Presentation by Stephen Wilson, University of Queensland.

Australian Nuclear Association ANA2023 Conference, held Friday 6 October 2023 at the Aerial UTS Function Centre, Ultimo, NSW.

Introduced by Mark Ho, President, Australian Nuclear Association.

Abstract: Recent research has found that removing the bans on nuclear energy has the potential to radically reduce the future total system cost of electricity generation in the five-region interconnected power system in Eastern Australia.

The research work adopted a different approach to the question of estimating the costs of a system decarbonised to varying degrees. The approach considered simultaneously the optimisation of long-term investment decisions and operational decisions.

While focusing on the total system cost modelling work, and in particular the opportunity for nuclear energy to radically reduce system costs, the presentation will also draw in places on perspectives gained from related work relevant to system costs: on hydrogen and energy exports via ammonia and HVDC cables; on system stability; and on distributed energy resources