Australia: The Dutch Disease and IEC 61850!?

Dustin Tessier suggests in his paper the increased application of IEC 61850 in Australia as a means against the Dutch Disease – a very interesting paper. He states:
“With a bit of sponsorship from the government, this cost saving technology [IEC 61850] established in 2004 - could immediately translate into production efficiencies throughout the utility, LNG, and industrial sectors. This is but one example of low lying fruit that have yet to be picked in the Australian productivity domain.”

The Dutch Disease is a serious threat against nations that have a high dependency on their exportable resource commodities; which explains the apparent relationship between the increase in exploitation of natural resources and a decline in the manufacturing sector.  Nations that are victim to low productivity rates, are more vulnerable than others, and it is these nations that must first seek the "low lying fruit" when trying to stimulate efficiencies within their economy. The answer? IEC 61850! This is an attractive technology, as it applies across most industries, be it utilities, LNG, metals and mining, desalination plants, etc. With a bit of sponsorship from the government, this cost – saving technology established in 2004 – could immediately translate into production efficiencies throughout the utility, LNG, and industrial sectors. This is but one example of low lying fruit that have yet to be picked in the Australian productivity domain. This is likely true for Canada, Brazil, …

According to Wikipedia “the Dutch disease is a concept that explains the apparent relationship between the increase in exploitation of natural resources and a decline in the manufacturing sector. The mechanism is that an increase in revenues from natural resources (or inflows of foreign aid) will make a given nation's currency stronger compared to that of other nations (manifest in an exchange rate), resulting in the nation's other exports becoming more expensive for other countries to buy, making the manufacturing sector less competitive.”

Download the Document Death To The Dutch Disease: The Century of the Surplus [pdf, 1.2 MB]