Ignoring the importance of capital markets risks overlooking one of the most fundamental drivers of investment and price in the utilities industry. While the worst effects of the financial crisis are beginning to subside, the residual fallout will be more than a passing fad for energy utilities.

"Australia has long been the beneficiary of low, stable power prices. A decade-long state of oversupply underpinned this result and while plant capital costs had been rising, the cost of capital had been declining. These offsetting effects locked the wholesale market into an average cost of...

Energy-only markets are prone to the Resource Adequacy problem, i.e. the timely entry of new plant. The reason for this is that competitive energy-only markets struggle to be remunerative given reliability constraints and market price caps. Historically, Australia's 45,000 MW National...

A characteristic of advanced economies like Australia is continual growth in household income and plunging costs of electric appliances, resulting in rapid growth in peak demand. The power grid in turn requires substantial incremental generating and network capacity, which is utilized...

An analysis suggests that incremental GST collections from electricity accounts are more than adequate to eliminate fuel poverty. This could facilitate access to efficient electric appliances and in-home displays for fuel-poor households. The widespread shift to smart meters and time-of-use...

Deregulated energy markets were founded on the Merchant Power Producer, a stand-alone generator that sold its production to the spot and short-term forward markets, underpinned by long-dated project finance. The initial enthusiasm that existed for investment in existing and new merchant power...

type="main" xml:lang="en" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>Australia has a deregulated national wholesale electricity market, a national network regulatory framework, but inconsistent state-based regulated retail price caps in workably competitive markets. This article finds that asymmetric information and the...</p>