Electricity in the room at workshop

Identifying the significant issues affecting electricity networks in relation to natural hazards and how they can continue to contribute to a more disaster resilient Australia was the focus of a workshop in Melbourne on 14 August.

Hosted by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, S&C Electric Company and Energy Networks Australia, the workshop was attended by 40 representatives from Essential Energy, United Energy, Ausgrid, Jemena, SA Power Networks, Western Power, TransGrid, Evoenergy, Endeavour Energy, Powercor Australia, AusNet Services, Energy Queensland, Tasmanian Networks and Horizon Power.

The day featured a morning of informative talks to set the scene, including guest speaker Ron Critelli, senior director from Florida Power and Light, alongside CRC CEO Dr Richard Thornton and Dr Jill Cainey from the S&C Electric Company.

Mr Critelli spoke about the important role that electricity networks play to increase disaster resilience, which includes learning lessons from extreme weather events and a partnership approach towards mitigation.

CRC CEO Dr Richard Thornton also spoke about the growing economic costs of natural hazards and noted the work of the CRC in understanding the knowledge gaps and research priorities with stakeholders in emergency services, emergency management, land management and other sectors. Four pillars that were identified included natural; social; economic and infrastructure considerations.

“Hazards are inevitable, disasters are not. It is important that we canvass views of some of the critical infrastructure organisations that we can work with to provide utilities to communities in need,” Dr Thornton said.

“As members of the research community, we have a responsibility to couple our skills and new knowledge with industry expertise to identify potential outcomes and bring them to fruition.”

Dr Jill Cainey spoke about the impacts of climate change on natural disasters and how this impacts on energy networks, as well as the role electricity providers have to play in hazard mitigation in Australia.

“Australia is a land of catastrophe,” Dr Cainey said.

“Medical research shows that 77 per cent of people can survive an extreme heat event, because they have a working air conditioner. But in a world where we are likely to see not just an increasing number of heatwaves, but higher temperatures too, we need to make our energy networks more resilient, as the demands on our networks are only going to be greater in the future.”

The workshop featured an afternoon of group discussions where attendees explored challenges and opportunities for networks regarding natural hazards, emergency management and resilience and sought consensus on turning those into priorities for the sector.

The research priorities from the workshop will be written up and made available in the coming months.

A new research project by Energy Networks Australia, Quantifying catastrophic bushfire consequence, will also start to address some of the knowledge gaps identified during the workshop.