The Federal Government has announced a $900,000 grant to the University of Melbourne to conduct a $1.2 million study Achieving Cost-effective Abatement from Australian Electricity Generation.

 

Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, said the project will produce software modelling of Australia’s electricity market to assist with understanding how the National Energy Market might achieve the cheapest cuts in carbon emissions while using increased levels of renewable energy.

 

“The project will allow many thousands of simulated combinations of wind, solar and thermal power, with optimisation tools helping to find the lowest cost combination,” Minister Ferguson said.

 

“Importantly, the project will see the development of open source modelling software to assess the performance of future energy systems, including transmission networks, under different levels of renewable energy penetration.

 

“The software will be publicly available so that it can be used by researchers in academia or industry, allowing for scrutiny and refinement over time.”

 

The project will commence on 1 July 2012 and is scheduled to end early 2015. The University of Melbourne will conduct the study with support from the University of New South Wales.

 

Other participants include the Australian Energy Market Operator, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance, General Electric and consultants Market Reform.