Strategic Transformation Of Energy Industry In Australia: An Essay.

Industry Sector Overview

Briefly describe the industry sector: what major relevant entities are involved, what are their roles? (This means all industries and players / consumers – whether they are involved directly or indirectly).

Note that you must be clever not to make this description too complex. The reason for this description is to identify the levels and types of entities that will have some role to play in the change. You do not necessarily have to identify individual entities.

The industry sector in question is the energy industry that deals in both renewable and non-renewable energy provision in the country. There are several renewable energy sources including solar power, hydropower and wind power. The technologies that have been used in harnessing these energies include ocean energy, geothermal energy and bioenergy. There are two grids strengthening technologies such as battery storage and smart technology that has been used in this industry for a while now. The entities involved in this project include; the Australian government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The government provides the fundings required and the permission for the project to begin. The government will invest in the project for the purpose of the benefit of the entire country if the project were to succeed. The entire nation at large benefits from the environment being green energy due to reduced carbon emissions into the environment.  International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is also an entity in this project. They overlook the project and offer funding to projects that shows a possibility of succeeding.

The vision – the present and the envisioned business model (short statement of vision, from the point of view of the proposed strategic transformation)

Note that most of this would normally be stated by someone very senior in government, and developed with the help of advisors, analysts, and planners, and subsequently agreed on with stakeholders or stakeholder representatives.

Who are the stakeholders and what are their products and services, why change is necessary, and what is to change?

There are a number of stakeholders who are involved in the project. They include; the citizens of Australia, the government and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The government is responsible for providing fundings for the project.  The Australian Renewable Energy Agency is responsible for executing the change that is required with permission and funding from the government. The citizens provide moral support to the project development and some of them are hired to participate in the project. Therefore, citizens offer emotional support and labour skills. The government is focused on reducing the expenses incurred by citizens on expensive electricity bills and the increased amount of greenhouse gases in the environment. To solve these problems by providing environmentally friendly sources of energy at a cheaper price comes with a price for the government. That is the reason why the change is necessary. Where more investments are directed towards securing renewable energy sources that will reduce the number of emissions in the environment. The change will be about reducing the use non renewable energy sources by implementing the use of renewable energy that is expected dramatically reduce carbon emissions, with an aim of attaining the renewable energy targets of countries.

Stakeholders and Change

What is the value proposition of this vision (for the listed stakeholders)?

The stakeholders are in support of the project because they believe that the benefits that the project will bring forth are valuable much more than refusing to go-ahead with the project. There was no single stakeholder that was against the project.               

Will there be any change in the relationship between stakeholders as a result of the proposed change? Address this only briefly. [In reality this would be addressed by a complete market analysis.]

There will be a change in some stakeholder’s relationships as a result of the proposed change. The proposed change will offer the citizens a better alternative source of energy at a cheaper price thus, the relationship between the government and the citizens will improve.  If the project is a success, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency will gain more trust with the government which might lead to contracting more similar projects to achieve even better results.

Will there be any change in terms of the financial / economic / competitive position of participants in the industry sector / marketplace [leader/ follower/ niche/ laggard?) Identify factors that influence the participants’ positions from these aspects

A lot of changes will occur for the participants in the industry sector both in terms of financial and competitive position.

What entities should be involved in the implementation of the vision? [Note that the details of their roles will be described in Section 4.)

Australian Renewable Energy Agency, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Australian government are some pf the entities that will be used in implementation of the vision. 

When and where should all of the above happen (timing)? (In other words, how to organise this change into stages in time, what should be the scope of change in each stage and why)?

The project is scheduled to begin six months from now. The project’s site will be in New South Wales. All the events are supposed to tale place as stipulated for the project to be completed by the year 2024.  

To complete strategic analyses, one would engage strategic analysis firms / consultancies to complete these analyses, as well as one would refer to scientific literature and other authoritative sources.

Technology (How do existing technology and technology trends compare, i.e., how mature is present technology, ultimately is the vision feasible? (Note that strategic programmes usually start before complete technology maturity and readiness exists, or predicted future competitive situations materialise, etc. We often consider alternative futures, as well as use a staged approach)

Technology is essential in the mass production of renewable energy.  The present project is feasible because there are other similar projects that have succeeded.       

Financial viability (e.g., is there any change in the financial model of how the industry operates, and is the investment needed understood?)

The project itself is expensive to render but very beneficial once it is complete.  The estimated cost of this project is about 7billion dollars. There is no financial challenge because the estimated project money is already available.             

Value Proposition of the Vision

The issue of quality, legality and stability should be addressed to drive the project towards a positive completion. 

Competition (does any competition exist in this area, either domestically (e.g., already existing investment that should not be duplicated by Government investment), or internationally that influence the urgency of implementing the vision (so as not to be left behind or miss a long-term target)

There are other projects existing in New South Wales that needs government support for implementation. Nevertheless, this is the one project that concerns the renewable energy production and hence, there is no competition for the project.

Risk Analysis (what risks do you see that can derail the implementation of the vision and how to address these) [this would normally entail the conduct of a detailed risk analysis, on the ‘appropriate level’ – i.e., risk analysis further down the track would consider details that on this level are not yet available)

Risk analysis conducted indicates that the project is likely to face political and reputational risks. The reputational risks Gui, E. M., & MacGill, I. (2018)  might be technical, legal or financial nature. Technical risks might be as a result of the machine failure. Legal risks when the project manager skips a step of getting legal acceptance before the project proceeds. The project risk management will draft the possible risks and evaluate them to find possible solution for each risk that may occur to ensure the success of the project. 

Analysis of the current state of Resources and Capabilities that influences the feasibility of implementing the vision (existing / missing / envisioned human-, technical-, infrastructure-, logistics-, IT resources and capabilities)

The necessary resources for the implementation of the project are available. The necessary personnel who are qualified in the sector are available for hiring to provide their services for a contracted period of time until the project is complete. The infrastructure of the place is in good shape. Transportation of raw materials to the site will be easier and fast. Logistics and procurement team is available as well as the IT team (Behi et al ., 2020 September).

[Normally, for each concrete objective that help progress towards the attainment of a goal, it would be expected to also specify how we shall measure success – such as defining performance indicators and critical success factors, but in this assignment, you are not required to do this]. 

Principles underlying the planning, design, and implementation of the vision

Here you should state policies / principles that guide the planning, design, and implementation activities / projects, and are also expected to be used in the governance of the change.

Note that in general there exist two types of policies and principles that are to be considered and relevant for the development of architectural solution(s) that support the strategy.

i) Regulatory Policies and Principles that are common and not specific to the strategy (e.g., taxation policies, national and regional laws), such that all proposed architectural solution alternatives must comply with these, because otherwise they would not be valid. Usually these are stated by reference to standards or laws.

Financial/Competitive Changes

ii) Governance-mandated Policies and Principles that guide the selection of the best possible architectural solution that fits the strategic intent, and against which architectural solutions can be evaluated to determine which one fits best. These need to be explained and arguments presented why they are important and what are their priorities.

Proper stakeholder relationship management helps in lowering project risks and meeting regulatory requirement. It also ensures that the project progresses after the stakeholders give the approval of the project.  Proper stakeholder management provides the necessary funding for the project because of the sponsoring that the project receives from the stakeholders (Yang et al 2018).  

The principle will help in identify the people in each who will work on the project in each stage. This is important because it will enable proper utilization of knowledge and ideas to ensure the prosperity of the project.

The principle focuses on the impact of technology transformation on workers and how work is carried out. The principles apply to any technology that impacts a project’s direct employees, contract and temporary workers, and workers throughout their involvement of the project. This is important because it will help in identifying the correct technology that should be utilized for the successful implementation of the project (Noussan et al., 2020).   

Human resource management offers an equal opportunity to every employee so as to realize his/her potential and capability. Principle of the Scientific Selection helps to place the right individual in the right position to utilize their full potential on the project. Organisational and human resource (Drouin et al., 2018) principles enable the people to understand that the project is a learning process and should avoid blaming each other in case of a mistake but rather deal with them wisely.

Information management dela with the flow of information among the stakeholders, records and document management. A proper information management policies and principles helps in mitigating risk and communicating extensively. It also aids (Noussan et al., 2020) in striving for a seamless digital employee experience and choosing the steps of the project very carefully. 

Process management policies and principles entails all the procedures that will be undertaken to guarantee the success of the project. The entire process is stipulated down in the project plan showing the deliverables and the time that each step will be completed. A proper process management Farrelly & Tawfik (2020) enables the completion of the project within the stipulated time.

Financial Management means planning, organizing, directing and controlling the financial activities such as procurement and utilization of funds of the enterprise. It means applying general management principles to financial resources of a project.

The concept of quality project management is an ongoing effort to address improvements of the deliverables over time. The opportunity to identify and address change is always present. This principle guides the project implementation to ensure the project change that was desired is accomplished( Castro et al., 2020 November).

Risk management principles ensure that risks are identified at the early stages of the project. This is probably the most important principle of risk management that makes sure that the project manager is ahead of the game by completing risk assessment before the project commences. It helps in identifying the cause of a potential risk and design preventative measures and a response if it was to occur. This principle helps the stakeholders of the project to be ready for any risk that might occur, thus the success of the project will be very likely.

Implementation Entities

It provides for the responsible Minister which is the minister of energy to set standards and issue written directions in relation to the implementation of the project. Proper research is carried out and the findings are noted down

Create a dynamic business model that lists the main entities involved, including existing, new, and transitional entities (such as a change programme and change projects)

Represent on the dynamic business model the life-cycle relationships among these entities so as to be able to read from this model what change activities are necessary to make the vision reality.

Do not forget to include Project- and Programme entities in you model

Insert a ‘dynamic business model’ here as a figure (or as a series of figures, if the evaluation of the transformation plan requires multiple levels of detail to be analysed, or the explanation needs to gradually reveal detail).

You can use PowerPoint to draw this model (see template provided on the course website).

As a commentary to this figure., for each Enterprise Entity briefly describe its tasks (role) in the transformation

E2’s task is to partner with the Australian renewable energy agency and support the implementation of the project through means such as financial support. They also encourage (El-Bidairi et al., 2020) the implementation by displaying other similar projects that have succeed in other countries to show that it possible for the present project to succeed as well.

Normally, after this, a plan (timeline and stages) would also be produced, but you are not required to provide this in the assignment.

References

Behi, B., Arefi, A., Jennings, P., Pivrikas, A., Gorjy, A., & Catalão, J. P. (2020, September). Consumer Engagement in Virtual Power Plants through Gamification. In 2020 5th International Conference on Power and Renewable Energy (ICPRE) (pp. 131-137). IEEE.

Castro, M. A. L., Martinez, P. C., Zhazylbek, Y., Prova, N. J., & Vargas, I. H. (2020, November). Assessing Microgrid Feasibility in Australia and Brazil. In 2020 International Conference on Smart Grids and Energy Systems (SGES) (pp. 18-23). IEEE.

Drouin, N., Müller, R., Sankaran, S., & Vaagaasar, A. L. (2018). Balancing vertical and horizontal leadership in projects: empirical studies from Australia, Canada, Norway and Sweden. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.

El-Bidairi, K. S., Nguyen, H. D., Mahmoud, T. S., Jayasinghe, S. D. G., & Guerrero, J. M. (2020). Optimal sizing of Battery Energy Storage Systems for dynamic frequency control in an islanded microgrid: A case study of Flinders Island, Australia. Energy, 195, 117059.

Farrelly, M. A., & Tawfik, S. (2020). Engaging in disruption: A review of emerging microgrids in Victoria, Australia. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 117, 109491.

Gui, E. M., & MacGill, I. (2018). Typology of future clean energy communities: An exploratory structure, opportunities, and challenges. Energy research & social science, 35, 94-107.

Jenkins, J. D., Luke, M., & Thernstrom, S. (2018). Getting to zero carbon emissions in the electric power sector. Joule, 2(12), 2498-2510.

Kristoff, M. M. (2022). What Is the State of Virtual Power Plants in Australia? From Thin Margins to a Future of VPP-tailers.

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Mahmud, K., Khan, B., Ravishankar, J., Ahmadi, A., & Siano, P. (2020). An internet of energy framework with distributed energy resources, prosumers and small-scale virtual power plants: An overview. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 127, 109840.

Noussan, M., Raimondi, P. P., Scita, R., & Hafner, M. (2020). The role of green and blue hydrogen in the energy transition—A technological and geopolitical perspective. Sustainability, 13(1), 298.

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Poudyal, R., Loskot, P., Nepal, R., Parajuli, R., & Khadka, S. K. (2019). Mitigating the current energy crisis in Nepal with renewable energy sources. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 116, 109388.

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