Regulated and merchant interconnectors in Australia: SNI and Murraylink revisited
View / Open Files
Authors
Littlechild, Stephen C.
Publication Date
2004-06-16Series
Cambridge Working Papers in Economics
Publisher
Faculty of Economics
Language
en_GB
Type
Working Paper
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Littlechild, S. C. (2004). Regulated and merchant interconnectors in Australia: SNI and Murraylink revisited. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.5502
Abstract
This paper examines the history of the various actual and proposed interconnectors between New South Wales and Victoria into South Australia. It covers the period from the earliest proposal for a regulated interconnector to the recent Victoria Supreme Court review and the latest ministerial proposals. It finds, inter alia, that the Supreme Court decision is likely to have strengthened, in a beneficial way, the regulatory regime for dealing with merchant interconnectors and the obligations on incumbent transmission companies. It finds that none of the proposals for regulated interconnectors did or would have passed the regulatory tests as formulated in terms of aggregate benefits to all market participants. It finds that neither of the merchant interconnectors (into South Australia and Queensland) are likely to have been profitable. It sees a possible explanation for the construction of regulated interconnectors in terms of the benefits to customers, or in terms of bringing about a single competitive market. Above all, it illustrates the political context in which decisions on interconnectors have been made, and the need to take account of such motivations when comparing the likely effects of regulated interconnectors versus merchant interconnectors
Keywords
Classification-JEL: L94, L51, Q48, merchant investment, interconnectors, electricity, regulation, transmission
Identifiers
This record's DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.5502
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.