Pipelines vs Powerlines: The Economics of Energy Distribution

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Moderator: David Layzell, University of Calgary / The Transition Accelerator

Presenters: Josh Wickham, GPA Engineering; Jordan McCollum, Australian Pipeline and Gas Association

The cost and reliability of energy transport and storage infrastructure is a crucial issue in the energy industry, with implications for energy access, affordability, the environment and public safety. Australia’s GPA Engineering analysed the cost of energy transport and storage across a range of different gas and electricity infrastructure options and found that, across a wide range of scenarios, newly constructed pipelines are more cost-effective than newly constructed electricity transmission infrastructure at transporting energy by a wide margin.

In this webinar, GPA’s Josh Wickham and Jordan McCollum of the Australian Pipeline and Gas Association join the Transition Accelerator’s energy systems architect David Layzell to explore these results and how they can be interpreted by other jurisdictions, such as Canada, in making policy and infrastructure investment decisions as we progress towards a net zero energy system.

A Q&A follows.