Australian Energy Week 2025 saw some of the best and brightest from the entire energy supply chain come together to tackle the challenges of the energy transition.
The event didn’t shy away from tough questions, and more than 100 industry leaders shared their incredible insights, and engaged in open conversations and to find new solutions.
It truly was an unmissable event, but if you are one of the unlucky few who couldn’t make then Utility has you covered.
Day one – an outlook for the future
The core event kicked off on Wednesday 18 June 2025, and we jumped straight in with plenary on Australia’s energy market outlook – where EnergyAustralia Managing Director, Mark Collette, outlined an optimistic vision for the energy transition.
Mr Collette shared a practical pathway towards net zero that looked at more than just how we can expand renewable energy and storage to meet 2030 climate targets, but how we this era of transformation can make energy cheaper and, in turn build, a stronger, fairer future for all Australians.
Then, NEM Wholesale Market Settings Review Chair, Tim Nelson, invited us to reimagine the future of the National Electricity Market (NEM) and discussed how we can reform the market alongside the evolving energy grid.
We also heard from Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, who dropped the news that reforms are on the horizon for the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) – with the tender process set to be streamlined.
Minister Bowen said there was a lot of catching up to do over the last decade, and that it’s now time to knuckle down and get on with the job of delivering a better, fairer, more reliable, more affordable, lower emissions energy system for Australia.
With some food for thought to chew on, Transgrid CEO, Brett Redman, and Endeavour Energy CEO, Guy Chalkley, put their heads together with executives from Woodside Energy and Solstice Energy to discuss how the sector can ensure reliable renewable energy integration.
In this panel – led by McKinsey & Company Partner, Victor Finkel – the group explored the key changes required within the sector to facilitate the energy transition and how leaders can steer the sector through this transformative period.
For AGL Managing Director and CEO, Damien Nicks, managing the energy transition means putting customers at the centre and making it easy for them to actively participate.
In his speech, Mr Nicks said that consumer energy resources (CER) are not only the key to enabling customers to participate in the energy transition, but they present an opportunity to bring the cost of energy bills down.
According to Mr Nicks, the energy transition is an evolution, not a revolution, and we need to get regulation right to keep customers at the heart and create an energy system for generations to come.
After a short lunch in the expo hall, sessions resumed with another amazing line-up.
Picking up where Mr Nicks left off, ElectraNet CEO, Simon Emms; Energy Networks Australis Chief Executive, Dominique van den Berg; Hydro Tasmania CEO, Rachel Watson; and Ausgrid CEO, Marc England discussed how we can balance the urgent need for new energy investment with rising cost-of-living pressures.
The panel explored the competing need for government to subsidise energy prices to ease cost-of-living pressures, and this risk of this delaying investment in the energy transition.
The topic of customers was further addressed by Australiam Energy Market Commission (AEMC) Chair, Anna Collyer, who emphasised the need for decisive action while navigating Australia’s complex energy transition challenges.
“Amidst all of the things we know we cannot yet know, sometimes you just have to be brave and to get on with it,” she said.
Day two – getting on with it
The conference resumed on Thursday 19 June 2025 with the Women in Energy Breakfast, before delegates broke off into one of four streams.
With Ms Collyer’s sentiment still fresh in everyone’s minds, SA Power Networks CEO, Andrew Bills, didn’t waste any time in kicking off the Re-engineering the grid stream with his case for urgent change as a distribution system operator in a rapidly evolving energy landscape.
“Waiting for perfection simply isn’t an option because every delay adds complexity, cost and missed opportunity for consumers, businesses and the economy,” Mr Bills said.
“And we need the right rules to keep progress moving, now – without getting stuck in endless debates.
“In South Australia, we’re not just managing poles and wires anymore, we’re managing a system. We’re actively taking part in the orchestration of how energy flows – not just from large generators to homes, but from homes, from businesses and back again – all in real- time, and all to ensure the system stays reliable and delivers value.
“Some see it as a future model. Some as a set of technical functions. To us in South Australia, it’s not a concept – it’s the job we’re doing right now, and we’ll continue to do more of.
“But more importantly – for customers – it means we are doing more with what we’ve got.”
Mr Bills said that SA Power Networks is working the system harder and smarter, to unlock the full value of the infrastructure and technology that customers have already paid for. And in doing so, making their lives simpler, more sustainable and more affordable.
“This shift wasn’t optional. It was born of necessity – because South Australian customers led the way,” he said.
“They installed rooftop solar at world-leading rates. They invested in batteries and began to adopt new technologies.
“And while much of the energy sector has been asking, ‘What does the future look like?’ in South Australia, we’ve been living it – and adapting in real time.
“We as an industry have spent years talking about this shift – consulting on it, reviewing it, modelling it. Meanwhile, the cost of living has risen. Customer expectations aren’t being met. And the need for action has only grown.”
According to Mr Bills, the time for pondering how we shift is gone, and to realise the full potential of a smart, flexible, customer-led energy system, there are four big shifts we still need to make.
“We’re not tearing down the system and starting over. It’s an evolution, not a revolution. We’re making smart, practical tweaks – doable changes that unlock huge value for customers and the system,” he said.
“In South Australia, we’ve been testing our powers under pressure. We’ve proven that it’s possible to build a smarter, more flexible grid – even within today’s market and regulatory settings.
“We can do a lot with the system we already have – but not everything.
“You’ve got a head start. You can use what we’ve learned to plan ahead, build smarter – and leap over some of the hurdles we had to crash through. But only if we’re all willing to accelerate and stay the course of a couple of critical changes underway.”
Mr Bills said that there are four essential reforms that needed to progress quickly to help unlock value for customers in the next phase of Australia’s energy transition:
- Interoperability standards so devices and systems work together
- Retail pricing reform – paired with government support – to reward flexibility and improve access to enabling technology
- Balanced investment signals across supply and demand
- Regulatory models that empower smarter investment choices by networks
“Affordable, reliable, sustainable energy is possible. And distribution system operators will be the quiet heroes who make it happen,” Mr Bills said.
“It isn’t about one part of the system over the other, but rather a whole of market collaboration. Let’s get on with it. Together.”
After lunch, ElectraNet CEO, Simon Emms, gave us further insight into the South Australian experience and how households can encouraged to adapt energy consumption based on electricity prices and grid demand, improving grid stability and efficiency
Then, Western Power Executive Manager Energy Transition & Sustainability, Matt Cheney, shared insights from project Jupiter and how Western Power is Coordinating DER to improve network efficiency and lower energy costs for consumers.
Mr Cheney shared several of the key lessons learned throughout the project, but of the key points for him was the opportunity for both the WEM and the NEM to learn from each other.
“The challenge of delivering everything we need to deliver, for the energy transition of the transmission, build, the upgrades for distribution, as that load grows, all of those sorts of things – we’re not going to be able to do it all without extra tools in our toolkit. And what you’re doing here is you are changing people’s paradigm,” he said.
“To reflect on the wise words of Yoda, this is a do or do not moment, not a try moment. And we’ve learned as an industry to do it in a particular way. But now, this is changing how we do things in a dramatic way – so we need to unlearn what we’ve learned for this to be successful.”
Over in Generation 2.0, EnergyCo Director, Strategy & Relationships, Jim Chesterfield, shared an update on what New South Wales is doing to keep the lights on and unlock that affordable, reliable, clean energy new generation.
Mr Chesterfield also highlighed the power of collaboration as a key takeaway from the state’s renewable journey.
“We really need to work together as a whole sector to bring everyone on the transition,” he said.
“We need to coordinate as a whole industry, because none of us can do this on our own, but also because the real people we will deal with on the ground often don’t differentiate between someone with and EnergyCo logo on their upper vest, or Transgrid, or a developer. They often see us as a group.
“We all need to be joined up in how we approach them and how we bring people on the REZ journey, because if we build support, even in piecemeal ways, project by project, it’s going to be really helpful.
That’s also why we should all be thinking about how this generation of investment from this energy transition and not just decarbonising our power supply, but leaving a positive legacy for those communities hosting the infrastructure for all of us.”
Then in the afternoon we analysed the role gas will play in the future generation mix with a EnergyAustralia Operations and Projects Executive, Sue Elliott, and closed things off with a panel discussion on what is the future of gas?
