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Today, the recent report produced for Telenor by a joint team from Frontier Economics in Europe and Asia “The Mobile Effect : How Connectivity Has Enabled Growth” was launched in Bangkok.

This project comprised a regional study that quantified the impact of the telecommunications sector within the five Asian markets where Telenor operates. Our research found that the telecommunications sector contributed more than one percent of the GDPs in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, while the sectors enabled by telecommunications contributed almost three quarters of overall gross value added across these markets. Further, the findings showed the direct contribution that Telenor has on these economies in creating, producing and supplying telecommunications services.

James Allan, Director, based at Frontier Economics in Singapore, was on hand to present some of the findings from the report.  Commenting on the importance of connectivity in markets, James outlined that connectivity is fundamental to the process of businesses being able to find customers, and consumers being able to find products that they want to buy. “As connectivity increases, it translates into better ways to create and manage data along with the process of production and delivery. The more that customers and suppliers can connect with each other, the greater the positive impact on economic growth.”

Frontier Economics regularly advises clients in the telecommunications sector.

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The Australian Prime Minister has repeatedly claimed that Australia will meet our Paris 2030 emissions targets “in a canter”. Yet commentary consistently reports that Australia is not on track to meet these targets.

The debate over whether Australia will hit its targets is like a magician’s misdirection – it distracts from the real debate that we should be having, which is whether Australia could pursue harder emissions reduction targets. Many people fear that if we can’t even hit current targets, how could we afford to adopt harder targets? Stoking these fears gives substance to the myth that deeper cuts could be a “wrecking ball” on the economy.

The problem is that very few people have any perspective on whether hundreds of millions of tonnes of emissions reductions over a decade is achievable or not. A new briefing from Frontier Economics suggests that a 45% reduction target is easily achievable and is highly unlikely to be a wrecking ball on the economy.

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Telenor Group and Frontier Economics have released a regional study that quantifies the impact of the telecommunications sector within the five Asian markets where Telenor operates. Our research found that the telecommunications sector contributed more than one percent of the GDPs in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, while the sectors enabled by telecommunications contributed almost three quarters of overall gross value added across these markets. Further, the findings show the direct contribution that Telenor has on these economies in creating, producing and supplying telecommunications services.

“As an important enabler of economic activity, telecommunications has substantially improved business efficiency, accelerated innovation and led to the establishment of markets for new products and services. Our analysis shows that sectors which use telecommunications services more intensively contribute between 65 to 75% of total economic value to the markets across Telenor’s Asian footprint, and that these sectors have been growing strongly at between 6 to 12% per year. This shows the impact of Telenor Group’s investments in Asia in supporting and enabling growth in the countries where it operates,” said Clive Kenny, Senior Economic Consultant (Telecommunications) from the research team at Frontier Economics.

A summary of key results and the report can be accessed here.

This report was jointly produced by Frontier Economics teams in Singapore and London.

The Australian offices of Frontier Economics will be closed from 5pm Monday 24 December 2018 and will re-open at 9am on Wednesday 2 January 2019.

The Singapore office of Frontier Economics will be closed for the public holidays of Tuesday 25 December 2018 and Tuesday 1 January 2019.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy the festivities of the holiday season.

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The South Australian government has announced a plan to create the world’s largest Virtual Power Plant to assist the state in improving security, reliability and competition in the electricity system.

The VPP plan, which will be rolled out if a trial is successful, will involve up to 50,000 homes installing solar panels and Tesla Powerwall batteries combining to effectively create a 250MW distributed power plant.

Frontier Economics reviewed the plan. A summary of our analysis is available in this briefing note. Frontier regularly undertakes economic analysis and modelling in the energy sector for a range of clients.

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RenewEconomy’s David Leitch interviewed Frontier Economics (Asia-Pacific) managing director Danny Price regarding emissions intensity schemes on 10 December.

The interview (16 minutes) discusses what an emissions intensity scheme is and includes details on the modelling that Frontier Economics has done on these schemes for the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC).  This interview has been published by Radio ITK as a podcast.

Frontier Economics advised the AEMC on a range of options to reduce emissions as part of the AEMC's future energy policy planning.

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The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) today provided advice to the COAG Energy Council that analyses the impacts and characteristics of mechanisms to reduce emissions in the electricity sector in line with Australia’s Paris accord commitments.

The report is in response to a request from energy ministers for advice on the alternatives that could be applied to the wholesale electricity generation sector to help achieve Australia’s 2030 emissions reduction target.

The AEMC examined the potential impacts of three mechanisms on prices to consumers, costs to the economy and power system security:

Frontier Economics (Asia-Pacific) prepared a report for the AEMC on the theory and design of alternative options for reducing emissions in the electricity sector and to model the impacts of these alternatives.

Our analysis shows the emissions intensity target delivers the best outcomes for consumers in terms of lower prices, better power system security and certainty of meeting the emissions target.

Frontier Economics regularly advises clients regarding energy and climate change, as well as other infrastructure sectors, including transport and water.

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The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has released its 2014 Residential Electricity Price Trends report. The report forecasts retail electricity prices for each Australian state and territory out to financial year 2016/17. Frontier (Australia) was engaged by the AEMC to conduct wholesale market modelling as well as assisting in building the tariff models for each jurisdiction.

Retail electricity prices are forecast to decline in real terms in most eastern states. This trend is mainly driven by suppressed wholesale electricity prices and the expected decline in network charges.

Frontier’s modelling shows that wholesale electricity prices in eastern states will remain low for the forecast period due to continuing decline in electricity demand. The removal of the carbon price also led to a one-off drop in electricity prices at the beginning of the financial year 2014/15.

In its recent draft determination, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has proposed a large reduction in allowed revenues for network businesses in New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory from financial year 2015/16. The AER has not yet announced its draft determination regarding Queensland and South Australia. Lower network charges will also contribute to lower final retail bills paid by customers.

The electricity market in Western Australia operates differently from the eastern states. Retail electricity prices in Western Australia are predicted to rise in financial years 2015/16 and 2016/17, which mainly reflects the budgetary outlook of the Western Australian government.

Frontier regularly advises clients on energy issues spanning wholesale, network, retail and regulation.
For more information, please contact Marita O’Keeffe on m.okeeffe@frontier-economics.com.au or phone +61 3 9620 4488.

The Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism (DRET) today released the National Energy Security Assessment, alongside the Commonwealth Government’s Energy White Paper. The assessment looks at the impact of temporary and permanent supply shocks in the Eastern Australian energy markets.

Frontier (Australia) was retained to provide forecasts of dispatch and pricing outcomes in the national electricity market and the short term trading market for gas in the event of:

•    a temporary or permanent outage of a Victorian brown coal generator; or
•    a temporary outage of a significant gas pipeline.

Frontier determined that the primary impact of the supply shocks would be an increase in prices, but that reliability would be maintained under otherwise expected conditions. In the event of a temporary shock, this price effect would be short term. For a permanent shock, the pricing effect would be mitigated by rapid investment in peaking plant and subdued in the medium term via investment in baseload capacity. However, it would still lead to permanent increases in electricity prices across the national electricity market.

For more information, please contact Marita O’Keeffe at m.okeeffe@frontier-economics.com.au or call +61 (0)3 9620 4488.

The AEMC's review is focused on assessing how the Australian Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) and expanded Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme may affect existing electricity and gas market arrangements.

Frontier Australia prepared a report advising the AEMC of the impacts of the CPRS and RET schemes on the Western Australian and Northern Territory energy markets.

Frontier Australia prepared a separate report that considered the impact of these policies on generator investment and operation in the National Electricity Market paying particular attention to generator contracting, bidding and risk management strategies, as well as the impact on investment and retirement decisions and organisational structure.

The AEMC's second interim report is due to be published in June 2009, and will be further informed by industry consultation.

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