CSIRO recently convened the Future Grid Forum, an Australian-first, to develop and explore potential scenarios for Australia’s electricity future and support the decision making process around what comes next.
The report states that Australia’s electricity landscape has huge potential for transformation moving towards 2050 and the greatest changes will be defined by consumer choices. Australians could have unprecedented opportunity to tailor their electricity use and better meet individual needs.
The major impacts that have changed and challenged the electricity sector and consumers in recent times include:
- High retail electricity prices
- Widespread use of solar panels, generating your own electricity
- Greenhouse gas emissions are reducing
- Peak electricity demand and consumption has declined in most states
The Forum brought together more than 120 representatives of the electricity industry, government and community to inform and inspire the national conversation about the future of electricity in Australia and provide a way forward for the sector, its stakeholders and, most importantly, all Australians.
Forum partners recognised that the electricity system cannot be analysed and optimised by only examining its separate parts. The result is Australia’s first extensive whole-of-system evaluation that encompasses the entire energy chain from generation through to consumption.
The full report can be viewed here and a more extensive overview will be published in the first print issue of Utility Magazine in 2014.
