IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/jfeppp/jfep-03-2020-0047.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financing costs and barriers to entry in Australia’s electricity market

Author

Listed:
  • Alan Rai
  • Tim Nelson

Abstract

Purpose - This paper aims to provide investors’ views on financing costs and barriers to entry into the electricity generation sector, with a focus on investors’ views on potential impacts on cost of capital from adopting nodal pricing and financial transmission rights (FTRs). The implications for policymakers and policy reforms are also discussed in detail. Design/methodology/approach - Survey-based data collection of investors and developers in electricity generation, consisting of multiple choice questions from a closed list of discrete choices, binary-choice questions, and questions with free-text/open-ended answers. Findings - Across survey respondents, weighted-average cost of capital (WACCs) were broadly unchanged over 2019, with increases for undiversified/non-integrated participants offset by decreases for horizontally integrated participants. Cost of equity has risen, whereas cost of debt has fallen. Nodal pricing-cum-FTRs were estimated to increase WACCs by 150–200 basis points p.a. (15–20%), reflecting concerns around the firmness of FTRs and ability to automatically access intraregional settlement residues. Research limitations/implications - These findings have energy policy implications, namely, the need to consider the interaction between economic theory and real-world financing models when designing and implementing fundamental energy sector reforms. Practical implications - The need to consider implementation and transitional issues (e.g. grandfathering of existing rights, focusing on reducing the largest barriers to entry) is associated with implementing nodal pricing. Originality/value - Unique set of survey questions and insights that have not previously been addressed in an Australian context; what-if analysis not previously done in an Australian context

Suggested Citation

  • Alan Rai & Tim Nelson, 2021. "Financing costs and barriers to entry in Australia’s electricity market," Journal of Financial Economic Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(6), pages 730-754, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:jfeppp:jfep-03-2020-0047
    DOI: 10.1108/JFEP-03-2020-0047
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JFEP-03-2020-0047/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JFEP-03-2020-0047/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/JFEP-03-2020-0047?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simshauser, Paul, 2024. "On static vs. dynamic line ratings in renewable energy zones," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    2. Nicholas Gohdes & Paul Simshauser & Clevo Wilson, 2023. "Renewable investments in hybridised energy markets: optimising the CfD-merchant revenue mix," Working Papers EPRG2306, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    3. Paul Simshauser, 2023. "The regulation of electricity transmission in Australia's national electricity market: user charges, investment and access," Working Papers EPRG2311, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    4. Simshauser, Paul & Newbery, David, 2024. "Non-firm vs priority access: On the long run average and marginal costs of renewables in Australia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    5. Gohdes, Nicholas & Simshauser, Paul & Wilson, Clevo, 2022. "Renewable entry costs, project finance and the role of revenue quality in Australia's National Electricity Market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    6. McDonald, Paul, 2024. "Interrelationships of renewable energy zones in Queensland: localised effects on capacity value and congestion," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 818-833.
    7. Gohdes, Nicholas & Simshauser, Paul & Wilson, Clevo, 2023. "Renewable investments, hybridised markets and the energy crisis: Optimising the CfD-merchant revenue mix," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    8. McDonald, Paul, 2023. "Locational and market value of Renewable Energy Zones in Queensland," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 198-213.
    9. Gohdes, Nicholas, 2023. "Unhedged risk in hybrid energy markets: Optimising the revenue mix of Australian solar," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1363-1380.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Energy; Financial markets and institutions; Pricing; Corporate finance and governance; Policy objectives; Policy designs and consistency; D40; D47; O13; O16; Q40;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • D47 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Market Design
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:jfeppp:jfep-03-2020-0047. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.