Investigating Energy Crisis In Australia And Proposed Future Solutions

Background of this Study

Background of this Study

The report looks into the energy crisis which Australia faced due to their export of Liquefied Natural Gas to other countries, in large numbers. So, in one point of time the country was known to be an energy rich nation, gradually the scenario had started to change. They were left with insufficient energy to keep the citizens comfortable during heat wave, which had seen temperatures rising to 105 degrees on the southern coast (Amin 2013). This had resulted in an increase in demand for air-conditioners and their inability to fulfil the demands, made regulators approach Pelican Point, a local gas-fuelled station, which was running in half capacity for rescuing the situation. Power was cut for close to 90000 homes in Adelaide in order to prevent a wider blackout. The solutions to this crisis were proposed by the experts, through storage of technology, improving the connection between states, a portion of gas to be kept aside for domestic purposes and ensure a significantly sophisticated grid management (Bahadori and Nwaoha 2013).

The aim of the research is to find out the reasons behind the acute energy crisis in Australia and look for the proposed solutions to come out of the situation. Australia, despite being an energy rich country, ran short of the required energy to meet the demands of their own people, which had led to sufferings. This was due to the exports of LNG from Australia to other countries in substantial amounts, without putting the proper measures in place to take care of their own countrymen (Coyle and Simmons 2014). The proposed solutions to come out of the situation were to preserve technology through storage, seeking improvement in connection between different states and most importantly by keeping a proportion of gas for domestic purposes.

Scope of the project is a part of project planning which involves determination and noting down the list of specific goals related to the project, how are they going to be executed, so as to reach the desired conclusion. The current project is related to the investigation of energy crisis in Australia and the solutions which can be proposed in order to let the people of Australia come out of the crisis. Energy crisis in Australia has been quite severe, as a result of which frequent blackouts in different places have added to the agony of people.

In this case, the scope of the project is limited to some extent as only data gathered through credible sources like Government publications and journals can be trusted upon, whereas data from other sources would have some semblance of doubt involved with them, as far as authenticity is concerned.

Research Methodology refers to process followed to collect relevant information and data needed to make the appropriate decision. The decision would be based on the research carried out for investigating the problem of energy crisis and look into the proposed solutions to come out of the problem (Evans, Strezov and Evans 2012). Information and data would be gathered through internet by going through related websites. Those would be basically primary in nature. On the other hand, secondary data would be collected from Government reports and publications which would provide authentic information, based on which investigation would be carried out and thereby fetch appropriate results.

Aim of the research

The research is expected to come up with the outcome, where the necessary solutions would be presented in order to tackle the problem of energy crisis in an efficient manner. The outcome is expected to present a view whereby people of Australia would be relieved of the issues, like frequent blackouts, shortage in LNG due to heavy exports to other countries, which they had been facing due to the shortage of energy (Lucas 2017).

The structure of the report would be based by looking into different aspects related to energy in Australia, through a literature review. Literature review will take into consideration the findings of different aspects related to power and energy like the sources from where power gets generated, the impact which power generation has on the environment, an overview of the alternatives in non-renewable sources, a summary of the power generation in Australia (Saddler 2017). This would also look for the alternatives which Australia would consider for the future, discuss about the issues related to the implementation of nuclear power plants, implementation of smart grid technology, affiliated issues related to the environmental policy and finally consider the economic aspects of alternative power generation sources.

The literature review would talk about the published articles related to the topic for which the report is presented. The information presented through the literature reviews, is based on the details collected from secondary sources, primarily internet.  The different aspects are addressed through literature review:

1. Power generation sources– Oil is the primary and the largest source of energy for generation of power in Australia, followed by Coal and Natural Gas. Coal had accounted for majority of non-renewable electricity generation in Australia. The largest sources of renewable generation was hydro.
2. Power generation impact on the environment– Both the renewable and non-renewable energy sources have significant impact on the environment. The non-renewable sources for power generation have adverse effects on the environment as compared to the renewable ones. They lead to the pollution of air, water, affecting public health and loss of habitat (Smith 2016). This adds to the problem of global warming.

• Overview of non-renewable alternatives– Alternative sources of non-renewable energy include fossil fuels, in the form of crude oil, natural gas, coal and tar sands. They constitute 95% of Australia’s electrical energy needs. The non-renewable energy gets produced by burning fossil fuels like coal (Twidell and Weir 2015).

1. Synopsis of power generation in Australia – Australia’s power gets generated centrally with heavy reliance on fossil fuels, though continuous increase has been seen in electricity generation through renewable sources.
2. Future and forthcoming alternatives– As climate change has been a big issue, so gas would be an important source of energy for the future. Renewable sources of energy include energy from solar power, wind power and hydropower. The concerned authorities feel that though the newer forms of energy are more expensive as compared to the traditional forms, still in the next 15-20 years, the cheaper forms of energy would cease to exist (Byrnes et al. 2013).
3. Nuclear power plants implementation issues– Nuclear power has always got the nod for having the potential to solve the problem of energy on a long-term basis. Nuclear power reactors have sixty year life spans with nearly zero carbon emissions. Modern day reactors have minimum greenhouse gas and other airborne emissions, highly fuel efficient, minimum and manageable residual waste and advanced safety protection (Wan et al. 2015). Despite all the advantages, there are certain implementation issues:
4. There is a commonwealth legislation which prohibits in giving license to nuclear power reactor in Australia through the enforcement of two acts, Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1998, section 140A and Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998, section 10.
5. The next issue which crops up is that of large initial capital costs which get incurred for large nuclear power. So, the electricity generator would need to generate electricity in a price which can generate profit and lead to a return on investment.

• Smart grid technology implementation– A Smart Grid is an electrical grid, that includes various measures of energy including smart meters, smart appliances, renewable sources of energy and resources which are energy efficient. Investments are expected to reach around $6.1 billion between 2017 and 2027. The investments would focus on bringing improvements in metering of smart electricity, battery storage, advanced storage and grid communications sector and thus help utility firms improve their energy billing, providing clean energy and managing grid networks (Aghaei and Alizadeh 2013).
• Environmental Policy affiliated issues– The environmental laws in Australia seek to uphold the high environmental standards. Due to the energy crisis, the policy makers didn’t ensure that enough gas would remain in homes. Due to increase in exports of LNG, some state governments had led to closure of aging coal plants and forced an accelerated push towards renewable energy for environmental concerns. Issues even resulted in blackouts in certain regions of Australia. These problems could have been avoided had the authorities been particular about the amount of exports, which would have ensured sufficient energy for the people of Australia. Their attempt to tackle the situation through Pelican Point, a local gas-fuelled station, failed to create any positive impact on the situation.

1. Economic expediency of alternative power generation sources–

Renewable energy has great environmental benefits. Lower prices for technologies in renewable energy trigger additions in capacity and creating more jobs in installation, operation and maintenance. So the power generation sources have been extremely cost-effective. Reductions in cost could also be resulted through learning by doing. In addition to these, transformational improvements have been brought about in battery storage technology, used in the level of electricity grid for ensuring balance between demand and supply.

Conclusion

The report concludes that the energy crisis in Australia could have been avoided had the authorities taken care about preserving the interest of the people of Australia before exporting LNG to other countries. This approach from the authorities had invited trouble for the people of Australia, as they had suffer from blackouts in certain regions. The alternative approach which was considered through Pelican Point, a local gas-fuelled station, did not make any positive impact on the situation. The solutions proposed by the experts, through storage of technology, improving connection between the states and setting aside a portion of gas for domestic purpose would surely make things easier for people to tackle these types of extreme situations in an effective manner.

References

Aghaei, J. and Alizadeh, M.I., 2013. Demand response in smart electricity grids equipped with renewable energy sources: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 18, pp.64-72.

Amin, M., 2013. Energy: The smart-grid solution. Nature, 499(7457), pp.145-147.

. Byrnes, L., Brown, C., Foster, J. and Wagner, L.D., 2013. Australian renewable energy policy: Barriers and challenges. Renewable Energy, 60, pp.711-721.

Bahadori, A. and Nwaoha, C., 2013. A review on solar energy utilisation in Australia. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 18, pp.1-5.

Coyle, E.D. and Simmons, R.A., 2014. Understanding the global energy crisis (p. 318). Purdue University Press.

Effendi, P. and Courvisanos, J., 2012. Political aspects of innovation: Examining renewable energy in Australia. Renewable Energy, 38(1), pp.245-252.

Evans, A., Strezov, V. and Evans, T.J., 2012. Assessment of utility energy storage options for increased renewable energy penetration. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16(6), pp.4141-4147.

Lucas, A., 2017. Confected conflict in the wake of the South Australian blackout: Diversionary strategies and policy failure in Australia’s energy sector. Energy Research & Social Science, 29, pp.149-159.

Saddler, H., 2017. South Australia makes a fresh power play in its bid to end the blackouts. Chain Reaction, (129), p.14.

Smith, K., 2016. Tasmanian energy crisis an argument for renewables. Green Left Weekly, (1081), p.6.

Twidell, J. and Weir, T., 2015. Renewable energy resources. Routledge.

Wan, C., Zhao, J., Song, Y., Xu, Z., Lin, J. and Hu, Z., 2015. Photovoltaic and solar power forecasting for smart grid energy management. CSEE Journal of Power and Energy Systems, 1(4), pp.38-46.