Our third and final Foresighting Forum 2021 webinar took place yesterday, with over 150 energy sector leaders and decision makers tuning in to discuss how we might envision a whole-of-system, consumer-centric change for our energy future.
Attendees heard from our expert panellists from The Energy Project Ltd and the Total Environment Centre, as our CEO Lynne Gallagher and Director of Energy System Transition, Brian Spak tackled the opportunities and challenges surrounding System Design. You can watch a full recording by clicking on the link below.
To begin our discussion, Brian Spak, our new Director Energy System Transition (formerly CSIRO) shared his views on the future opportunities that are being presented as Australia leads the way in rooftop solar adoption. What are the possibilities and the limitations and what kind of tools or frameworks could we adapt to make planning more effective?
Brian was then followed by Mark Byrne and Dr Andrew Nance, who shared how an effective national plan must incorporate local planning and what is happening at community level. Consumer needs are most likely to be met if we can continuously improve the accuracy of our forecasting to predict how and when consumers will use energy into the future and plan accordingly. People and communities are already making decisions about their energy use and generation, but what technical changes do we need to make to ensure consumers are supported and protected when playing an active part in the future grid? Mark’s three fundamental principles of a democratic grid might be an answer – “do no harm, think local, and listen to the people” but how can we move towards this goal?
All presenters then joined Energy Consumers Australia CEO Lynne Gallagher in a panel discussion about developing a common sense of purpose to tackle the issues at hand. System security is already being challenged, so how can we connect and cooperate to deliver the rigorous understanding and planning needed to design a system that meets consumer values, expectations and needs?
Continue the conversation
There was a rich commentary taking place between our audience members throughout the webinar in the Chat and Q&A. Further analysis of our final topic along with this commentary and some of the questions that we didn’t get time to cover will be synthesised and published on our website soon. We’d love to know what you thought and how we can make our webinar experiences and events even better. To get in contact, email us here.
View the presentation slides here.
Save the date…
We will soon be announcing the details for Foresighting Forum 2022, which will return to the usual February scheduling. Keep an eye on our channels for more on that as it comes.
