In your role at VisNet, what are the big questions that keep you up at night right now?

The decarbonisation of the electricity grid is one of the largest opportunities and challenges that we’re facing in Australia. However, the question is whether electricity networks are equipped to manage the rapid shift towards decarbonisation and can we do this at scale to co-ordinate the growth of Distributed Energy Resources (DER).

As we work towards achieving these decarbonisation targets, we need to align stakeholders — from consumers and DNSPs to energy retailers — around how we will achieve these shared goals. That means making smarter use of the existing grid infrastructure, avoiding unnecessary upgrades, and keeping electricity affordable for customers as the system evolves.

What are the most exciting opportunities for the energy sector that could emerge before 2030?

There are three things that are transforming the energy sector and that is automation, data and flexibility.

Advances in monitoring technology, digital twins, and processing power are giving DNSPs unprecedented visibility into their networks. We’re now able to make sense of large volumes of data in real time leading to smarter decisions, faster response times and significant efficiency gains across the grid. For example, we are even starting to predict faults on the low voltage (LV) network before they occur and this enables proactive interventions and improves the overall network resilience.

We’ve also seen many new entrants with AI and data-driven solutions in the energy market who have introduced flexible and dynamic solutions to manage DER and CER loads in real-time and this is creating a more flexible grid to respond to the growth of clean energy in the grid. This kind of flexibility is essential for building a more responsive grid that can support the accelerated growth of clean energy.

What innovations do you believe will have the most impact on the energy transition?

While the industry has traditionally focused on high and medium voltage networks, a real pressure point of the energy transition is now emerging at the low voltage level. With the accelerating growth of DER, LV networks are facing new and unpredictable demand patterns and DNSPs are rapidly shifting their focus to address this.

At EA Technology, our VisNet solutions are helping DNSPs proactively manage this shift with innovations like VisNet Hub which provides real-time visibility of LV networks. This is helping operators to identify risks, manage capacity, and optimise the performance of their networks. We’re also simplifying and accelerating low voltage connection approvals particularly for DER but also for other loads and upgrades through VisNet Connect that supports faster and more efficient network access for customers.

What’s the one thing in the energy sector that no one is talking about, but should be?

One thing we don’t talk about enough is how we can make the energy transition work for everyone. Not everyone can afford solar panels, batteries or EVs so if we’re not intentional, the benefits of the transition could become concentrated among those who can.

To mitigate this, we’ll have to manage the grid as efficiently as possible. This means making full use of the existing grid infrastructure, avoiding unnecessary upgrades and ensuring that the limited hosting capacity isn’t allocated on a “first come, best dressed” basis. We also need to rethink how access to the network is managed by making participation more transparent and consistent, while reducing the time and cost of enabling new connections.

The energy transition can be both clean and cost-effective if we design it with fairness, transparency, and long-term value in mind.

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