Analysis of Australian Electricity Cost and Reliability Issues

This report examines the economic challenges faced by the Australian government regarding electricity production, focusing on high costs and grid instability. The study reviews journal articles to identify why electricity is expensive and recommends cost-effective production methods, using a secondary data collection approach. The research highlights the high cost of renewable energy sources compared to traditional grid production, and the instability of the national electricity grid. The report investigates the need for government regulations, redesigning production and supply systems, and shifting towards public-owned national grids. Limitations include time and funding constraints. The study aims to offer insights into renewable energy projects and ways to minimize electricity consumption, contributing to solutions for the Australian energy crisis.

Identifying Concerns for Australian
electricity cost and its reliability

Abstract
• The paper mainly focuses on the economic issues that the government of Australia faces
due to the production of electricity.
• The main aim of the paper is to review a number of journal articles as well as scholars in
order to identify why electricity production in Australia is expensive as well as for
recommending ways through which the electricity production can be made cost effective.
• The paper uses secondary data collection method and also suggests a number of
limitations which are faced by the researchers in order to conduct the research.
• The research needs 34 days of time and budget of around $3,000.

Introduction
• The paper mainly reflects on the concerns for Australian
electricity cost and its reliability as well as on the instability.
• It is found that the production of electricity from various
renewable sources are considered to be very much costly as
compared to the production from the grid.
• Therefore, the traditional method of electricity production as well
as distribution needs are mainly replaced by the various
renewable sources for its proper sustainability.
• However, analyzing cost effective methods of electricity
production is still a great concern for the government of Australia.
• The paper reviews a number of articles as well as research paper
in order to identify effective as well as cost efficient ways of
electricity production.

Literature review
• According to Ram (2017), different types of reliable
sources like coal, nuclear energy, natural gas as well as
hydroelectricity are mainly required with appropriate
government regulations in order to have a market solution
for lowering the electricity price.
• Moreover, renewable sources of energy can generally
contribute proper proportion of electricity supply.
• It is found that presently the renewable sources of energy
are quite expensive due to the initial cost that is mainly
needed for undertaking the initial set up however, it is
considered to be quite cheaper than coal (Dogan and
Tugcu, 2015).

Literature review Contd.
• It is stated by Wolfram, Wiedmann and Diesendorf (2016) that
Australian Energy Market Commission generally reveals that
the grid of national electricity is becoming much more unstable
due to a number of changes within the power generation mix
for leaving the grid at the mercy of weather.
• The government generally attains proper level of security as
well as reliability in 20 years.
• There are number of other reasons of market failure and
therefore the entire government is generally trying to look on
different types of solutions.

Literature review Contd.
• It is opined by Blakers, Lu and Stocks (2017) that the
government should take proper step for keeping the prices
quite low as possible for redesigning the entire production as
well as supply system for maintaining proper accuracy.
• This generally can be done by shifting the national grid from
various private as well as state networks.
• Presently, it is quite difficult to get different types of public
concerns as well as attentions for natural gas as well as coal
due to emission of huge amount of carbon dioxide that further
leads to global warming (Dogan and Tugcu 2015).
• Therefore, there are a number of concerns which are mainly
associated with the production of electricity from various
sources of renewable energy.

Literature review Contd.
• According to Bell et al. (2017), the government must take
proper step in order to successfully setup project that are
mainly based on the solar, geothermal as well as wind
energy.
• Each of the proposed project must run effectively for
maintaining the power crisis. High cost of electricity as
well as helps in suggesting ways for coping with natural
disasters (Yu and Halog 2015).
• In addition to this, the Australians must remain aware
about the unnecessary utilization of electricity for
minimizing the consumption.

Statement of the problem
• The main problem in the production of electricity is
that that the use of renewable energy for production
becomes very much expensive as compared to the
method of production from grid.
• It is found that huge sources of renewable energy
are present in the nature but proper setup of both
micro and macro projects for these sources are quite
expensive and even very much tough for the normal
people to think about its set up.

Purpose of the study
• The main purpose of undertaking the research is to review a
number of journal articles
• This is done in order to identify cost effective ways of
electricity production for resolving the challenges that the
Australian government is facing due to high expenditure on
the production as well as distribution of electricity.
• It is quite necessary for the government to keep the prices
of the electricity as low as possible by successfully
redesigning the production as well as supply system from
ground level for maintaining proper accuracy.

Research Questions
The research questions are listed below:
• To identify proper cost-effective ways of electricity
production in Australia
• To redesign the production as well as supply system from
the ground level for maintaining proper accuracy
• To shift through public owned national grid from private to
state networks for making the baseline power cheap and
reliable.

Research methodology
• It is found that in order to analyze the issues that are related with cost-
effective electricity production, positivism research philosophy is
mainly selected.
• The positivism philosophy is selected as it is mainly based on the
factual knowledge which is mainly gained with the help of
observation (Kumar 2019).
• Inductive research approach is generally used for analyzing different
issues that are associated with electricity production as well as
instability and reliability of the grid.
• The researcher utilizes inductive approach as the inductive research is
mainly undertaken on the basis of the observation of the researchers
and it does not disregard theories while formulating different types of
research questions as well as research objectives.

Research methodology Contd.
• Descriptive research design is one of the frameworks of
research method as well as techniques that is generally selected
by the researcher in order to properly analyze the issues that are
mainly associated with electricity production.
• This framework is mainly utilized for providing detailed
information about the various causes and challenges (Wiek and
Lang 2016).
• The paper uses secondary data collection method for reviewing
the journal articles as well as research paper in order to properly
analyze the issues that are related with electricity production.
• The researcher also collects information about various ways that
are important for implementing proper ways of cost-effective
electricity production.

Limitations
The limitations of the study are mainly listed below:
• Due to lack of proper time, the researchers are unable to in-
depth research and analysis on the issues of electricity
production in Australia.
• As proper amount of funds is not available, the researchers can
face economic challenges if the resources are not used
properly.
• Due to improper ability of meeting project scope, the
researchers are unable to meet the deliverables of the research
on time successfully.

Contribution of the study
• The study which is mainly undertaken helps in reflecting the various issues that the
Australian government faces and the reasons due to which the production as well as
supply of electricity is expensive in Australia.
• With the help of this undertaken research, the researchers can be able to determine
new options which the help of which electricity production can be made cost effective.
• Further, it is analyzed that proper set up of project for using renewable sources of
energy can be one of the best options for producing cost effective electricity
production.

Work breakdown structure
Identyfying Concerns for
Australian electricity cost
and its reliability
Initiation phase
Problem
identification
Solution analysis
Best solution
identification
Planning phase
Undertaking
research on
electricity
production in
Australia
Setting project
objectives
Setting proper
research questions
Undertaking research
Reviewing journals
and articles
Collecting data
Selection of
positivism research
design
Selection of
inductive approch
Selection of
descriptive research
philosophy
Data collection
procedure
Determining
limitations
Closure phase
Post project review
Stakeholder sign off
Documentation

Project cost
Cost Activity Estimated Cost ($Au)
Printing Costs – Articles, questionnaires and drafts $1000
– Final draft & binding 250 $1250
Access to and acquisition of data $300
Software – Endnote or other referencing packages $250
– $250
Proofreading Costs $1000
Contingency $200
Total Costs $3,000

Schedule

References
• Wolfram, P., Wiedmann, T. and Diesendorf, M., 2016. Carbon footprint scenarios for
renewable electricity in Australia. Journal of Cleaner Production, 124, pp.236-245.
• Lu, B., Blakers, A. and Stocks, M., 2017. 90–100% renewable electricity for the south
west interconnected system of Western Australia. Energy, 122, pp.663-674.
• Ram, M., Child, M., Aghahosseini, A., Bogdanov, D., Poleva, A. and Breyer, C., 2017.
Comparing electricity production costs of renewables to fossil and nuclear power plants
in G20 countries. Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), pp.1-84.
• Dogan, N.O. and Tugcu, C.T., 2015. Energy efficiency in electricity production: a data
envelopment analysis (DEA) approach for the G-20 countries. International Journal of
Energy Economics and Policy, 5(1), pp.246-252.

References Contd.
• Bell, W.P., Wild, P., Foster, J. and Hewson, M., 2017. Revitalising the wind power induced merit
order effect to reduce wholesale and retail electricity prices in Australia. Energy Economics, 67,
pp.224-241.
• Blakers, A., Lu, B. and Stocks, M., 2017. 100% renewable electricity in Australia. Energy, 133,
pp.471-482.
• Yu, M. and Halog, A., 2015. Solar photovoltaic development in Australia—a life cycle sustainability
assessment study. Sustainability, 7(2), pp.1213-1247.
• Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications
Limited.
• Wiek, A. and Lang, D.J., 2016. Transformational sustainability research methodology.
In Sustainability science (pp. 31-41). Springer, Dordrecht.
• Dumay, J. and Cai, L., 2015. Using content analysis as a research methodology for investigating
intellectual capital disclosure. Journal of Intellectual Capital.