The impact of carbon prices on Australia's National Electricity Market

Revitalising the wind power induced merit order effect to reduce wholesale and retail electricity prices in Australia

“…The ANEM model ) is a sophisticated model of the Australia National Electricity Market (NEM) used to analyse the sensitivity of the NEM to various effects such as climate change (Foster et al 2013), carbon pricing (Wild, Bell & Foster 2014; and the deployment of solar PV (Foster et al 2011). In this paper, we investigate the sensitivity of the NEM's wholesale spot prices to increasing levels of wind power penetration.…”

Impact of Carbon Prices on Wholesale Electricity Prices and Carbon Pass-Through Rates in the Australian National Electricity Market

“…This promotes the increased dispatch of TAS hydro plant at the expense of output originating from VIC as carbon prices increase. Evidence of this is indicated in the reduction in power flows from VIC to TAS on the Basslink Interconnector at lower carbon prices and switch around to power exports from TAS to VIC at higher carbon prices as indicated in Table 17 of Wild et al (2012a). Second, there emerges an increasing incidence of branch congestion on TAS intrastate transmission branches in response to increased internal production from TAS hydro plant as carbon prices increase,-see Table 16 in Wild et al (2012a) for further details.…”

“…This reflects the substitution of gas for coal generation as higher carbon prices reduce production levels from the latter towards each plant's minimum stable operating level-see Wild et al (2012a, Section 4.3). This, in turn, promotes the increased export of power from SA to VIC (especially for carbon prices of $40/tC0 2 and higher)-see Table 17 of Wild et al (2012a). Increased congestion on the Murraylink Interconnector as the carbon price increases also promotes price separation between VIC and SA-see Table 18 of Wild et al (2012a) for details.…”

“…This reflects the availability of relatively new vintage black coal plant located in the South Burnett (e.g. Tarong) and South West QLD regions-see Figure 1 of Wild et al (2012a). These are among the newest, cheapest and most emission friendly coal-fired generators in Australia.…”

The Effect of Increasing the Number of Wind Turbine Generators on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Australian National Electricity Market from 2014 to 2025

“…Introducing "pollution penalties" would both help resolve the Federal Government's deficit and improve the effectiveness of wind power to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Wild, Bell and Foster (2014) investigate carbon prices required to start a switch from brown coal to black coal or gas using the ANEM model. We recommend expanding this investigation to incorporate wind power.…”