Smart Grids Messy Society

Australian smart grid policy & standards

Hydro substation

This part of the Smart Grids Messy Society research project is looking at how Australia’s smart grid policies first emerged and how they have changed over time, in the period 2000-2015. I am particularly interested in how learning has taken place about smart grid policies and initiatives in other places, and the effect of this on policy development in Australia. I am also looking at how smart grids have been positioned as providing a solution to multiple policy problems on the Australian utility infrastructure agenda, including peak demand, climate change and electricity market reform.

I have conducted approximately 25 research interviews with key stakeholders in Australia in government (federal and state), the private sector (utilities and metering companies) as well as non-governmental organisations, and an extensive policy literature review of documents and websites. I have attended a number of meetings, policy workshops and industry conferences, including public forums held by the Australian Energy Market Commission on the Metering Competition Rule Change, and the industry conference Utility Week. I also conducted fieldwork in California, USA, during a visit in April 2016, and have undertaken a preliminary review of international smart grid and smart metering standards.

Academic outputs to date under this workstream include two papers: one in the political science journal Public Administration about how Australia’s smart metering policy development has been influenced by global ‘flows’ of policy, and one in Geoforum about the timing of policy change and the role of the nation state in an increasingly globalised policy world. These papers bring together a political science theory called the Multiple Streams Approach with recent work in geography and urban studies on policy mobility.

The following conference and seminar papers on Australian smart grids policy have been presented:

I have also been engaged in consultancy work with the local utility in Tasmania, TasNetworks, about a smart metering tariff trial (jointly with Dr Phillipa Watson, UTAS), and was an invited Observer on the TasNetworks Tariff Reform Working Group (2015-6). I have responded to consultations from the Tasmanian Department of State Growth on Advanced Metering (PDF 607.0 KB) (April 2016), and TasNetworks on Demand based network tariffs (PDF 216.3 KB) (October 2015).

The next step with this workstream during 2019 is to investigate smart grid standards in more detail, with a focus on the development of Australian battery standards.