Prestigious engineering award for end-user

Ian Fitzpatrick, Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC research end-user, has been recognised with a prestigious award from Engineers Australia for his dedication to mitigating bushfire risk.

Ian, Manager Network Risk Strategy at Essential Energy, was awarded the Engineering Associate of the Year award for his contributions to bushfire prevention and his leadership in collaborative, industry informed research that helps Australian electricity networks better understand and address the risks that natural hazards pose to network assets.

Executive Manager of engineering at Essential Energy, David Salisbury, commended Ian for his significant contributions to the energy sector.

“This award is very well-deserved recognition for Ian’s outstanding leadership and contribution to our industry, as an industry lead for the Energy Networks Australia’s IGNIS project and his general work in electrical infrastructure and bushfire prevention,” David said.

Ian, who has worked in the sector for 35 years, represented electricity networks on the CRC project Quantifying catastrophic bushfire consequence – also known as Project IGNIS. This project was commissioned and funded by Energy Networks Australia (ENA) and was a partnership between the University of Melbourne, the University of Western Australia, ENA and several electricity networks.

The research used cost estimations and fire simulation modelling, such as Phoenix RapidFire software, to help electricity networks understand the impacts that their infrastructure may face from major bushfires. Researchers and partners, including Ian, pioneered a standardised approach for assessing the real costs associated with catastrophic bushfires that involve network assets, in order to set a precedent for other network providers. There are plans for ENA and the researchers to host a series of workshops next year that will further enable the sector to understand the methodology used and other project outcomes to inform their respective business planning.  

This research was part of a series of CRC projects that aimed to better understand natural hazard risks and resilience for critical infrastructure providers. You can read the CRC’s statement of issues, priorities and directions for Australian electricity networks here.