Modelling

Competition   |   Finance   |   Regulation   |   Policy   |   Analytics   |   Modelling

The complexity of markets and industries, in combination with the increasing availability of data, is providing greater opportunities to use sophisticated modelling techniques to deliver unique insights to business and policy challenges.

Our experts have developed a suite of modelling tools using optimisation, clustering and big data techniques that allow organisations to test hypotheses and gain strengthened understanding of future risks and uncertainties, and the appropriate responses. Wherever possible we make use of cloud-based model architecture to speed up processes and calculations and deliver results in a timely manner. These tools help deliver insights to businesses and governments about proposed changes to market dynamics, regulatory practices and planned investments.

Our team of modelling experts and software developers create bespoke model solutions to challenges arising in business and government. These tools can also deliver our clients the capability to support their own analysis, as required.

Our services include:

+ access to a suite of modelling tools built specifically to provide insights to problems arising in the wholesale electricity, renewable energy, and battery storage sectors

+ modelling tools to facilitate the cost benefit evaluation of infrastructure investments or policy changes, consistent with the requirements of the national electricity rules and government best practice guidelines

+ strategic advice to identify modelling tools or solutions for specific problems

+ modelling analysis and support

We are proud of our reputation for deploying modelling tools in a transparent manner that allows our clients to understand the basis for all of the insights obtained.

Electricity market models

To analyse the complex changes arising in wholesale electricity markets we have developed a suite of wholesale market models of the national electricity market in the east coast of Australia, and the Darwin-Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs networks in the Northern Territory. These models are used to support analyses of proposed changes to market design, reliability requirements, network investments, and market developments including battery storage and the increasing penetration of renewable energy.

Our suite of electricity market models includes:

+ a long-term planning model that projects outcomes in the market over the long term, eg, 20-30 years

+ a short-term dispatch model that simulates short-term dispatch and pricing outcomes, eg, on a 30-minute basis

+ a household level solar model that provides insights on the development of small scale solar and battery storage

Benefit cost models

We deploy a wide range of modelling tools that have been developed to analyse the benefits and costs of policy and investment proposals arising in the government and infrastructure sectors. These models have been designed to satisfy the specific requirements of government evaluation processes (eg, regulatory impact assessments), and industry specific requirements and guidelines, such as the regulatory investment tests in the national electricity rules, and the economic evaluation guidelines of various transport agencies.

In developing benefit cost models we work closely with our clients to:

+ define the problem that the proposal is seeking to address;

+ identify the benefit and cost categories of relevance to the analysis;

+ set out the logic linking the proposal to the benefit categories; and

+ collect the data necessary to quantify the relevant benefits and costs.

We routinely deliver versions of our benefit cost models to clients, thereby allowing additional sensitivity testing to be undertaken and evaluated.

InfoFox for secure information collaboration

In 2017, HoustonKemp was selected under the government’s prestigious Business Research and Innovation Initiative (BRII) to undertake a feasibility study in response to a challenge identified by AUSTRAC and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). Our proposed solution was then successfully taken to the proof-of-concept stage of development.

The challenge identified by AUSTRAC and ACIC was to develop a solution to enable the dissemination, tracking and valuing of information shared between intelligence organisations. The solution needed to be flexible and adaptable, without the need for central administration, to facilitate implementation amongst organisations with different information sharing protocols and processes.

We call our solution InfoFox.

InfoFox is a secure information collaboration platform built specifically for financial intelligence units, law enforcement and governments and has the capacity to be adopted by other organisations and sectors that place a high value on security and integrity of information sharing and collaboration.

It addresses current impediments to collaboration and information sharing of sensitive information, by providing users with the tools to enforce legal and business specific information sharing protocols, while giving organisations feedback on information performance, topic priorities and flows. By keeping an immutable record of inter-organisation information sharing and communication flows, powered by blockchain technology, InfoFox provides organisations with confidence that information will be used appropriately, thereby strengthened the sharing of information.

Specifically, InfoFox allows organisations to:

+ create a secure shared information resource for analysts

+ establish information workspaces to support cross agency taskforces

+ continue to control sensitive information within their own sharing server and using their own business processes and information sharing protocols

+ monitor performance of information sharing and priority topics, and

+ audit records or information flows between organisations and users.

These features are achieved without the need to create a central information warehouse and so passing control of sensitive information to a third party, or to change existing information sharing protocols or processes.

InfoFox will soon be adopted by a number of organisations to facilitate information sharing and collaboration with sensitive information.