Regulation and policy

  • Announcement

    Capacity Investment Scheme boosted from 6GW to 32GW

    From Cornwall Insight Australia's Energy Market Alerts service Last Friday, the Commonwealth announced a major boost to the Capacity Investment Scheme, with the scheme now expected to deliver 32GW (combination of 9GW firming capacity and 23GW renewable generation) – up from 6GW. Cornwall Insight Australia has released an Energy Market...

  • Regulation and policy

    Building back: Autumn Statement seeks to deliver investment confidence

    On 22 November, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, presented the government’s Autumn Statement 2023. The Statement contained a variety of measures related to energy including: £600bn of planned public sector investment over the next five years to underpin future growth and support energy security, net zero, and public...

  • Announcement

    What are Australia’s emissions reduction targets?

    From Cornwall Insight Australia's Energy Market Alerts service Energy laws have now been amended to incorporate an emissions reduction objective alongside the other objectives. The list of targets that the market bodies will need to consider is listed in a separately published Targets Statement. The targets currently listed cover both...

  • Announcement

    Emissions intensity drops for October 2023

    From Cornwall Insight Australia’s NEM Market Analysis report This October saw a 12.6% reduction in total emissions (accounting for -1.18 Mt CO2-e reduction) as solar and wind generation has increased significantly. The reduction in emissions may continue with the arrival of Fly Creek and Rye Park wind farms expected soon...

  • Regulation and policy

    What’s going on with REGOs?

    Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin, more commonly referred to as REGOs, are certificates issued to accredited renewable generators for every MWh of electricity they produce over a year period. The initial intentions of these certificates were to provide suppliers a means to prove the level of renewable generation they received...

  • Low carbon generation

    De-risking renewable development: CI RESS Model inspires policy changes in RESS 3 T&Cs  

    Last year, we partnered together with Wind Energy Ireland (WEI) to produce a report titled “Improving Revenue Certainty and Risk Allocation for New Renewable Generators”, which explored potential auction policy changes for the RESS auction that would help de-risk renewable investment for developers and generators. At the heart of this...

  • Regulation and policy

    Capacity Market: Rule changes for upcoming auctions

    The latest round of Capacity Market auctions is underway following the publication of the auction parameters on 18 July, with the prequalification window subsequently opening on 26 July. In this blog, we explore some of the changes made to the rules and regulations of the scheme ahead of this year’s...

  • Announcement

    2022/23 Australian energy insights report

    Analytics on key current developments in the Australian energy industry Cornwall Insight Australia has released its latest compilation of Australian energy insights, charts, and analyses. The report includes the topics of energy storage and flexibility, generation (all technologies), power prices, low carbon generation, FCAS, policy and regulation, electric vehicles, and...

  • Regulation and policy

    Australian policy and regulation update

    Strategic overview: The course of Australian energy policy and regulation would inevitably alter following the change in Federal Government in May last year. Since then, the state and Federal governments have become aligned on energy policy, largely removing energy as a perennial football in Australian politics. The alignment manifests in...

  • Regulation and policy

    Free Energy market alert | Last night’s Federal budget

    The Federal Budget released yesterday (9 May 2023) is the first full-year budget from the new Labor Federal Government. Like the mini-budget released last October, the budget signals the new Government’s intertwining climate change and energy ambitions. Cornwall Insight Australia has released a concise Energy Market Alert on the budget,...

  • Regulation and policy

    Come gather ‘round people: recent policy and industry developments 

    In the recent weeks and months there has been a flurry of policy documents published seeking to address both near-term and future challenges in the energy market. In our latest blog, we provide a summary of some of the key updates across Low Carbon Generation, Flexibility Markets, and Electricity and...

  • Regulation and policy

    Our response to the Spring Budget

    Once again, a UK budget has seen some significant energy policy announcements that will stir up conversation and opinion across the country. It also shows how reining in energy prices is seen as key to restraining inflation. The pre-budget announcement to maintain the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) at £2,500 had...

  • Regulation and policy

    Questions from the British-Ireland Parliamentary Assembly

    Ruth Young, Senior Consultant at Cornwall Insight Ireland and Robert Buckley, Head of Relationship Development, recently participated in a session at the British-Ireland Parliamentary Assembly to address recent energy trends. They prepared a sample of the briefing notes with answers to: What are the main challenges governments in the BIPA...

  • Low carbon generation

    Government publishes Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2023

    This article is an extract from our Energy Spectrum Ireland service, which is a monthly publication and weekly news bulletin covering key developments in the Irish and Northern Irish energy sectors. If you are interested, we are currently offering a free trial which you can sign up to by filling...

  • Business supply and services

    Early implications of the Energy Bill Discount Scheme  

    People are beginning to take in the changes from the business Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) to the Energy Bill Discount Scheme (EBDS) that are scheduled for the end of March. As we outlined in our release earlier in the week, the government support is to be scaled back significantly....

  • Business supply and services

    Top 3 predictions for the energy transition

    Robert Buckley, our Head of Relationship Development, gave his top 3 predictions for the energy transition in 2023. 1) Decarbonisation destabilisation Europe’s energy market is going through a war-driven restructuring away from Russian gas which will take years. Wholesale gas, coal and carbon prices will remain very high much longer...

  • E-mobility and low carbon

    2022’s most exciting ‘Charts of the Week’

    Some of our team have looked back throughout 2022 and picked their most exciting ‘Chart of the Week’.​Their choices include exploring green tariffs, wholesale gas prices, CfD allocation round 4 and the MHHS Implementation Levy.  It’s My Birthday – Two years of Dynamic Containment Picked by Tom Faulkner, Head of...

  • Regulation and policy

    Global shocks but energy transition powers ahead – 2022 year in review

    It goes without saying that 2022 has been a tumultuous year for energy worldwide, and Australia was no exception. The unprecedented suspension of the NEM in June 2022 exposed fragility in Australia’s energy market, which could not withstand the shock of high energy commodity prices caused by the Russian invasion...

  • Regulation and policy

    Energy Market Alerts service and key alerts

    Australia’s energy market is rapidly changing, with increasing renewable generation, exiting thermal plants, and new technologies on the horizon, such as hydrogen. Policymakers and regulators at the Federal and State levels are grappling with this transition. As a result, it may seem there are a bewildering number of regulatory changes...

  • Regulation and policy

    Regulatory Authority (RA) System Services Future Arrangements (SSFA) Workshop

    The RA held a stakeholder workshop on 23 November to provide an update on the next steps of the project following the publication of the decision paper on the System Services Future Arrangements High Level Design (SEM-22-012) in April 2022. The objective of the SSFA is to deliver a competitive...

  • Regulation and policy

    Government to implement EU measures to address windfall gains

    On Tuesday 22 November, the government announced that it will implement Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 to address windfall gains in the energy sector. This will include a cap on all market revenues of non-gas electricity generators, with excess revenues to be collected and used to support electricity consumers. The cap...

  • Regulation and policy

    What are social tariffs and why might we need them?   

    As the government’s primary tools for mitigating high consumer energy bills are expected to end in April 2024, and with the Autumn Statement’s mention of a “new approach to consumer protection” many are discussing the future of the UK’s energy bill support mechanisms. Given the Statement’s express mention of “social...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    October Energy Executive Summary updates on Vic SEC proposal and Qld Job and Energy Plan

    Cornwall Insight Australia's ‘Energy executive summary’ provides a high-level assessment of key energy market announcements from the last month. Our experts break down each development that you and your business should be aware of so you can respond to changes in the perpetually evolving energy sector. Each summary provides you...

  • Regulation and policy

    Energy Price Guarantee to end in April

    I was not surprised by the announcement from the Chancellor today (17/10) regarding the shortened time period in which the domestic Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) will apply, for all the reasons discussed in our report -  Energy Price Guarantee - Counting the Cost - and my accompanying blog. Our report...

  • Regulation and policy

    Government to consult on the introduction of Cost-Plus-Revenue Limit

    The government issued its Energy Prices Bill on 12 October. The bill will put in law a number of the already-announced mechanisms that will be used to support households and businesses this winter including the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. Also announced alongside this is the...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    From zero to hero: Can CfDs split markets and reduce costs this winter?

    Given media comment on the imposition of a revenue cap for low carbon generators instead of migration of existing projects onto a CfD, please find below a blog published by Cornwall Insight three weeks ago. Not only did this note the possibility of the revenue cap being a fall back...

  • Regulation and policy

    New customer support schemes will need very careful management

    1 October 2022, marked a momentous day for the British retail energy markets, indeed for the nation as a whole. On that Saturday the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) commenced for household customers and the Energy Bill Reduction Scheme (EBRS) for businesses. Not since March 1990 have ministers had so much...

  • Regulation and policy

    Energy Price Guarantee – Counting the Costs

    Modelling from Cornwall Insight has forecast the two-year cost of the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) to be between £72bn in the lowest case scenario, and £140bn in the extreme high case scenario1. The data included in our new EPG report ‘Counting the Costs’, shows a near doubling of the forecasts...

  • Regulation and policy

    One-hit wonder? Assessing the government’s business support scheme

    Subsidising the unprecedented cost of energy for both households and businesses came in at the forefront of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini-budget” last Friday. Described as “one of the biggest interventions ever made”, Kwarteng confirmed a three-step plan. Firstly, as announced on 8 September, the introduction of...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Electricity network reform: where are we now?

    In its Energy Security Strategy (ESS), the UK government set out ambitions for 95% of electricity to be sourced from low carbon generation by 2030 and for the UK to have a fully decarbonised electricity system by 2035. In order to accommodate this ambition, the electricity network will need to...