Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Electric utilities, Australia'

The restructuring of many national and state electricity industries over the last two decades has created new sets of laws and regulations, market design and participants. Along with those changes, industry risks have also been transformed significantly. Prior to restructuring, government-owned or carefully regulated monopoly private utilities would manage most of these industry risks. With restructuring, however, both the government, through their market regulators, and industry participants need to manage a range of previous,, yet also now new, risks. While the government???s risk management strategy is focused on the industry as a whole, participants are naturally more concerned with their individual risks. The Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) is one of the many electricity markets that were formed through the restructuring process underway worldwide. It created a number of new types of market participants facing different sets of risks. The main objective of this thesis is to examine the management of market risk by these different NEM participants. The methodology used in the thesis involves developing a fundamental understanding of electricity restructuring, the NEM and the various risks faced by the different NEM participants. Data on NEM spot prices, ancillary costs and forward prices are analysed to gain a better understanding of its relationship with market activities. Different risk management strategies, both proactive and reactive, that can be taken by the participants are discussed This thesis has highlighted some of the complexities involved in managing risks in a restructured electricity industry. Risks are never static and changes in market conditions alter the risk exposure of the participants. Therefore, participants will need to constantly monitor their risk exposure and update their risk management strategies. The Cash-Flow-at-Risk methodology is introduced as a possible tool to measure risk and analyse risk management options for different NEM participants.

For decades electricity has been a critical source of energy for all major industries, nationally and internationally. In 2002 the Australian electricity supply industry had assets in excess of $86 billion and accounted for more than 1.4 percent of gross domestic product. It is a major employer with more than 33,000 people serving more than 8 million customers. This study explores the impact of corporatisation and management reform on the role and working life of managers within the broader context of this industry. It is an industry identified by academics, commentators and the business media over the past two decades as one of poor management performance and inefficiencies - often seen as significant contributors to historically high electricity costs to consumers in Australia. As a result, electricity utility reform has been high on the agenda of national and state governments from the early 1980's and throughout the 1990's. Macro and micro economic reforms driven by significant government sponsored reports were considered central to Australia's efforts to improve its economic position. Underpinning this orthodoxy was the call for managerial responsibilities and incentives for managers of public utilities to be redefined in accord with the government's objectives. Managerialism became the ideological driver for management reform and corporatisation. This in tum became the major change process employed by state governments seeking micro (agency level) economic reforms. These economic reforms incorporated efficiency, productivity and contestability considerations in line with National Competition Policy.

The research presented in this thesis aims to improve our knowledge regarding the impact of privatisation and deregulation of public service type infrastructure industries. In recent years, Australia's industry reform policies have critically relied on rapid deregulation of major utilities such as telecommunication, gas and electricity. Although several industries have been deregulated in the last two decades, our understanding regarding the impact of deregulation on residential electricity market is still developing. In order to accomplish the research, about 400 residential customers were surveyed and their electricity consumption patterns (ECP)were monitored by installing special electronic meters. The findings are discussed in detail. As an implication to policy and practice there is an urgent need for a nation-wide standard,reshaping the practices of the electricity marketing and establishing a time-dynamic ECP monitoring system. Another important implication concerns the well-founded theories in micro-economic literature. This research has established that the price of the commodities and services charged by public service type utility suppliers should not be left entirely to the market forces concerned with demand - supply equilibrium. There is an urgent need to understand the role of different socio-economic segments in contributing to the economic efficiencies of public service type assets. More efficient segments should be equitably rewarded for their contributions rather than penalised perhaps due to the lack of their bargaining power.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis focuses on the development of a forecasting model for short- to medium-term electricity spot prices, based on modelling the dynamics of the supply and demand functions. It is found that the equilibrium assumption frequently adopted in electricity price models does not always hold; to overcome this problem, a notional demand process derived from the market clearing condition is proposed. Not only is this demand process able to capture all the price-affecting factors in one variable, but it also allows the equilibrium assumption to be satisfied and a spot price model to be built, using any appropriate form of hypothetical supply function. In addition, this thesis presents a model for approximating and modelling the bid stacks by capturing the points that govern their shape and location. Integrating these two models provides a realistic model that has a mean absolute percentage error of approximately 19% and 24% for week- and month-ahead forecasts respectively, when applied to the New South Wales (NSW) half-hourly electricity spot prices. Additionally, the density forecasting evaluation method proposed by Diebold et al. (1998) is employed in the thesis to assess the performance of the model. Besides the development of a spot price model, a two-part empirical study is made of the prices of NSW electricity futures contracts. The first part of the study develops a method based on the principle of certainty equivalence, which enables the market utility function to be recovered from a set of futures market quotes. The method is tested with two different sets of simulated data and works as expected. However, it is unable to obtain useful results from the NSW market quotes due to the poor data quality. The second part uses a regression method to investigate the relationship between futures prices and the descriptive statistics of the underlying spot prices. The result suggests that futures prices in NSW are linear combinations of the median and volatility of the final payoff.

The research presented in this thesis aims to improve our knowledge regarding the impact of privatisation and deregulation of public service type infrastructure industries. In recent years, Australia's industry reform policies have critically relied on rapid deregulation of major utilities such as telecommunication, gas and electricity. Although several industries have been deregulated in the last two decades, our understanding regarding the impact of deregulation on residential electricity market is still developing. In order to accomplish the research, about 400 residential customers were surveyed and their electricity consumption patterns (ECP)were monitored by installing special electronic meters. The findings are discussed in detail. As an implication to policy and practice there is an urgent need for a nation-wide standard,reshaping the practices of the electricity marketing and establishing a time-dynamic ECP monitoring system. Another important implication concerns the well-founded theories in micro-economic literature. This research has established that the price of the commodities and services charged by public service type utility suppliers should not be left entirely to the market forces concerned with demand - supply equilibrium. There is an urgent need to understand the role of different socio-economic segments in contributing to the economic efficiencies of public service type assets. More efficient segments should be equitably rewarded for their contributions rather than penalised perhaps due to the lack of their bargaining power.

The last decade has delivered rapid structural change to the Australian electricity sector. The common conceptualisation of the sector's restructuring has been narrowly based around sector-specific regulatory change and the creation of a national electricity market. This thesis argues that such a focus provides an incomplete and inaccurate explanation of the transformation. Three closely interrelated layers of policies and actions embodying the precepts of neoliberalism, and implemented by the state, have driven the sector's transformation. These policies and actions transcend 'electricity-centric' policies and encompass policies which have become systemic to the Australian public sector as well as a third layer which has transformed the prevailing industrial paradigm across all industry sectors. The drivers of the electricity sector's restructuring -- and the outcomes and beneficiaries arising -- form the core research focus of this thesis. The research task is addressed by using the analytical framework of the French theory of r??gulation. The analysis reveals that the electricity sector has been Australia's second largest contributor of privatisation proceeds, remains dominated by government ownership and has falling levels of foreign ownership. Higher relative wage levels and union membership are also evident as have been job losses and substantial real price increases for households whereas those for business have generally fallen. The purported 'reform' centrepiece, the national electricity market, was found to be increasingly uncompetitive due to its own regulatory regime and market manipulation by government-owned companies. In addition, the sector exhibits a heightened precariousness: an unprecedented financial vulnerability arising from a strong appetite for debt and derivatives and exacerbated by payments to government owners not by new investment in generation capacity; increasing tensions between the nation-state and local-state concerning the national electricity market and compromises with labour; and an exposure to political and financial risks from the sector's global integration. The clear winners from the sector's restructuring are the owners of capital and the state, particularly the local-state, although the sustainability of this situation is questionable. The analysis also generates a number of propositions about the application of r??gulation theory to sector-based research.

Asset-rich organisations (utilities) within Australia have entered into an era of environmental change, imposed largely by successive Federal and State Governments wanting to exact financial returns from these State Owned Corporations (SOCs). These changes have created a shift in the paradigms within which these organisations currently operate. Long established principles are being revisited, and processes re-engineered, to allow them to implement the changes needed to obtain improved efficiencies and achieve overall business success. It is this drive to break down the barriers and practices of the past that has led to the need to develop a fundamental understanding of what it means to take a holistic approach to the management of the physical assets owned by utilities.
Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

Asset-rich organisations (utilities) within Australia have entered into an era of environmental change, imposed largely by successive Federal and State Governments wanting to exact financial returns from these State Owned Corporations (SOCs). These changes have created a shift in the paradigms within which these organisations currently operate. Long established principles are being revisited, and processes re-engineered, to allow them to implement the changes needed to obtain improved efficiencies and achieve overall business success. It is this drive to break down the barriers and practices of the past that has led to the need to develop a fundamental understanding of what it means to take a holistic approach to the management of the physical assets owned by utilities.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 379-409)
2 v. : ill. ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Develops a framework for evaluating environmental impact assessment (EIA) and organisational change, and examines the influence of the EIA system on two government organisations within South Australia, Transport SA and ETSA . Finally analyses patterns of organisational change process in South Australia in comparision with experience in the United States.
Thesis (Ph.D.(Arts))--Adelaide University, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2001

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 379-409)
2 v. : ill. ; 30 cm.
Develops a framework for evaluating environmental impact assessment (EIA) and organisational change, and examines the influence of the EIA system on two government organisations within South Australia, Transport SA and ETSA . Finally analyses patterns of organisational change process in South Australia in comparision with experience in the United States.
Thesis (Ph.D.(Arts))--Adelaide University, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2001

The transfer of energy and water utilities to private or state owned corporations raises important questions of service obligations, access, and dispute resolution for small end customers. The aim of this thesis is to explore the legal issues that confront small end users and service providers in what is a highly regulated market environment. This thesis examines the duties and obligations of energy service providers in terms of the product being fit for its expected purpose and in a manner not causing economic loss to the user. Correspondingly, the thesis examines also the rights and obligations of the user. These respective rights and liabilities of the parties are examined by reference to contracts law, consumer protection law under the Trade Practices Act, torts law and adjudication powers of the Ombudsman. The term “user” in this context refers to the small end-user, even though the analytical framework used in this thesis can, with appropriate modifications be also used in relation to others in the provider-user relationship identified here. With this in mind, the thesis examines: (1) whether the legal mechanisms created by national and state legislation and the regulatory regime have enhanced consumer sovereignty and reinforced small end customer rights relative to the old regime of franchised monopolies; and (2) whether, the legal tradition of reasonable care with its roots in interpersonal equity has been undermined by economic criteria. Despite Governments relinquishing ownership of production, transmission and distribution of energy supplies to the corporate sector, the State remains as a significant presence as a regulator of essential public utility services. Essential service utilities occupy too important a place in the social well being of society for governments to abandon them to the vagaries of market economics. Given the difficulties the courts have had of establishing reasonable care as applied to government or semi-government utilities, an important legal issue is, what is the appropriate standard of liability for negligence which should be applied to the highly regulated private and state owned service corporations which have no immunities under the Crown? In this regard, the thesis is concerned with the legal responsibility under both common law and statute to small end users for everyday power disturbances, failure to supply, and defective supply causing property damage or economic loss. In this context the basic arguments set out in the Thesis are as follows: Chapter 1 sets the background to the thesis. Chapter 2 examines regulation and the national electricity market with emphasis on the role of the Australian Energy Regulator, the Rules of the market and the liability exclusion clauses contained in the National Electricity Law. It argues that the complicated commercial and statutory structure of the market is beyond the legal ability of a small end user to challenge a negligent action of a market participant. Chapter 3 takes up the issue of whether under the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) a strict liability regime should apply to service providers as argued in the Electricity Supply Association of Australia v Australian Competition and Consumer Commission case.1 It argues that electricity as “goods” (s. 4) should be subject to strict liability for defective supply. Chapter 4 examines standard form connection and supply contracts which are deemed (unseen and unsigned) to exist between service providers and small end customers. It concludes that liability exclusion clauses deny the small end customer common law contractual justice. Chapter 5 focuses on the impact of civil liability legislation in negligence, the rationalist concept of care and safety, and decision tree analysis in causation. It is considered that the legislation severely restricts the ability of the small end user to access the legal system when dealing with corporate energy providers. Chapter 6 looks at economic loss in respect of the loss of energy supplies. It argues that the common law regime does not assist the small end consumer as one of a large indeterminate class of plaintiffs who cannot recover. Chapter 7 examines the jurisdiction of the Energy Ombudsman scheme. It argues that whilst there is some scope to provide compensation to small end users, the capacity is both limited and small in amount. Chapter 8 provides some concluding arguments. The research concludes that the legal and regulatory mechanisms governing the disaggregated energy supply industry has failed to provide adequate protection for small end users. It is concluded that in the context of the existing regime, the small end user of energy services is not only disadvantaged but disenfranchised.

This thesis examines the role that structure and agency play in the outcomes of political contests around privatisation. It does so through a case study of the South Australian Electricity Trust (ETSA), which was established (nationalised) in 1946 and privatised in 1999. The approach taken involves an examination of historical context, particularly the emergence of public enterprise and the nationalisation of the South Australian electricity industry in the post WW2 period.