The Universities of Queensland (UQ), Sydney, Newcastle and New South Wales have been awarded a $3.3 million CSIRO grant to investigate the most economically efficient energy network of Australia’s future.

UQ’s Professor John Foster said UQ would use its $607,000 share of the CSIRO Future Grid Flagship Cluster funding to explore the economic impact of investments in renewable energy, such as solar, wind and geothermal electricity, on the national electricity market. 

“The transition to a lower emissions technology base will require significant structural and economic reforms to the electricity market,” he said. 

“Our economic and investment models for future grids research will use economic modelling to predict the impact of renewable energy sources on transmission systems, as well as the additional cost of investment in these networks.” 

A key focus will be the forecasting of price levels and volatility of the electricity market if it is supplemented with renewable sources. 

The University of Sydney will provide modelling for the future Australian electricity grid to 2050, including grid power flows, stability implications, security and resilience to changing technologies. 

The University of Newcastle will build on these outcomes and investigate co-optimisation of the electricity and natural gas networks. 

The University of NSW Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets will produce a unifying policy analysis and framework of value to government and industry stakeholders.