Dr. Julius Susanto, Navigating the energy mid-transition, IEEE Power & Energy and PES WA Chapter. V2

The Australian electricity sector is at the forefront of the global energy transition, a once-in-generation structural shift from fossil-fuels to zero or low carbon energy sources. Australia’s two largest electricity grids, the National Electricity Market (NEM) in the east and the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) in Western Australia, are arguably in “mid-transition”, which is an awkward stage when both fossil-based thermal generation and renewable energy generation co-exist in large enough volumes so as to disrupt each other’s operations and economics. Providing a plan to navigate this mid-transition phase will be crucial to preventing a disorderly transition that is characterised not only by economic inefficiency, but also heightened risks to the reliability of the electricity system.

This technical talk presents a summary of a Churchill Fellowship undertaken by Julius Susanto in 2022, where he visited California, Texas, Washington DC, England and Ireland to learn how other jurisdictions at a similar stage to Australia were managing the energy transition.