Energy

14.4.1 Streamlining reporting effort and improving energy information governance
14.4.2 Building a more comprehensive knowledge base
14.4.3 Improving access to energy information

Australia’s energy data and information challenges include:

• streamlining the reporting effort and improving energy information governance through greater agency coordination
• building a more comprehensive knowledge base while minimising the reporting burden
• making information more accessible, and strengthening research capabilities to support complex decision-making

14.4.1 Streamlining reporting effort and improving energy information governance

In April 2012, following advice from its Business Advisory Forum, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to progress six priority areas for major reform that will help strengthen Australia’s competitiveness and productivity. As part of this work, COAG agreed to prioritise the completion of a review of unnecessary carbon reduction and energy efficiency schemes. COAG tasked an interjurisdictional taskforce with providing urgent advice on how to fast-track and rationalise policies and programs that are not complementary to a carbon price, are ineffective or inefficient, or impose duplicative reporting requirements on business.

The national assessment of complementary measures will be undertaken by the Complementary Measures Working Group through COAG’s Select Council on Climate Change. COAG also asked the taskforce to report on specific ways to remove overlaps in Commonwealth and state and territory reporting obligations, including the expanded use of online business reporting.

The Australian Government is committed to continuing to improve energy information collection, management and reporting and is working with key departments and agencies to examine opportunities to achieve that aim (see Box 14.1), to streamline reporting and to remove duplicative reporting requirements. For example, the government has streamlined the reporting of energy-use data to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme and the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program so that it only needs to be reported once, and has introduced a module in the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme online reporting tool to enable companies to report to both the scheme and the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program at the same time.

While there are worthwhile opportunities, there will also be practical limitations on how far existing data collection mandates and processes can be adjusted or streamlined, such as regulatory or legislative requirements, the need to ensure continuity, and the terms on which information is collected.

14.4.2 Building a more comprehensive knowledge base

To ensure that our energy knowledge base is up to date, comprehensive and accurate, the Australian Government needs to update core information sets regularly, maintain data quality, fill critical gaps, and build connected information sets to support holistic approaches to complex issues.

Updating core information sets

The government is committed to updating core information sets to ensure that there is accurate, independent and relevant public energy information. Recent initiatives include four formal assessments:

• The Australian Energy Resource Assessment, the first of which was released in 2010, is a comprehensive assessment of Australia’s energy resources, extraction technologies and projected energy use and production. The government is committed to regular assessments, every three years.

• The Australian Energy Technology Assessment provides cost estimates for electricity generation technologies under Australian conditions and reflects the potential evolution of those technologies. The latest technology assessment, released in July 2012, provides an important set of information to inform policymaking, planning and investment, and to track policy success.

• The Australian Liquid Fuel Technology Assessment, to be published for the first time in 2013, will examine current and prospective fuel technology costs (see Chapter 8: Energy markets: liquid fuels).

• The National Energy Security Assessment, released in 2009 and 2011, provides a periodic strategic analysis of issues and trends affecting energy security over a 20-year period (see Chapter 4: Energy security). The government is committed to regular two-yearly National Energy Security Assessments.

Complementing these efforts are a number of initiatives recently announced by national energy market bodies to improve the quality of market and consumer information:

• The Australian Energy Market Operator has revised its annual electricity demand forecasts for the National Electricity Market to provide a more accurate picture of demand patterns and drivers.
• The Australian Energy Market Commission has agreed to publish annual reports on energy price movements to improve understanding of price drivers.
• On 1 July 2012, the Australian Energy Regulator published an online tool¹ to help residential and small business energy consumers navigate the often complex electricity and gas retail markets to find suitable energy offers.

Improving quality and addressing gaps

Additional work in a number of areas will improve the coverage and quality of Australia’s energy information:

• The Australian Petroleum Statistics. The government is developing enhanced methodologies and information systems to report and analyse Australian Petroleum Statistics data and is considering a number of options to improve the dataset.

• Household energy use. As part of the Clean Energy Future Plan, $10 million has been allocated to the Australian Bureau of Statistics to gather data on household energy consumption and expenditure.

• Off-grid energy. This is one of the fastest growing areas of supply, but comprehensive statistics on generation and use patterns are needed. The government will work with industry and state and territory governments to fill this gap.

• Industrial energy end-use. While there are good energy information sets on industrial energy use and energy savings at the corporation and site levels, greater granularity of data on energy end-use (that is, at the technology and process levels) is needed to enable better targeting of energy efficiency opportunities. Work in this area through the Industrial Energy Efficiency Data Analysis project has begun.

• Energy resources reporting. Non-ASX-listed companies are not currently required to disclose details of mineral resources or ore reserves. The COAG Standing Council on Energy and Resources (SCER) is considering options to increase formal reporting of this information, such as a voluntary survey, regulation reform, or realignment and increased use of existing mechanisms. In addition, there is a growing need for better reporting of resources data, including volumes and frequencies of gas and water production for new gas resources such as coal-seam gas, tight gas and shale gas. The Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Developments has been established to provide scientific advice and address scientific knowledge gaps on projects that are likely to have significant water-related impacts (see Chapter 5: Energy resources).

Building connected information sets to support holistic approaches to complex issues

Governments, businesses and society are adopting more holistic approaches to energy development and use, taking into consideration strategic planning, environmental impacts (such as climate change or ecosystem outcomes), and broader social and economic impacts. Bringing these elements together requires the development of connected information sets that link primary energy data with related activity or indicator data. For example, understanding the impacts of groundwater extraction requires comprehensive sets of geological, hydrological and land-use data to allow basin-wide assessments. Much of this data is collected by government minerals, energy and environmental agencies and is relatively easy to access and align. The SCER uses a number of working groups to address these issues (see Box 14.2). There is a need to extend this work to other relevant COAG ministerial standing councils, most notably the COAG Select Council on Climate Change.

Work on aligning energy-use information sets with industrial sectors’ energy-efficiency performance has begun. The Industrial Energy Efficiency Data Analysis project, which is jointly funded by the Australian and state and territory governments, is examining energy use and energy savings in 40 industry subsectors, broken down by fuel type and energy end-use. The aim of this project is to better target cost-effective energy-efficiency activities.

In addition, the Australian Government is working to improve the collection and coordination of firm-level performance and productivity data matched to energy use. This will help to build greater understanding of the relationship between productivity and energy intensity to inform the development of government policy and programs.

Industry also generates large quantities of environmental and performance information (often when preparing environmental impact statements), much of which can be used to build the public knowledge base. While this information is often reported in aggregate or in transformed information sets, the raw data is retained by consultants for whom it has little or no ongoing value.

There is an enormous opportunity for this information to complement government-collected data to form a common baseline and trusted information source for regulators and industry. While the Australian Government does not want to appropriate legitimate commercial information, it is interested in exploring opportunities to access such data and will work closely with industry associations to achieve that aim on a voluntary basis.

14.4.3 Improving access to energy information

The main purpose of government-held data collections, and the analysis of that data, is to inform business, consumer and government decision-making. It is therefore very important that this information is accessible to stakeholders. Recent initiatives to improve access include the following:

• The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics is developing a data hub to allow data sharing and access by various stakeholders. This platform will help improve analyses required for complex decision-making.

• The bureau’s online electricity technology cost worksheet allows users to vary technology cost assumptions.

• CSIRO’s interactive electricity technology modelling allows users to vary assumptions to explore different electricity sector outcomes.

• The National Electronic Approvals Tracking System (implemented by the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator in May 2012) provides access to publicly available information about offshore petroleum titles and applications.

• The EnergyRating website provides a tool for comparing the energy performance of all available models of regulated appliance types.

• The Australian Energy Regulator’s energy comparison tools are available online.

• The Clean Energy Regulator is establishing memorandums of understanding with various national and state and territory agencies to facilitate confidential access to data collected under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme.

The Australian Government will also pursue opportunities to improve market and consumer information. These include:

• improving gas market transparency (see Chapter 9: Energy markets: gas)
• undertaking a scoping study for the development of an energy user information hub to provide consumers with access to their energy-use information currently held by retail and network providers (Chapter 10: Energy markets: electricity)
• developing options through the SCER and the Australian Energy Market Commission demand-side participation work programs to enhance the public provision of network performance data (Chapter 10: Energy markets: electricity).

Energy information policy actions

To streamline energy metrics and improve governance arrangements, the Australian Government will improve interagency coordination of energy data activities, identify and implement actions to improve the scope and quality of information collected, and minimise burdens on data providers, including by:

• enhancing methodologies and information systems for the Australian Petroleum Statistics data collection
• collecting household energy consumption and expenditure through the Australian Bureau of Statistics as part of the Clean Energy Future Plan
• working with industry and state and territory governments to better understand patterns and growth in off-grid energy use
• developing a better understanding of industrial energy end-use
• working with states and territories through the SCER to consider improvements in energy resources reporting from all companies, including non-ASX-listed companies.

The government will build connected information sets to support holistic approaches to complex issues. It will:

• engage closely with the states and territories through the SCER and other relevant ministerial councils, as well as through standing bilateral arrangements, to improve the reciprocal sharing of energy and related information sets
• engage with the key energy sector business groups to explore how access to and sharing of foundational data can be increased while respecting legitimate commercial or proprietary rights

The Australian Government will continue to improve the accessibility of its energy metrics, including through the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics’ development of a data hub. This work includes ensuring that information is responsive to different stakeholders’ needs and capacities for access, and that information is provided in an easily understood and transparent way.

¹ www.energymadeeasy.gov.au.