4 JUNE 2026
More than 100 current and emerging leaders from across Australia’s energy sector have come together to explore the big questions shaping the future of the grid, identifying a potential window of opportunity for transformation.
The insight comes from RACE for 2030’s Grid Transformation Masterclasses, which bring together participants from industry, government, research, technology and consumer advocacy to apply systems thinking and foresighting to the energy transition.
Across the first sessions, participants have identified what they see as the most powerful external pressures reshaping the system at pace, including:
- rapid growth in electricity demand from artificial intelligence, data centres and electrified transport
- accelerating decarbonisation pressures
- increasing consumer expectations of energy independence and control
RACE for 2030 CEO Dr Bill Lilley said there is widespread acknowledgement across the sector that demand is rapidly becoming more complex.
“Demand is no longer something we can comfortably predict or control,” Dr Lilley said.
“It’s being driven by sectors well beyond the traditional energy system, and that’s introducing a new level of uncertainty.”
“These changes are occurring at the same time as millions of distributed energy resources come online, fundamentally reshaping how the grid operates.”
The whole-of-sector Masterclass cohort has also identified the innovations with the greatest potential to shape the future grid, with key areas of opportunity including:
- vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and electric vehicles as distributed storage
- real-time data and system visibility
- coordination of consumer energy resources through virtual power plants
- community and shared energy models
- new approaches to system planning and coordination
- evolving pricing and market design to better reflect distributed energy flows
- governance and regulatory models that enable faster, more adaptive decision-making
Dr Lilley said the list makes it clear that innovation is not necessarily about new technologies, but how existing and emerging capabilities are integrated across the system.
“A lot of this now comes down to coordination,” he said.
“The technologies are there, the investment is happening, but the real question is how those pieces come together in a way that works for the system and for consumers.”
Participants also examined how current policy, market and regulatory frameworks are responding to these changes, highlighting the challenges of adapting long-standing structures to a rapidly evolving system.
The process is designed to surface insights across these domains, building a shared understanding of how the system is changing and what that means for future decision-making.
“We’ve got new forms of demand, new technologies and new expectations all emerging at once, but the frameworks we rely on are still catching up,” Dr Lilley said.
“But there’s a strong sense from the group that we are entering what could be described as a ‘transformation window’,” Dr Lilley said.
“Despite the day-to-day complexity, we may be starting to see things line up in ways that create space for more ambitious visions of how the grid evolves.”
The Masterclasses resume this week, and the diverse perspectives and insights the yield will provide critical input into the Consumer Grid Summit on 24–25 June. The Summit will see a select group of Masterclass participants join executive decision-makers to develop a shared vision for the future grid and identify practical pathways for the transition.
Dr Lilley said the Summit’s focus will be turning momentum into action.
“If we can make the most of this window of opportunity, there is a real opportunity to build a system that works better for everyone,” Dr Lilley said.
“The Summit is about turning that opportunity into something concrete.”
For media inquiries or interviews please contact Raj Wakeling on 0420 414 724 and raj@theshapeagency.com.au
Visit the website for information on the Consumer Grid Summit Program.
About RACE for 2030:
Reliable, Affordable, Clean Energy (RACE) for 2030 is an industry-led cooperative research program established to drive energy innovation across the supply chain to deliver improved, lower cost and lower emission energy services for energy customers.
RACE for 2030 brings collaborative innovation across the energy value chain, from energy users to suppliers of energy, technology providers and start-up companies, governments, and Australia’s leading energy researchers.