As part of my Master of Sustainable Energy, I completed a course in Energy Markets, Law and Policy. This course provided an introduction to world energy markets, energy policy and how governments regulate and intervene in these systems.
One of our assignments was to in teams of four, act as an Australian company and provide a media statement that responded to the government’s proposed energy policy. Our team chose to represent Origin Energy.
Origin is a leading provider of energy to homes and businesses throughout Australia and has extensive operations across Australia, Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific. Origin is involved across the entire energy value chain from gas production, electricity generation and retailing (serving over 4.5 million customers).
Our team conducted the analysis of the hypothetical government policy by utilising various frameworks such as the 3 Ps of Price, Physics, Policy; Supply and Demand; Policy Levers; the Energy Trilemma; Energy, Economy and Environment and the 5 Vertices Framework.
Following this holistic analysis, our team submitted the following positions in response the hypothetical government policies.
- Origin conditionally supports a Hydrogen Energy Target (HET) but recommends a cautious approach with the blend ratio due to safety issues and calls for government support with the costs required to modify infrastructure.
- While Origin supports the use of gas as a transition fuel, however we believe that a new gas import facility at Port Kembla will threaten Australia’s ability to meet its carbon reduction targets. Instead, Origin recommends that Australia open up new licenses for local gas reserves to ensure reliability of supply, whilst maintaining a lower carbon intensity.
- Origin conditionally supports Mandatory Time of Day Pricing as long as energy retailers are allowed to set different pricing tiers for customers who could be negatively impacted and appropriate pricing structures to ensure that retailers remain profitable.
- Although the intent of the International Energy Zones to increase GDP through foreign investment is commendable, Origin recommends that the proposed policy for International Energy Zones be modified to encourage both foreign and local investment by providing subsidies, tax-breaks, low-cost loans that match the incentives provided by policies in other countries such as the Inflation Reduction Act in the USA.
Click here to download a copy of my team’s media statement.
