The Melbourne Energy Institute undertakes inter-disciplinary research on sustainable energy, and on the challenges of transitioning towards a low carbon energy system. We work with the community, industry and government on some of the world's most pressing energy challenges.
MEInetwork18 equips energy industry professionals and University of Melbourne graduates with the knowledge and networking capabilities crucial to face the changing energy landscape. Learn more about this unique new program and the educational activities offered throughout the year.
Listen to our podcast from the Australian Energy Market Operator's (AEMO) presentation of the results from their Quarterly Dynamics report.
Energy Systems Seminar Series launched with guest speakers from AEMO.
Performance of Electricity Markets & Power Plant Investments in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Power System
Listen to the podcast from our Energy Futures seminar on the central issue of energy and climate policy in Australia - the National Energy Guarantee.
University of Melbourne Chancellery Research is offering support for up to four Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to attend a Universitas21 ECR Workshop at Shanghai Jiao Tong University on the theme of ‘Sustainable Futures’.
IMNIS have expanded the scope of their mineral resources mentor program to include graduate researchers in Energy. Eighteen places are available to PhD students in their second year or early in their third year.
Listen to the podcast from our Energy Futures seminar that explored exactly what a sustainable electricity network would look like.
The Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation Senator the Hon Zed Seselja has recently announced that the Federal Government’s Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program will be co-funding Future Fuels CRC with $26.25m.
Read all about the Energy Hack 2017 winners.
Corporate Responsibility as Embedded Agency
Listen to the podcast from the 2017 Distinguished Lecture given by Professor Sally Benson on the role of energy systems analysis in making good energy choices.
Listen to the podcast from our event launching the feasibility study report into using seawater in a pumped hydro energy storage facility in Cultana, South Australia.
The Australian Carbon Capture and Storage Conference 2017 delivered the most recent developments in CCS research to Australian and international researchers.
Australia's mercury emissions from coal-powered power stations, metal smelting and vehicle emissions are twice the global average, report finds.
Geothermal or geoexchange energy uses underground temperatures to make heating and cooling more efficient, and researchers are piloting this technology in one of Australia’s biggest infrastructure initiatives, the Metro Tunnel Project.
Listen to the audio from our in conversation book event with Mark Butler, Ross Garnaut and Sara Bice.
To understand the major barrier to making our cities more sustainable and environmentally friendly places, just stand in the centre of almost any Australian city and look up. The chances are you will be in the shadow of a tall building totally reliant on air-conditioning and made from energy-intensive materials like steel.
Listen to the podcast from Professor Ross Garnaut's public lecture based on the recently released independent review of the national electricity market.
Read our summary and listen to the event audio from our most recent Energy Futures Seminar featuring Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel.
Event podcast from Dr David Mooney's seminar on the outlook on the U.S. energy transition.
In a world of growing energy needs, and a global imperative to halt carbon emissions, a tiny ‘quasiparticle’ called an exciton could provide the answer to our problems.
Poor air quality can have major health consequences, and with Australia having highest allowable sulphur in petrol in the OECD, the CAUL Hub's and MEI’s proposal for legislative change is justified.
Listen to the podcast from our debate on how the gas market crisis is affecting the Australian energy sector, and some of the proposed potential solutions.
The recent troubles in our electricity market are well documented. As described in my earlier pieces in this series, two elements have focused the attention of our political masters and industry groups.
Missed our event on the role of large-scale battery storage? Listen to the audio here.
Victoria’s Hazelwood power station will be shut down this week after nearly 50 years of supplying electricity.
If you couldn't make it to our Energy Futures Seminar: The Future of Clean Coal? you can listen to a podcast from the event.
Australia’s NEM is witnessing an unprecedented rise in spot, or wholesale, prices as market conditions tighten in response to a range of factors.
Who could forget the energy “crises” that affected electricity supply across south-eastern Australia last year.
The federal government has announced a A$2 billion plan to expand the iconic Snowy Hydro scheme. It will carry out a feasibility study into the idea of adding “pumped hydro” storage capacity, which it says could power up to 500,000 homes.
With high gas prices partly to blame for the electricity blackouts that hit South Australia this month, and gas-fired generators caught short in New South Wales two days later, it is hardly surprising to hear calls for Australia to expand production.
EnergyAustralia, MEI and Arup Group awarded ARENA grant for pumped-hydro storage plant assessment in South Australia.
Check out the video from Energy Hack 16!
Hear the audio from our December Energy Futures Seminar.
The Australian government is reviewing our electricity market to make sure it can provide secure and reliable power in a rapidly changing world. Faced with the rise of renewable energy and limits on carbon pollution, The Conversation has asked experts what kind of future awaits the grid.
Hear the audio from our most recent Energy Futures Seminar on the potential pathways to decarbonisation.
Listen to Mariangela Guidolin, PhD, on how renewable energies will need to interact with existing systems.
The ongoing uncertainty over the future of the Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley has raised the prospect that the ageing generator will be shut down in the near future.
Australia’s energy ministers are meeting today in an emergency gathering following South Australia’s recent state-wide blackout.
Three pioneering PhD scholarships on offer from Melbourne Energy Institute.
On Thursday 1st September, I commenced as Director of the Melbourne Energy Institute. This is indeed an honour.
Lead by Andrew Blakers (ANU) and Richard Cornish (UNSW) 190 members of Australia’s energy research community have written to Parliament regarding the Governments plan to strip most of ARENA’s funding.
How is the South Australian electricity market changing, and what is the impact on wholesale prices? MEI Research Fellow Dylan McConnell explains.
How does science speak to policy?
As an urban rail activist, academic and commentator, including a spell on Infrastructure Australia, I can say from the start I was delighted that we have a consortium prepared to have a go at high-speed rail using value capture.
Discover the interdisciplinary energy research projects MEI will be helping to develop in 2016.
… and why we can use it to power a renewable future for all of us
MEI's Deputy Director Dr Roger Dargaville was interviewed on ABC News 24 on 1 July 2016 about the infamous hole in the ozone layer.
Listen to the event podcast from our Energy Futures Seminar on 27 June 2016.
The strangeness of last Sunday…
Attention to national issues in the federal election campaign was momentarily diverted overseas this week, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull became embroiled in the Brexit debate, pending the UK’s vote on continued European Union membership next Thursday.
In case you had forgotten, electricity prices were a really big deal in the last federal election campaign in 2013, albeit often disguised under the rubric of axe the tax.
With little by way of fanfare, Basslink resumed operation this week after almost 6 months.
The Victorian Labor government has announced an “ambitious and achievable” Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET). This target will commit the state to generating 25% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020, and 40% by 2025.
With Australia’s historically cheap energy, old housing stock in many areas, mild climate and frequent emphasis on low building costs, many homes are little more than “glorified tents” when it comes to thermal performance.
Channel 9's Today Extras interview with Tim Forcey, Energy Advisor at the Melbourne Energy Institute.
In what must surely be a first for the Conversation, I am writing this post from the village of Sakteng in remote eastern Bhutan.
Call out to University of Melbourne researchers and collaborators
How will new energy technologies produce a competitive advantage?
The involvement of geotechnical and geomechanical engineers in problems comprising unprecedented Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical and Chemical (THMC) conditions is every time more frequent, particularly in applications related to geo-environmental and geo-energy problems.
Listen to the Podcast of our latest Energy Futures Seminar from 19 May 2016.
'New South Wales is the worst Australian state at driving renewable energy, and South Australia and the ACT lead the pack, a report produced by the Climate Council has found.'
The Melbourne School of Design currently has an exciting opportunity for three Master of Philosophy (MPhil) candidates to join an innovative multidisciplinary project working towards a local low-carbon future for Melbourne.
It has only been a week since the closure of South Australia’s last coal-fired generator, but already a new pattern is emerging that points the way to a new energy system, away from “baseload” built around coal, gas or nuclear, to a new system built around wind and solar and other renewables.
South Australia’s last coal-fired power station closed on Monday this week, leaving the state with only gas and wind power generators.
At 9.40 am local time on Monday May 9th the turbines at Alinta’s 520 megawatt Northern Power Station at Port Augusta disconnected from the grid for the last time.
On all sides of an argument, advocates push ridiculous extremes.
As evidenced at the December 2015 COP 21 climate change conference in Paris, the world - and Australia - will increasingly be using renewable energy. Some jurisdictions, ranging from Costa Rica to South Australia, will settle for no less than 100 per cent elimination of fossil-fuelled electricity generation.
This paper analyses normative change in electricity supply in order to understand the challenges associated with the introduction of a non-negotiable environmental norm, a change necessary to ensure long-term environmental sustainability of the supply system.
There was a collective sigh of relief throughout New South Wales and Queensland in response to energy giant AGL’s official statement that, “It has taken a strategic decision that exploration and production of natural gas assets will no longer be a core business for the company due to the volatility of commodity prices and long development lead times.”
Every summer, the number of Australian homes equipped with air conditioners goes up and up. Recent statistics show that 74% of Australian homes – 6.6 million so far – have some form of air conditioning. This stands to reason because our summers are becoming hotter and hotter while we increasingly demand constant comfort.
Storage is in the energy news now, in more places than can be listed.To pick a few, here are recent news items from Europe, Tesla, and Queensland.
Energy Advisor at the Melbourne Energy Institute, Tim Forcey, appeared on Beyond Zero Radio to discuss pumped hydro energy storage. This technology exists in Australia at three locations built several decades ago, however other countries are leading a renaissance of pumped hydro energy storage. The deployment of pumped hydro exceeds that of any other energy storage in use today by a ratio of at least twenty to one. This is because pumped hydro remains the cheapest form of large scale energy storage.Tim's discussion follows a research project jointly partnered by the The Melbourne Energy Institute and Arup. The research explains that pumped hydro can benefit electricity consumers by dampening price spikes during peak demand periods. However, the research demonstrates that this would not benefit profit-maximising electricity producers who currently profit from this market failure.
Pumped hydroelectricity energy storage (PHES) is by far the most significant form of large-scale energy storage in use around the world today with approximately 130 GW of generation capacity installed. PHES facility construction is resurging globally as evolving electricity supply systems place greater value on stored energy. Australia has approximately 1.5 GW of PHES capacity; however, no large‐scale facilities have been installed in the last 30 years. This paper examines opportunities for the construction of additional large-scale PHES facilities in Australia.
In late September, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) released a report investigating how wind can better be integrated into the power grid. AEMO reports that as more wind turbines are deployed over the next seven years, constraints on the way our electricity grid works – including bottlenecks in the system – mean there may be limits on how much wind-generated electricity we can use.
The Melbourne Energy Institute Advisory Board is comprised of energy industry leaders that provide strategic advice to the Institute. Meet the Institute Advisory Board members.
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ViewThe Executive Committee is made up of senior academics engaged in energy research whom, along with the Director, govern the Institute. Meet the Institute Executive Committee.
ViewOur Energy Systems program considers how systems of different energy technologies behave. This considers wholesale and retail energy markets, energy networks and system planning.
Our Energy Technology program brings together researchers who investigate different energy technologies. This examines several forms of renewable and low emission power plant for stationary and mobile applications, as well as energy storage and fuels.
Our Energy, Community and the Region program examines how individuals, communities and states rely on and interact with energy technologies and energy systems. Examination of equity and national development are features of this work.
Our Environment and Energy Resources program examines the manifold interactions between our energy systems and our environment. This program looks closely at energy resource extraction, carbon dioxide sources and sinks as well as atmospheric and geo-chemistry.
The University of Melbourne offers Masters and PhD level studies in many aspects of energy. Please visit our Research tab to contact specific researchers who may be available for Masters by Research and PhD supervision. We also offer interdisciplinary coursework via our Master of Energy Systems.
This program integrates the study of the technology, business and science of energy, focusing on the key areas of: evaluating energy systems; energy-related investment decisions; policy development and implementation; and greenhouse gas management issues.
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Reports and working papers (27 Sep 2017)
Report detailing the feasibility project using seawater for a pumped hydro energy storage facility at Cultana in South Australia conducted by ARENA, EnergyAustralia, Melbourne Energy Institute and Arup Group
ARENA, EnergyAustralia, Melbourne Energy Institute, Arup Group
Research Areas: Energy storage; Energy systems; Energy policy; Pumped hydroelectric
Reports and working papers (1 Jun 2017)
This report has been written by the Melbourne Energy Institute (MEI) at the University of Melbourne in support of the ‘Independent Review into the Future Security of the National Electricity Market’ (the Review) chaired by Dr Alan Finkel AO.
Pierluigi Mancarella, Sebastian Puschel, Lingxi Zhang, Han Wang, Michael Brear, Terry Jones, Matthew Jeppesen, Robin Batterham, Robin Evans, Iven Mareels
Research Areas: Energy systems; Energy policy
Reports and working papers (21 Nov 2016)
The use of geothermal energy is increasing around the world in order to achieve CO2 emissions reduction, reduce energy costs, and improve energy security and energy efficiency. Victoria’s unique geological and economic conditions require a unique consideration of how geothermal energy might cost-effectively address these drivers.
Graeme Beardsmore, Irina Dumitrescu, Ben Harrison, Mike Sandiford, Rachel Webster
Research Areas: Geothermal; Geological resources
Reports and working papers (26 Oct 2016)
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide when its atmospheric warming impacts are considered over a 20-year time period, and 34 times more powerful over a 100-year time period. Reducing methane emissions is therefore an important part of any strategy to avoid dangerous climate change, as agreed by world leaders at the December 2015 Paris conference.
Dimitri Lafleur, Tim Forcey, Hugh Saddler, Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Gas
Reports and working papers (1 Sep 2016)
A report looking at the risks of migratory emissions from CSG development in Queensland
Dimitri Lafleur, Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Gas; Geological resources
Reports and working papers (11 Aug 2016)
Over the past decade, the South Australian electricity market has undergone a dramatic change in supply mix. Prior to 2005, energy generation needs were predominantly sourced from gas and brown coal power stations. Since then, over 1500 MW of wind capacity and 680 MW of rooftop solar has been installed. At the same time, 770 MW of brown coal capacity has exited the market.
Dylan McConnell, Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Solar; Wind; Energy storage; Geological resources; Energy policy
Media (27 Jul 2016)
Attention to national issues in the federal election campaign was momentarily diverted overseas this week, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull became embroiled in the Brexit debate, pending the UK’s vote on continued European Union membership next Thursday. The EU question is particularly concerning to Australians living and working in the EU and to businesses reliant upon the EU as the nation’s second largest trading partner and largest single source of foreign investment at $958.97 billion.
Sara Bice
Research Areas: Geological resources; Energy policy; Social equity
Media (11 Jul 2016)
And how could playing with colour give us wearable solar panels? This last question is at the core of research being undertaken by Dr Wallace Wong, of the University of Melbourne’s Bio21 Institute and School of Chemistry. As well as working on fascinating science that combines chemistry, physics, engineering and even some agriculture, the carbon-solar researchers of Dr Wong’s lab are inspired by a renewable energy future.
Errol Hunt
Research Areas: Solar; Energy storage; Geological resources
Media (1 Jul 2016)
Has there ever been better times for our electricity utilities? Sunday is typically pretty subdued in terms of electricity demand. Consequently Sunday market prices are at the low-end of the weekly range, even with the extra demands of a chilly winter day. Since the beginning of 2008, the Sunday market price in Victoria averages about $23 per megawatt hour, factoring out the carbon tax component. That is about half the average weekday price of $43.
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Carbon capture and storage; Energy storage; Energy systems; Energy policy
Media (23 Jun 2016)
In case you had forgotten, electricity prices were a really big deal in the last federal election campaign in 2013, albeit often disguised under the rubric of axe the tax.Then Coalition spokesmen quite deliberately and repeatedly conflated the term carbon tax withelectricity tax.Clearly this was deemed acceptable in the court of public opinion. The justification was that Labor’s carbon pricing mechanism specifically targeted the electricity sector rather than other key emission intensive secto
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Gas; Energy policy
Media (23 Jun 2016)
Are renewables pushing up the cost of electricity? That’s the claim made by Alan Moran in an opinion piece for the Australian Financial Review this week. Moran, executive director of Regulation Economics and a former director at the Institute of Public Affairs, argues that increasing investment in renewables and particularly wind energy will cost consumers billions of dollars. The high operating costs and requirements for backup when the wind isn’t blowing are the problem, he argues.
Dylan McConnell
Research Areas: Wind; Gas; Geological resources
Media (20 Jun 2016)
With little by way of fanfare, Basslink resumed operation this week after almost 6 months.Basslink is Tasmania’s proverbial umbilical cord - a 500 megawatt submarine HVDC cable that connects to the mainland providing both electrical power and data exchange. Along with unusually dry conditions last Spring, Basslink’s failure back in December last year contributed to an unprecedented energy crisis in the Apple Isle.
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Energy storage; Energy systems; Energy policy
Media (16 Jun 2016)
With Australia’s historically cheap energy, old housing stock in many areas, mild climate and frequent emphasis on low building costs, many homes are little more than “glorified tents” when it comes to thermal performance. Besides wanting smaller bills, many residents also want to improve comfort, lessen their environmental impact and boost their home’s value.
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Gas; Energy storage; Geological resources; Energy systems
Media (16 Jun 2016)
The Victorian Labor government has announced an “ambitious and achievable” Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET). This target will commit the state to generating 25% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020, and 40% by 2025.
Dylan McConnell
Research Areas: Geological resources; Energy policy
Media (9 Jun 2016)
In what must surely be a first for the Conversation, I am writing this post from the village of Sakteng in remote eastern Bhutan.The Bropkas meet the gridIn what must surely be a first for the Conversation, I am writing this post from the village of Sakteng in remote eastern Bhutan. That I can do so is a remarkable testimony to the will of the Bhutanese government in the electrification of what has to be one of the most difficult countries in the World to electrify.
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Energy storage; Geological resources
Media (16 May 2016)
It has only been a week since the closure of South Australia’s last coal-fired generator, but already a new pattern is emerging that points the way to a new energy system, away from “baseload” built around coal, gas or nuclear, to a new system built around wind and solar and other renewables. It has only been a week since the closure of South Australia’s last coal-fired generator, but already a new pattern is emerging that points the way to a new energy system, away from “baseload” built around
Giles Parkinson
Research Areas: Solar; Wind; Energy systems; Energy policy
Media (13 May 2016)
South Australia’s last coal-fired power station closed on Monday this week, leaving the state with only gas and wind power generators. The Northern Power Station, in Port Augusta on the northern end of the Spencer Gulf, has joined Playford B – the state’s other coal-fired power station which has already been retired. The coal mine at Leigh Creek that supplied brown coal to the power stations also closed earlier this year, so there is no easy option for re-opening the power stations.
Roger Dargaville
Research Areas: Energy storage; Energy systems
Media (13 May 2016)
Yet again, electricity prices are set to be a key point of contention in an Australian federal election. The Coalition responded quickly to Labor’s election commitment to an emissions trading scheme (ETS), with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull warning of “much higher electricity prices” and a “very big burden” on Australians.
Dylan McConnell
Research Areas: Gas; Energy policy
Media (12 May 2016)
At 9.40 am local time on Monday May 9th the turbines at Alinta’s 520 megawatt Northern Power Station at Port Augusta disconnected from the grid for the last time. And with it ended more than 50 years of coal-fired power generation in South Australia. But Northern’s shutdown does not mean that South Australian power supply is coal-free, and it is unlikely to mean that its power consumption is less carbon-intensive, at least in the short term.
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Solar; Energy storage; Geological resources; Distributed energy
Reports and working papers (28 Apr 2016)
In June 2015, the G7 agreed to two global mitigation goals: ‘a decarbonization of the global economy over the course of this century’ and ‘the upper end of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommendation of 40%–70% reductions by 2050 compared to 2010’. These IPCC recommendations aim to preserve a likely (>66%) chance of limiting global warming to 2 °C but are not necessarily consistent with the stronger ambition of the subsequent Paris Agreement of ‘holding the increas
Yann Robiou du Pont, M Louise Jeffery, Johannes Gütschow, Peter Christoff and Malte Meinshausen
Research Areas: Carbon capture and storage; Geological resources; Energy systems
Media (26 Apr 2016)
It’s more than a little disconcerting to wake every hour or so, gasping for air, suffocating. It happened to me during a field season in southern Tibet camped at about 5400 metres above sea level. With my normal sleep breathing patterns, I just couldn’t get enough oxygen. In terms of my metabolism, Tibet is clearly unreasonably high, and the question why it is so high is something I’ve been working on, on and off, for over 20 years.
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Geological resources
Media (25 Apr 2016)
On all sides of an argument, advocates push ridiculous extremes. Take the conservative push against windmills, which hopefully reached some kind of zenith last year when Alan Jones, appearing on on ABC’s Q&A, pulled a “swifty” on the cost of wind. After he was picked up by Melbourne PhD student Dylan McConnell in this factcheck on the Conversation, Alan acknowledged he exaggerated wind costs by a mere 1000%.
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Wind; Energy storage; Energy policy
Reports and working papers (8 Apr 2016)
The University of Melbourne Energy Institute (MEI) seeks funding for a economic study into producing hydrogen and ammonia, for domestic use and export, from renewable energy in the Spencer Gulf region of South Australia. This document describes the aims of this study, its scope, technology pathways, the organisations involved, other potential stakeholders, study timing, and funding requirements.
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Energy storage; Geological resources; Transport
Media (4 Apr 2016)
Politics is full of irony and it seems our climate is happy to lend a helping hand.
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Geothermal; Gas
Reports and working papers (21 Mar 2016)
As evidenced at the December 2015 COP 21 climate change conference in Paris, the world - and Australia - will increasingly be using renewable energy. Some jurisdictions, ranging from Costa Rica to South Australia, will settle for no less than 100 per cent elimination of fossil-fuelled electricity generation. One reason that the declared Paris goals exceeded some expectations is the rapidly falling cost of electricity generated by wine and solar photovoltaic (PV)
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Geological resources
Reports and working papers (23 Feb 2016)
The Melbourne Energy Institutes submission to the Essential Services Commission Inquiry into the true value of distributed generation Proposed Approach Paper can be found below. The submission addresses four main areas raised for consultation in the proposed approach paper.ApproachWe agree that the true value of...
Dylan McConnell
Research Areas: Geothermal; Geological resources
Media (12 Feb 2016)
There was a collective sigh of relief throughout New South Wales and Queensland in response to energy giant AGL’s official statement that, “It has taken a strategic decision that exploration and production of natural gas assets will no longer be a core business for the company due to the volatility of commodity prices and long development lead times.”
Sara Bice
Research Areas: Gas; Social equity
Media (25 Jan 2016)
Every summer, the number of Australian homes equipped with air conditioners goes up and up. Recent statistics show that 74% of Australian homes – 6.6 million so far – have some form of air conditioning. This stands to reason because our summers are becoming hotter and hotter while we increasingly demand constant comfort.
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Energy storage; Energy systems; Distributed energy
Media (25 Jan 2016)
Every summer, the number of Australian homes equipped with air conditioners goes up and up. Recent statistics show that 74% of Australian homes – 6.6 million so far – have some form of air conditioning. This stands to reason because our summers are becoming hotter and hotter while we increasingly demand constant comfort.At the same time, air conditioners drive up electricity demand, straining the electricity network. So what are you to do if you want to enjoy a guilt-free, full night’s sleep?
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Gas; Geological resources; Energy systems
Media (19 Jan 2016)
In 2012 the Australian Council of Learned Academies commissioned a survey of some 1,200 researchers, at all stages from graduate to retired, about their thoughts on the career they had chosen. For three out of four, the best thing about the job was the chance to work on interesting and important issues. The passion for changing the world brought people in, kept them going and made them reflect with satisfaction on their life’s achievements.
Ian Chubb
Research Areas: Geological resources; Energy systems
Media (18 Jan 2016)
You might have missed it, but last month something unusual happened in Australia’s eastern gas market. Gas in a major pipeline that normally flows from north to south started flowing in the opposite direction for the first time. This seemingly small change reflects big upheavals in Australia’s gas market as exports expand significantly.
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Gas; Energy storage
Reports and working papers (1 Jan 2016)
This paper analyses normative change in electricity supply in order to understand the challenges associated with the introduction of a non-negotiable environmental norm, a change necessary to ensure long-term environmental sustainability of the supply system.
Fiona Haines and Dylan McConnell
Research Areas: Solar; Energy storage; Geological resources
Reports and working papers (1 Dec 2015)
Price volatility and increasing renewable energy generation have raised interest in the potential opportunities for storage technologies in energy-only electricity markets. In this paper we explore the value of a price-taking storage device in such a market, the National Electricity Market (NEM) in Australia. Our analysis suggests that under optimal operation, there is little value in having more than six hours of storage in this market.
Mike Sandiford, Dylan Mconnell and Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Gas; Energy storage
Media (25 Nov 2015)
Did you notice how windy it was here in Melbourne on the first weekend of October, when the city stopped for the annual festival of the boot - a.k.a. the AFL Grand Final. Whether or not it influenced the result of the match, who knows. But the wind did do things to the electricity market, giving an insight into the emerging opportunities and challenges Victoria faces in dealing with what is one of the most egregious emissions profiles of any advanced economy.
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Wind; Energy storage; Distributed energy
Media (6 Nov 2015)
On the back of four years of dry and the shadow of El Niño looming large, recent rains across parts of inland Queensland must come as great relief. While plenty of follow up will be needed to restore surface water stores and recharge aquifers, we should be thankful for such mercies. As I sat down on Thursday morning (November 5) to start this piece, it began raining proverbial “cats and dogs” in Melbourne, bringing relief to parts of Victoria, including my garden (the 2-3 cm of rain that fell
Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Energy storage; Geological resources; Pumped hydroelectric
Media (7 Sep 2015)
A few years ago, similar to views about future electricity demand, forecasters thought gas demand in Australia would keep rising. As it turns out, gas demand peaked in 2012 and may halve by 2025 - as we showed in our recently published University of Melbourne Energy Institute (MEI) report, and earlier on The Conversation. Step by step, householders are making economic decisions that will eventually lead to many completely disconnecting from the gas grid, as they find gas to be an increasingly c
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Gas; Geological resources; Energy systems
Media (7 Sep 2015)
A few years ago, similar to views about future electricity demand, forecasters thought gas demand in Australia would keep rising. As it turns out, gas demand peaked in 2012 and may halve by 2025 - as we showed in our recently published University of Melbourne Energy Institute (MEI) report, and earlier on The Conversation. Step by step, householders are making economic decisions that will eventually lead to many completely disconnecting from the gas grid, as they find gas to be an increasingly c
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Gas; Energy storage; Energy systems
Reports and working papers (26 Aug 2015)
The University of Melbourne Energy Institute (MEI) has examined the future of domestic gas across the interconnected eastern-Australian gas market.
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Gas; Energy storage; Consumer tarifs
Media (17 Aug 2015)
Senator Di Natale is right about India’s coal import intentions. The Conversation is fact-checking claims made on Q&A, broadcast Mondays on the ABC at 9:35pm.
Roger Dargaville
Research Areas: Geological resources; Demand side management
Reports and working papers (1 Aug 2015)
For decades, consumption of grid-supplied electricity increased in line with a growing economy. In the five years since 2009, however, annual consumption in eastern Australia declined by 7 percent, even while the Australian economy grew by 13 percent. Declining consumption was not forecast by the planning authority nor by market participants. The authors review reasons for declining consumption, the failure of planning authorities to forecast this structural change, and ongoing consequences. Fue
Mike Sanford, Tim Forcey, Alan Pears, Dylan McConnell
Research Areas: Gas; Energy storage; Geological resources; Energy systems; Energy market design; Distributed energy; Pumped hydroelectric
Journal articles (23 Jul 2015)
80% of Australian energy comes from coal, coal-fired power, and it’s about $79 a kilowatt hour. Wind power is about $1502 a kilowatt hour. That is unaffordable. If you take that power and feed it into the grid, then every person watching this program has electricity bills going through the roof. – Broadcaster Alan Jones, panel discussion on Q&A, ABC TV, July 20, 2015 Alan Jones has told The Conversation by email he acknowledges this comment was made in error and is not correct, saying:
Dylan McConnell
Research Areas: Wind; Gas
Media (20 Jul 2015)
Cold weather has arrived in eastern Australia, to the glee of those who enjoy skiing. But you don’t have to venture onto the slopes for cold to be a danger. With gas prices rising, many in the community are shivering while contemplating how big their next gas bill will be. Eastern Australia’s gas market is rapidly changing, driven by the first exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Queensland. And this is affecting the whole supply chain, from gas producers, to the way we use gas in our ho
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Gas
Media (22 Jun 2015)
Victoria is the only state in Australia to ban onshore gase exploration, but that could soon change with the State Government awaiting the report of a parliamentary committee investigating the industry. However, Victorian farmers have funded tens of thousands of dollars for research - not into the effects of gas exploration, but rather into the industry's economics. The study, to be presented to the committee, suggests there would be little demand for gasfields in Victoria - something that the r
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Gas; Geological resources
Media (4 Jun 2015)
Recently, when presenting the concept of a new export industry for Australia, I was asked to pause and take this question: "You mentioned an investment figure of hundreds of 'billions' of dollars.Did you mean to say hundreds of 'millions' of dollars?" Well no, what I said was right. Australia has before it the opportunity to provide its traditional energy customers – such as Japan and South Korea – with renewable energy in quantities similar to the fossil energy Australia has provided these trad
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Solar; Wind; Geothermal; Energy storage; Geological resources; Distributed energy
Media (17 May 2015)
Recently the electric car maker Tesla rocked the electricity world by launching with their low-cost Powerwall battery into the electricity distribution grid, business, and home electricity market sectors. The announced price tag of $US 3,000 for Tesla's seven kilowatt-hour system (or ~ $US 400 / kilowatt-hour, which does not include installation and inverter costs) illustrates how electrical battery costs continue to fall. No doubt storing electricity right in your garage will be useful and may
Roger Dargaville
Research Areas: Carbon capture and storage; Energy storage; Geological resources; Demand side management
Reports and working papers (1 Jan 2015)
Gas transmission and distribution costs often make up the largest part of a consumer’s gas supply bill [1]. Investments in gas supply infrastructure are based on estimates of future demand. If demand is overestimated, unnecessary infrastructure is built. Such poor investment decisions drive up the costs that small and large gas consumers must pay. Recent unprecedented electricity price increases in New South Wales (NSW) were partly due to overinvestment in network infrastructure that, in turn, w
Tim Forcey, Mike Sandiford
Research Areas: Geothermal; Gas; Energy storage; Geological resources; Distributed energy
Media (8 Oct 2014)
n late September, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) released a report investigating how wind can better be integrated into the power grid. AEMO reports that as more wind turbines are deployed over the next seven years, constraints on the way our electricity grid works – including bottlenecks in the system – mean there may be limits on how much wind-generated electricity we can use.
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Wind; Energy storage; Geological resources; Energy systems; Pumped hydroelectric
Media (4 Jul 2014)
Storage is in the energy news now, in more places than can be listed. To pick a few, here are recent news items from Europe, Tesla, and Queensland. Everyone is looking to the day when battery technology can economically partner with the popular yet variable renewables: solar PV and wind.
Tim Forcey and Dylan McConnell
Research Areas: Solar; Energy storage; Geological resources; Energy systems
Media (29 Mar 2014)
Energy Advisor at the Melbourne Energy Institute, Tim Forcey, appeared on Beyond Zero Radio to discuss pumped hydro energy storage. This technology exists in Australia at three locations built several decades ago, however other countries are leading a renaissance of pumped hydro energy storage. The deployment of pumped hydro exceeds that of any other energy storage in use today by a ratio of at least twenty to one. This is because pumped hydro remains the cheapest form of large scale energy stor
Tim Forcey
Research Areas: Solar; Energy storage; Geological resources; Pumped hydroelectric
Reports and working papers (27 Feb 2014)
A report exploring the opportunities available in Australia for using pumped-hydroelectricity energy storage technology.
Patrick Hearps, Roger Dargaville, Dylan McConnell, Mike Sandiford, Tim Forcey, Peter Seligman
Research Areas: Energy storage; Energy systems; Pumped hydroelectric
Listen to our podcast from the Australian Energy Market Operator's (AEMO) presentation of the results from their Quarterly Dynamics report.
Energy Systems Seminar Series launched with guest speakers from AEMO.
Performance of Electricity Markets & Power Plant Investments in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Power System
Listen to the podcast from our Energy Futures seminar on the central issue of energy and climate policy in Australia - the National Energy Guarantee.
University of Melbourne Chancellery Research is offering support for up to four Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to attend a Universitas21 ECR Workshop at Shanghai Jiao Tong University on the theme of ‘Sustainable Futures’.
IMNIS have expanded the scope of their mineral resources mentor program to include graduate researchers in Energy. Eighteen places are available to PhD students in their second year or early in their third year.
Listen to the podcast from our Energy Futures seminar that explored exactly what a sustainable electricity network would look like.
The Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation Senator the Hon Zed Seselja has recently announced that the Federal Government’s Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program will be co-funding Future Fuels CRC with $26.25m.
Read all about the Energy Hack 2017 winners.
Corporate Responsibility as Embedded Agency
Listen to the podcast from the 2017 Distinguished Lecture given by Professor Sally Benson on the role of energy systems analysis in making good energy choices.
Listen to the podcast from our event launching the feasibility study report into using seawater in a pumped hydro energy storage facility in Cultana, South Australia.
The Australian Carbon Capture and Storage Conference 2017 delivered the most recent developments in CCS research to Australian and international researchers.
Australia's mercury emissions from coal-powered power stations, metal smelting and vehicle emissions are twice the global average, report finds.
Geothermal or geoexchange energy uses underground temperatures to make heating and cooling more efficient, and researchers are piloting this technology in one of Australia’s biggest infrastructure initiatives, the Metro Tunnel Project.
Listen to the audio from our in conversation book event with Mark Butler, Ross Garnaut and Sara Bice.
To understand the major barrier to making our cities more sustainable and environmentally friendly places, just stand in the centre of almost any Australian city and look up. The chances are you will be in the shadow of a tall building totally reliant on air-conditioning and made from energy-intensive materials like steel.
Listen to the podcast from Professor Ross Garnaut's public lecture based on the recently released independent review of the national electricity market.
Read our summary and listen to the event audio from our most recent Energy Futures Seminar featuring Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel.
Event podcast from Dr David Mooney's seminar on the outlook on the U.S. energy transition.
In a world of growing energy needs, and a global imperative to halt carbon emissions, a tiny ‘quasiparticle’ called an exciton could provide the answer to our problems.
Poor air quality can have major health consequences, and with Australia having highest allowable sulphur in petrol in the OECD, the CAUL Hub's and MEI’s proposal for legislative change is justified.
Listen to the podcast from our debate on how the gas market crisis is affecting the Australian energy sector, and some of the proposed potential solutions.
The recent troubles in our electricity market are well documented. As described in my earlier pieces in this series, two elements have focused the attention of our political masters and industry groups.
Missed our event on the role of large-scale battery storage? Listen to the audio here.
Victoria’s Hazelwood power station will be shut down this week after nearly 50 years of supplying electricity.
If you couldn't make it to our Energy Futures Seminar: The Future of Clean Coal? you can listen to a podcast from the event.
Australia’s NEM is witnessing an unprecedented rise in spot, or wholesale, prices as market conditions tighten in response to a range of factors.
Who could forget the energy “crises” that affected electricity supply across south-eastern Australia last year.
The federal government has announced a A$2 billion plan to expand the iconic Snowy Hydro scheme. It will carry out a feasibility study into the idea of adding “pumped hydro” storage capacity, which it says could power up to 500,000 homes.
With high gas prices partly to blame for the electricity blackouts that hit South Australia this month, and gas-fired generators caught short in New South Wales two days later, it is hardly surprising to hear calls for Australia to expand production.
EnergyAustralia, MEI and Arup Group awarded ARENA grant for pumped-hydro storage plant assessment in South Australia.
Check out the video from Energy Hack 16!
Hear the audio from our December Energy Futures Seminar.
The Australian government is reviewing our electricity market to make sure it can provide secure and reliable power in a rapidly changing world. Faced with the rise of renewable energy and limits on carbon pollution, The Conversation has asked experts what kind of future awaits the grid.
Hear the audio from our most recent Energy Futures Seminar on the potential pathways to decarbonisation.
Listen to Mariangela Guidolin, PhD, on how renewable energies will need to interact with existing systems.
The ongoing uncertainty over the future of the Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley has raised the prospect that the ageing generator will be shut down in the near future.
Australia’s energy ministers are meeting today in an emergency gathering following South Australia’s recent state-wide blackout.
Three pioneering PhD scholarships on offer from Melbourne Energy Institute.
On Thursday 1st September, I commenced as Director of the Melbourne Energy Institute. This is indeed an honour.
Lead by Andrew Blakers (ANU) and Richard Cornish (UNSW) 190 members of Australia’s energy research community have written to Parliament regarding the Governments plan to strip most of ARENA’s funding.
How is the South Australian electricity market changing, and what is the impact on wholesale prices? MEI Research Fellow Dylan McConnell explains.
How does science speak to policy?
As an urban rail activist, academic and commentator, including a spell on Infrastructure Australia, I can say from the start I was delighted that we have a consortium prepared to have a go at high-speed rail using value capture.
Discover the interdisciplinary energy research projects MEI will be helping to develop in 2016.
… and why we can use it to power a renewable future for all of us
MEI's Deputy Director Dr Roger Dargaville was interviewed on ABC News 24 on 1 July 2016 about the infamous hole in the ozone layer.
Listen to the event podcast from our Energy Futures Seminar on 27 June 2016.
The strangeness of last Sunday…
Attention to national issues in the federal election campaign was momentarily diverted overseas this week, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull became embroiled in the Brexit debate, pending the UK’s vote on continued European Union membership next Thursday.
In case you had forgotten, electricity prices were a really big deal in the last federal election campaign in 2013, albeit often disguised under the rubric of axe the tax.
With little by way of fanfare, Basslink resumed operation this week after almost 6 months.
The Victorian Labor government has announced an “ambitious and achievable” Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET). This target will commit the state to generating 25% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020, and 40% by 2025.
With Australia’s historically cheap energy, old housing stock in many areas, mild climate and frequent emphasis on low building costs, many homes are little more than “glorified tents” when it comes to thermal performance.
Channel 9's Today Extras interview with Tim Forcey, Energy Advisor at the Melbourne Energy Institute.
In what must surely be a first for the Conversation, I am writing this post from the village of Sakteng in remote eastern Bhutan.
Call out to University of Melbourne researchers and collaborators
How will new energy technologies produce a competitive advantage?
The involvement of geotechnical and geomechanical engineers in problems comprising unprecedented Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical and Chemical (THMC) conditions is every time more frequent, particularly in applications related to geo-environmental and geo-energy problems.
Listen to the Podcast of our latest Energy Futures Seminar from 19 May 2016.
'New South Wales is the worst Australian state at driving renewable energy, and South Australia and the ACT lead the pack, a report produced by the Climate Council has found.'
The Melbourne School of Design currently has an exciting opportunity for three Master of Philosophy (MPhil) candidates to join an innovative multidisciplinary project working towards a local low-carbon future for Melbourne.
It has only been a week since the closure of South Australia’s last coal-fired generator, but already a new pattern is emerging that points the way to a new energy system, away from “baseload” built around coal, gas or nuclear, to a new system built around wind and solar and other renewables.
South Australia’s last coal-fired power station closed on Monday this week, leaving the state with only gas and wind power generators.
At 9.40 am local time on Monday May 9th the turbines at Alinta’s 520 megawatt Northern Power Station at Port Augusta disconnected from the grid for the last time.
On all sides of an argument, advocates push ridiculous extremes.
As evidenced at the December 2015 COP 21 climate change conference in Paris, the world - and Australia - will increasingly be using renewable energy. Some jurisdictions, ranging from Costa Rica to South Australia, will settle for no less than 100 per cent elimination of fossil-fuelled electricity generation.
This paper analyses normative change in electricity supply in order to understand the challenges associated with the introduction of a non-negotiable environmental norm, a change necessary to ensure long-term environmental sustainability of the supply system.
There was a collective sigh of relief throughout New South Wales and Queensland in response to energy giant AGL’s official statement that, “It has taken a strategic decision that exploration and production of natural gas assets will no longer be a core business for the company due to the volatility of commodity prices and long development lead times.”
Every summer, the number of Australian homes equipped with air conditioners goes up and up. Recent statistics show that 74% of Australian homes – 6.6 million so far – have some form of air conditioning. This stands to reason because our summers are becoming hotter and hotter while we increasingly demand constant comfort.
Storage is in the energy news now, in more places than can be listed.To pick a few, here are recent news items from Europe, Tesla, and Queensland.
Energy Advisor at the Melbourne Energy Institute, Tim Forcey, appeared on Beyond Zero Radio to discuss pumped hydro energy storage. This technology exists in Australia at three locations built several decades ago, however other countries are leading a renaissance of pumped hydro energy storage. The deployment of pumped hydro exceeds that of any other energy storage in use today by a ratio of at least twenty to one. This is because pumped hydro remains the cheapest form of large scale energy storage.Tim's discussion follows a research project jointly partnered by the The Melbourne Energy Institute and Arup. The research explains that pumped hydro can benefit electricity consumers by dampening price spikes during peak demand periods. However, the research demonstrates that this would not benefit profit-maximising electricity producers who currently profit from this market failure.
Pumped hydroelectricity energy storage (PHES) is by far the most significant form of large-scale energy storage in use around the world today with approximately 130 GW of generation capacity installed. PHES facility construction is resurging globally as evolving electricity supply systems place greater value on stored energy. Australia has approximately 1.5 GW of PHES capacity; however, no large‐scale facilities have been installed in the last 30 years. This paper examines opportunities for the construction of additional large-scale PHES facilities in Australia.
In late September, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) released a report investigating how wind can better be integrated into the power grid. AEMO reports that as more wind turbines are deployed over the next seven years, constraints on the way our electricity grid works – including bottlenecks in the system – mean there may be limits on how much wind-generated electricity we can use.