinking: The RIIO EDI Review: Just how successful is RIIO?

    The RIIO EDI Review: Just how successful is RIIO? Helen Poulter, IGov Team, 6th June 2017   RIIO stands for Revenue = Incentives + Innovation + Outputs and is Ofgem’s regulatory mechanism for the electricity and gas transmission and distribution businesses initiated in 2015, following on from the previous RPI-X regulatory control mechanism, in order to facilitate innovation within the electricity and gas networks. The purpose of this blog is to (1) breakdown the monetary incentives in the RIIO regulation mechanism for electricity distribution networks, (2) evaluate the ED1 price control annual review, published in February

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  • Global Insight 6: 30 May 2017

    May 30, 2017

    Global Insight 6: 30 May 2017

    Global Insight 6: 30-05-2017 Our weekly round up of stories that caught our eye from around the world on energy system change. Australia Carbon Capture and Storage now financed by Clean Energy Finance Corporation The Australian coalition government has announced that legislation prohibiting the financing of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is to be removed.  The government say that this is to provide a  ‘technology neutral, non-ideological, approach to national energy policy’.  The move has also been welcomed by the Energy Networks Association.  The government see CCS as

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  • Global Insight 5: 23 May 2017

    May 22, 2017

    Global Insight 5: 23 May 2017

    Global Insight 5: 23-05-2017 Our weekly round up of stories that caught our eye from around the world on energy system change. Australia AEMO and ARENA pilot project for demand response The Annual Market Performance Review 2016, released last week by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), the rule-maker for the National Electricity Market (NEM), highlighted possible problems to system security and reliability within the NEM due to the current and future closures of thermal generation. Following this, the Australian Market Operator (AEMO) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) have announced plans for a 3-year

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  • Global Insight 4: May 16th 2017

    May 16, 2017

    Global Insight 4:  May 16th 2017

    Global Insight 4: 16-05-2017 Our weekly round up of stories that caught our eye from around the world on energy system change. Australia Mini-grid trial a success AusNet Services, Victoria’s transmission operator and owner of one of the three distribution network service providers, has announced the success of their Melbourne based mini-grid trial.  The trial connected 8 homes, 2 of which had no solar or battery storage, in the Melbourne suburb of Moroolbark. Using a cloud-based mini grid control system provided by energy technology company GreenSync, the project was successfully able to disconnect and reconnect to

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  • Global Insight 3: May 9th 2017

    May 9, 2017

    Global Insight 3: May 9th 2017

    Global Insight 3: 09-05-2017 Our weekly round up of stories that caught our eye from around the world on energy system change. Australia ARENA announce new investment plan – Innovating Energy The Australia Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) have released their new investment plan this week.  The plan will invest in low-carbon solutions from research and development to commercial projects concentrating on four themes – delivering secure and reliable electricity, accelerating solar PV innovation, improving energy productivity, exporting renewable energy.  The last priority will be looking at shifting Australia’s energy exports from coal and LNG to hydrogen

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  • Global Insight 2 – 02-05-2017

    May 2, 2017

    Global Insight 2 – 02-05-2017

    Global Insight 2: 02-05-2017 Our weekly round up of stories that caught our eye from around the world on energy system change. Australia ENA and CSIRO release final report of the Energy Networks Transformation Roadmap ENA (Energy Networks Australia – the peak national body representing gas distribution and electricity transmission and distribution businesses) and CSIRO (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation – the federal government agency for scientific research) released their Energy Networks Transformation Roadmap on Friday.  They recognize the disruption that distributed energy will cause in the future and have spent 2 years researching

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  • Global Insight 25-4-2017

    April 25, 2017

    Global Insight 25-4-2017

    Global Insight 25th April 2016 Upturn in German Solar and storage sectors The solar sector in Germany is in a buoyant mood once more, as falling technology costs are driving deployment, leading to a growing domestic market for the first time since 2012.   The solar industry now claim that that costs of solar production are now half what residential or even commercial customers pay for their electricity.  This lead to an 80% year on year increase in domestic solar pv installations during the 2nd half of 2016.   The cheaper costs of solar energy production are

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  • Paper: Policies, politics and demand side innovations

    April 25, 2017

    Paper: Policies, politics and demand side innovations

    Policies, politics and demand side innovations: The untold story of Germany’s energy transition By: Caroline Kuzemko, Catherine Mitchell, Matthew Lockwood and Richard Hoggett Published in: Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 28, June 2017, Pages 58–67 Abstract This article shines a light on a less examined aspect of sustainable energy transitions: governing for demand side innovations in Germany. Demand innovations are considered to be central to affordable, efficient and politically acceptable energy system transformations, however many argue that not enough is being done in governance terms. In a departure from much analysis on demand policy demand

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  • New Thinking: The Solution to South Australia’s blackouts – a market which rewards DER

    April 20, 2017

    New Thinking: The Solution to South Australia’s blackouts – a market which rewards DER

    The Solution to South Australia’s blackouts: a market which rewards DER Helen Poulter, IGov Team, 20th April 2017   On the 28th September 2016 storms in northern South Australia, including tornados with wind speeds in the range of 190-260 km/h caused a state-wide blackout.  The update report from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and also a recent review by the Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel have recommended that value services for Frequency Controlled Ancillary Service (FCAS) and System Restart Ancillary Services (SRAS) from distributed energy and other storage technologies should be investigated. In addition, on February

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