Mr Paul Graham, exploring alternative futures for energy and transport in Australia.

Mr Paul Graham: energy economist

Mr Paul Graham is an economist with expertise in energy market analysis, forecasting and economic modelling.

• 9 June 2009 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities  
• Background
• Academic qualifications 
• Achievements 

Current activities

Mr Graham is Theme Leader, Energy Futures, for the Energy Transformed National Research Flagship and is looking at the future of our energy supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Australia.

In this role Mr Graham is responsible for:

• developing innovative approaches to modelling energy projection
• forming partnerships with external organisations
• overall research program design.

In 2005-06, Mr Graham led the Energy Futures Forum, a sector wide initiative that brought together a diverse group of Australia’s energy and transport stakeholders to identify plausible scenarios and their implications for the nation’s energy future. In 2007-08, Mr Graham also developed the Future Fuels Forum, a follow-on project which focussed on exploring Australia’s transition to sustainable and secure transport fuels.

Mr Graham is also Research Group Leader for Integrated Energy and Economic System Modelling in CSIRO Energy Technology. This involves tracking and developing the science resources of energy-economy-environment modelling.

Background

Mr Graham has developed a number of economic models designed to examine the likely technological development paths in Australia’s electricity generation and transport industries.

His models are used to determine the economic and physical implications of different energy paths and the expected level of market penetration of new technologies.

In his previous employment at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), he published, and provided advice to government on:

• analysing the fundamental drivers of the major national and international energy markets (including electricity, coal, oil, gas and uranium)
• energy costs and price formation
• market structure and competitiveness
• market failure and policy influences
• environmental implications of alternative energy paths.

Academic qualifications

Mr Graham holds a Bachelor of Economics with Honours from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.

Achievements

In 2007 Mr Graham was awarded the CSIRO Strategic Partnership Excellence Award for his seminal contribution to the Energy Futures Forum project.

In 2004 Mr Graham won the CEO’s Award for Best Report (Options for electricity generation in Australia: Technology assessment report 31) under Project 4.1 Portfolio Options and Risk Assessment.

Read more about The Energy Futures Forum and Future Fuels Forum.