Course Day One : Monday 1 December
Module 1
Power systems fundamentals
- Electricity networks and their main subsystems.
- Historical developments and market deregulation.
- Supply and demand issues
- Electricity markets and regulatory bodies in Australia.
- Key components of electricity grids and the way such grids are designed and managed.
Module 2
Introduction to Smart Grids
- Smart grid concepts and definitions
- Smart grid drivers
- Smart grid benefits.
- What is and what is not smart grid.
- Smart grid opportunities and challenges.
- Technology sectors required to deliver the smart grid.
- Industrial standards and smart grid.
Module 3
Electricity Grids
- Traditional grid structures – architecture and components.
- Performance criteria for a grid – safety, technical and operational performance (voltage, quality of supply, law, regulation).
- Meeting performance criteria for generators, transmission lines, planning criteria, and physical processes.
- Performance constraints in load characteristics, dynamic and transient responses, transmission line effects, and non-physical (regulatory and planning).
- Control mechanisms in frequency as the ‘glue’, grid stiffness, voltage regulation, system stabilization.
- Transition to ‘smartness’ – historical context, influence of new and existing constraints.
Module 4
Power Market Economics
- Electricity supply-chain economics; where do the various costs come from?
- Designing wholesale electricity markets: what is better? Energy only, or capacity markets?
- Role of prices as signals to the consumer.
- Transmission economics and congestion pricing. What should we have? Regulated or entrepreneurial interconnectors.
- Evolution of the Australian National Electricity Market. Some surprises and unexpected consequences.
- Derivatives markets, and futures trading for hedging and risk management.
- Carbon and renewable certificate markets. How does carbon really affect electricity prices?
- Transmission expansion planning and its interaction with the new gas markets.