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Lessons from Australia's National Electricity Market 1998-2018: the strengths and weaknesses of the reform experience

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  • Paul Simshauser

    (Griffith University, Australia)

Abstract

Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM) commenced in 1998. The centrepiece of NEM reforms was the energy-only wholesale market and accompanying forward markets. For most of the past 20 years it has displayed consistent economic and technical performance. But missing policies relating to climate change, natural gas and plant exit recently produced results that tested political tolerances. Piecemeal and random interventions are now following andwill likelyinflame rather than resolve matters, at least over the near term. Network policy failures in the mid-2000s led to sharp regulated tariff increases from 2007 onwards.These policy problems were largely cauterised by 2012,but regulatory timeframes and business inertia meant network tariffsdidn'tstabilize until 2015. The retail market has been forced to deliver sharply rising prices, and,in consequence,the problem of rising prices has been conflated with pricediscrimination;a largely unhelpful development in an otherwise workably competitive market.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Simshauser, 2019. "Lessons from Australia's National Electricity Market 1998-2018: the strengths and weaknesses of the reform experience," Working Papers EPRG1927, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:enp:wpaper:eprg1927
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    Cited by:

    1. Gonçalves, Ricardo & Menezes, Flávio, 2024. "The carbon tax and the crisis in Australia’s National Electricity Market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    2. Keppler, Jan Horst & Quemin, Simon & Saguan, Marcelo, 2022. "Why the sustainable provision of low-carbon electricity needs hybrid markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    3. Ricardo Gonçalves & Flávio Menezes, 2022. "Market‐wide impact of renewables on electricity prices in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 98(320), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Apergis, Nicholas & Gozgor, Giray & Lau, Chi Keung Marco & Wang, Shixuan, 2020. "Dependence structure in the Australian electricity markets: New evidence from regular vine copulae," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Gonçalves, Ricardo & Menezes, Flávio, 2022. "The price impacts of the exit of the Hazelwood coal power plant," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Lee, Boon L. & Wilson, Clevo & Simshauser, Paul & Majiwa, Eucabeth, 2021. "Deregulation, efficiency and policy determination: An analysis of Australia's electricity distribution sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Paul Simshauser & Joel Gilmore, 2020. "Is the NEM broken? Policy discontinuity and the 2017-2020 investment megacycle," Working Papers EPRG2014, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    8. Flottmann, Jonty & Wild, Phillip & Todorova, Neda, 2024. "Derivatives and hedging practices in the Australian National Electricity Market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    9. Yasir Alsaedi & Gurudeo Anand Tularam & Victor Wong, 2021. "Impact of the Nature of Energy Management and Responses to Policies Regarding Solar and Wind Pricing: A Qualitative Study of the Australian Electricity Markets," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(3), pages 191-205.
    10. Flottmann, Jonty, 2024. "Australian energy policy decisions in the wake of the 2022 energy crisis," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 238-248.
    11. Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna & Kallies, Anne, 2022. "A legal-economic framework of electricity markets: Assessing Australia’s transition," MPRA Paper 114191, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Paul Simshauser, 2020. "Merchant utilities and boundaries of the firm: vertical integration in energy-only markets," Working Papers EPRG2008, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    13. Gohdes, Nicholas, 2025. "On spot revenues, capital structure and trade off theory: Analysing investment risk for contracted renewables," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D52 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Incomplete Markets
    • D53 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Financial Markets
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

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