Day two: Plenary session Energy transition research priorities

Drew Clarke

Chair, Australian Energy Market Operator

Chair, ACOLA Australian Energy Transition Research Plan

Drew Clarke AO FTSE is Chair of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and was until recently a Director of CSIRO. Drew’s earlier career was in the Australian Public Service in science and policy roles. He has been working in energy policy for 20 years, including as Secretary of the Department of Resources and Energy, as Australia’s representative on the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency, and in roles establishing ARENA and developing the National Energy Market.

Drew is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and was awarded an Order of Australia in 2016 for services to public administration. He chairs the Energy Transition Research Committee at the Australian Council of Learned Academies.

ABSTRACT: Drew will provide a perspective on energy transition research priorities, drawing on the CSIRO report on Australian Electricity Transitions 1900 to 2050, and the ACOLA program to develop a dynamic energy transition research plan. The CSIRO report presents a review of Australian electricity transitions over the past 120 years, in the context of the current transition to net zero emissions by 2050. Five interdependent requirements for a successful Australian decarbonisation transition are identified, providing a research framework. Building on the 2021 Australian Energy Transition Research Plan, ACOLA has published five further reports addressing energy transition research themes, funding and translation. The funding and translation papers include recommendations for research policy. The next stage is development of an enduring model for updating research priorities as the transition evolves.

Gabrielle Kuiper

Senior Advisor, Smart Energy Council

DER specialist and Senior Adviser to the Smart Energy Council, Dr Gabrielle Kuiper is an energy, sustainability and climate change professional with over 20 years’ experience in the corporate world, government and non-government organisations and academia. She was previously the DER Strategy Specialist with the Energy Security Board.

Prior to that, Gabrielle held senior executive or senior advisory energy-related positions in the Office of the Australian Prime Minister, at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), and in the NSW Government. Gabrielle currently works in climate philanthropy for an Australian charitable trust.

ABSTRACT: Energy planning and policy relies significantly on forecasts, all of which will be wrong. Basing the future on scenario variations of the past is only one way to think about the future of our energy system. Alternatively, we could look to the likely end state and see what this tells us about the consequences for our future energy system. This is particularly important for the consistently underestimated Distributed Energy Resources (DER). We don’t know when, but we know at some stage we will reach saturation levels of DER. This presentation looks at the consequences of maximum likely levels of uptake of DER based on the results of an exploratory hypothetical exercise conducted by ITP Renewables.

Chris Briggs

Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

Dr Chris Briggs has a combination of climate, energy and labour market expertise developed over 25 years’ of experience in policy, research and advocacy in Federal, State and City Governments, and university sector. Chris is a co-founder and technical director at the Business Renewables Centre – Australia. Key areas of specialisation include corporate renewable power purchase agreements, clean energy jobs and supply chains, demand flexibility and the integration of renewable energy.