Leveraging Data Portals as Analytic Platforms : A Case Study of a Simulation of the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan

This paper discusses how researchers can augment their traditional publications and share their large research datasets in a format easily analysed by other researchers, while enhancing their own analytic capabilities. The case study is the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan, and the data portal implemented using Power BI. The data portal presents the results from simulating the effect of implementing the plan on the Australian National Electricity Market, encompassing the eastern seaboard of Australia. The case study incorporates 198 simulations which are parameter sweeps of 9 scenarios of coal generation retirement and transmission augmentation, 2 wind levels, and 11 candidate years representing different weather conditions. The portal development process compares different data extraction, transformation, and load strategies and combines proven processes from Business Analysis and Data Management Bodies of Knowledge. The process result is a portal based on a relational database that provides a template for future projects, is simulation model agnostic, informs simulation model improvements, and provides a foundation for more advanced analytics. Future extensions could address dilemmas in the energy market, such as including generation and storage relying on high-frequency arbitrage within long-term development modelling