Capgemini has released the 20th edition of the annual World Energy Markets Observatory report (WEMO) in partnership with De Pardieu Brocas Maffei and Vaasa ETT, highlighting the Australian energy market’s progress as a global player and how digital transformation is changing the utility landscape.
According to the report, in 2017 Australian renewable energy was largely driven by wind and solar. For the first time, the contribution of wind in the nation’s electricity generation was on par with hydro, both accounting for about a 6 per cent share.
The report highlighted that Australia is also witnessing an unprecedented construction boom in large-scale renewable energy projects. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance data, large-scale solar and wind projects attracted investment worth AU $11.7 billion in Australia, which is an increase of 150 per cent from 2016.
The report also highlighted that emissions in 2030 are projected to grow by 3.5 per cent above 2020 levels – mostly driven by transport and agriculture sectors while other sectors are projected to stabilise or grow slowly in the post-2020 period.
Despite this continuous rise in emissions, Australia remains on track to achieve its 2030 emissions reduction target of 5 per cent below 2000 levels.
WEMO researchers further emphasised that fast-paced technological changes are rapidly reshaping Australia’s energy market, transforming it from a centralised system dominated by a few players to a more decentralised, heterogeneous environment.
Big data, analytics and the Internet of Things are also starting to be leveraged by city councils and businesses to improve energy efficiency, facilitate smart city development and ensure consumer retention.
Jan Lindhaus, Vice President, Head of Energy and Utilities at Capgemini Australia explained that all segments of the value chain are impacted by digital transformation, from client relationships and operational processes, through to grids and interactive services, with a huge potential to decrease costs.
“Utility incumbents need to accelerate their transformations and step up their focus on new service-based business models as competition from different domains including new entrants, is increasing,” he said.
The key Australian findings of the 2018 edition of the World Energy Markets Observatory report are:
- 2017 was overall marked as a year of positive developments in the renewable energy front, despite the marginal decline of 2 per cent in renewables share, owing to low hydro output.
- In the backdrop of an unsustainable electricity pricing situation, an ACCC review identified four root causes of the 56 per cent residential customer price increase over the last 10 years.
- There has been an increased investment in the management of Distributed Energy resources aiming to ensure reliability as the energy market transforms.
- Australia’s emissions have increased in the past three years and the momentum will continue until 2030. Regardless of this, Australia is on track to meet its 2020 and 2030 targets.
- Advancements in emerging technologies such as blockchain, IoT, big data and cloud are resulting in innovative services such as low-cost and low energy consumption based IoT networks, blockchain powered trading platforms, smart lighting and smart environment services.
Globally, however, the report found that China, the world’s second largest consumer of energy, leading emitter of Greenhouse Gases (GHG), significant energy equipment supplier, and a key player in critical resources, has also become an important investor in electricity companies.
The report also highlighted that global renewable energy and storage prices continued to decrease, but tech limitations and cost of development means full renewable generation remains to be far off for most countries.
More information on the report, along with its full findings, can be found here.
