The Deregulation And Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards

Australia, much like the rest of the Western World, is becoming or has became a deregulated electricity sector. For our purposes, why a country deregulates can vary. As started in my previous essay, most of Australia’s privatization or deregulation of the utilities including electricity came down to two factors, one being money and following patterns of the other western countries who also have deregulated their electricity sectors and other utilities. However discussing only about deregulation and alternative energy portfolio standards is what we are focusing on. In Australia, there are four distinct energy commissions or agencies. With Australian Energy Regulator (AER), Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), Clean Energy Finance†¦show more content†¦Unlike AECs, SRES incentives these small renewable energy generators by giving these individuals, small-businesses, or communities Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs), which much like AEC are bought by electr ic utilities (Australian Department of the Environment). These credits are required by large-scale renewable energy target (LRET) to be purchased by electric utilities (Australian Department of the Environment). This trade off guarantees the small generators to be used, and keeping Australia on track for their target goal of 23.5% by 2020. However, the LRET has more policies and policy instruments than ensuring small-scale renewable generator’s STCs are being bought. LRET’s main goal is to incentivise creating or expanding of large-scale renewable energy power (Australian Department of the Environment). It is with incentivising these large-scale renewable power stations Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGC) are given out for each MW-hour of renewable energy. Which like with STCs are obligated to be bought by electric retailers or electric distributors (Australian Department of the Environment). However, both large-scale and small-scale certificates are traded diffe rently. The Government of South Australia’s Department of th Premier and Cabinet wrote an report, Integration of Renewable Energy Sources into the Electricity Market, which states, â€Å"LRET certificates are traded in an open market where the price varies in accordance to the variations in