From the CEO
One of my last tasks before I leave is to reflect on my time at Energy Consumers Australia in this newsletter.
It has been an amazing journey for me since 2015, to first develop and lead the research program, support the alignment of the Grants Program with our strategic priorities, and then in the last three years to lead the organisation as Chief Executive Officer.
Energy Consumers Australia is required by Energy Ministers to be evidence-driven in all our work. In the past eight years we have invested over $1.5 million into our Energy Consumer Sentiment Survey and Energy Consumer Behaviour Survey, developing the most extensive set of energy consumer research in Australia. On top of this ongoing consumer survey work, Energy Consumers Australia has produced extensive consumer attitudinal and behaviour research including:
- the Powershift project – an over $1.8m body of research providing evidence on how to design targeted, effective, and innovative energy management services and programs that will enhance the ability of consumers to manage their energy usage and costs;
- partnering with Monash University, AusNet Services, and Ausgrid on the Digital Energy Futures project, an Australian Research Council Linkage project which had a total budget of $2.3m over 3 years;
- the Future Energy Vision research project that explored what households and small businesses value, expect and need from the future energy system; and
- the Community attitudes to solar and AEMC proposed reforms which aimed to create a clear, credible and independent evidence base, for attitudes to the access and pricing reforms.
The thread that links all this consumer research is an unwavering commitment to ensuring we mitigate against confirmation bias. To this end, we have been open about our methodology, often bringing others into the process as partners, and we publish the surveys and the raw results from our regular surveys.
We are supporting the next generation of researchers, supporting three PhD students – one at Western Sydney University in the field of consumer energy resources, and two at Monash University as part of the Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Graduate Program, with a focus on clean energy and sustainability.
Energy Consumers Australia thinks of its Grants Program as backing bright ideas, to support better outcomes for households and small businesses in the energy system. We receive anywhere between 40-60 grant applications a year, and there would only be a handful that I have not been part of assessing and steering through the Board for a decision, in my time at Energy Consumers Australia. Over the past eight years, we have provided $18 million in funding through our Grants Program to support advocacy and research by other organisations, ranging from engagement in national issues to grassroots and local issues. It is now inbuilt as part of our communications strategy that the work done under our Grants Program is shared and amplified, to increase its impact and inspire other organisations.
In recent years, we have embedded partnerships and collaborations in the Grants Program. This means that Energy Consumers Australia can leverage our funding as part of a coalition for change and contribute our own time and resources as the reform agenda is an integral part of our work program. The first collaboration grant was with Renew in 2020-21, to develop a robust evidence base on consumer (and landlords) needs and preferences in relation to energy performance standards, which are a critical element of the energy transition. We were pleased that this research was launched by Senator Jenny McAllister, the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, who has long track record in enabling consumer- led demand side action.
Since then, we have funded three more collaboration grants.
- The energy resilience project with University of Technology Sydney.
- The Customer Focused Network Management project with the Australian National University’s Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program.
- The Renovation Pathways project with the Climateworks Centre, within the Monash Sustainable Development Institute.
We will shortly be releasing Energy Consumers Australia’s 2023-24 Workplan, which provides details of our strategic priorities and activities for the coming 12-18 months. This could result in further collaboration and partnerships, including funding through the Grants Program.
Stepping into the Chief Executive Officer role in March 2020 was both an opportunity and a challenge. It was an opportunity to take the sum of all my experiences gained during Energy Consumers Australia’s start-up phase, and to sharpen the vision and mature the capabilities of the organisation. The challenge was nothing that my working life had prepared me, or any leader, for. The difficulties of sustaining business continuity and team wellbeing during a pandemic, whose impacts on people’s health could not be anticipated and where the duration was uncertain, cannot be understated.
There are five pillars on which the impact of Energy Consumers Australia has successfully been sustainably expanded under my leadership.
First, we embedded a human centred design, systems thinking approach to our role in the transformation of the energy system, from one that is carbon based at large scale, to a system that relies on renewable energy and storage and is more local. What is often overlooked is that people are at the heart of every complex human designed system, and this is true of Australia’s 11 million households and 2.4 million small businesses that are served by the energy system.
Charles Leadbetter, of the System Innovation Initiative has observed, that people who shift systems help to provide a new coherence. That is what we aimed to achieve in our first three year Strategic Plan that was released in August 2021. Together, with input from our Board, our Staff, and our Executive, we set out a strategy that explained why and how we would act to advance the interests of Australian household and small business energy consumers. The new vision that was supported by the strategy was that “consumer values, expectations and needs are realised through a modern, flexible and resilient energy system”.
We have developed a coherent narrative about a plausible and desirable future end-state of the energy transformation. In my speech to the 3rd State of Energy Research Conference in January 2023, I talked about that better future for consumers, and that without a plan to achieve it, we would be most likely to fail consumers. The foundations of our policy and reform agenda support that better future energy system: one that is least cost, and with affordable energy bills for households and small businesses. In that better future, energy insecurity and inequity will be addressed in a structural and substantive way. In a renewable energy system, reshaping demand means consumers changing some long-established social practices, building new norms for using electricity when it is abundant, and at times being adaptive and responsive to match a fluctuating electricity supply. And it also means new knowledge and practices that will be built up around using electricity instead of gas appliances in our homes and our means of transport.
The scale and pace of change required in the energy transformation means there is often insufficient attention given to engaging with consumers about what it means for them in the context of their lives and livelihoods. We have acted to support and promote consumers’ agency in their journey to 2050 in a range of ways. This includes how we participate in broadcast and social media, to explain events, as well as developing advice and information materials. There is more work to be done across the energy system, in ensuring consumers can access trusted, and independent information on which they can rely to navigate the changes they can make.
The final pillar, and also the most important, was investing in our people, their leadership and well-being and the culture of our organisation. I am proud that we now have an inter-disciplinary team, that is multi-generational, and that values collaboration. Their infectious enthusiasm lightens the load.
My last words are to personally thank all of the members of my Board (past and present) for their consistent and authentic support, and each and every one of Energy Consumers Australia’s team over the years from whom I have continued to learn. I have also been blessed with many teachers, who have been both colleagues and become friends. My thanks to all of you, as my journey in the energy system takes me on a new path.
Lynne Gallagher
Chief Executive Officer
