Training & Events

Training & Events

The 2023 Energy Management Zone Wrap

EMZ Day One, Chaired by Jeremy Sung

Session 1: Retrofitting for Net Zero - Policies for upgrading Australia’s buildings and appliances for net zero emissions

Jeremy was joined on stage by Alberto Barragan from the Victorian Department of Energy, the Environment and Climate Action, Dr Rachel Goldlust from Renew and Luke Konynenburg, CEO, Green Energy Trading. The panel discussed how solutions for reducing buildings’ emissions are proven, cost-effective and available at scale today, making decarbonising buildings crucial - particularly as other sectors may be harder to abate. Rachel presented research from Renew showed how the economic benefits to households that retrofit their homes to be efficient all-electric are sizeable – in all states and territories. Focussing in on Victoria, Alberto showed the important role that national policy – particularly mandatory minimum energy performance standards – has played in driving progress in that state since 1991. Nonetheless, by 2050, some 22% percent of the building stock will have been constructed prior to minimum standards being in place, so policies to retrofit these buildings are crucial. Luke from Green Energy Trading argued that incentives were key to unlocking more retrofits, with state energy efficiency schemes needing to reward activities like insulation but that incentives alone aren’t sufficient; incentives must be partnered with information (for example from scorecard assessments) and should also be designed to ensure consumers are protected, through supporting measures such as certification and training.

Session 2: Thriving at home – Enhancing wellbeing and cutting costs through energy efficiency 

Session two zoomed in on the non-energy benefits that improving residential energy performance can have for building occupants. Toby Cumming from Sustainability Victoria showed innovative research involving 1000 households taking part in a randomised control trial which proved that energy performance upgrades have significant health benefits, improving physical and mental health outcomes for building occupants, bill savings and economic benefits for the health system. Victoria from Brotherhood of St Lawrence presented on their plans for building on the SV research to roll out a new program called Climate Smart Homes, which is experimenting with different bundles of finance to help vulnerable households upgrade their homes. Paying for upgrades of largescale residential properties housing vulnerable energy users, such as assisted living facilities, was a big part of the discussion, with Thang Tran from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation providing several fascinating examples of how it is leveraging its sizeable resources to provide low-cost finance for upgrading community housing facilities serving hundreds of households with impressive results. One of the CEFC’s borrowers is My Specialised Accommodation Services (MySAS), an owner and operator of housing for people living with disabilities. MySAS CEO Daniel Grynberg explained how building high energy-performing facilities – going beyond minimum standards to achieve 8 star NatHERS rating – not only offers their clients benefits, but increasingly makes business sense, allowing them to offer their clients much lower operational costs than competitors’ facilities.

Session 3: Balancing Act - Harnessing the demand side to support a reliable, efficient, zero emissions electricity grid 

The final session of the day brought together two of EEC’s members – Enel X and Viotas – with a government leading the way on policy for unlocking flexible demand (NSW) and an innovative retailer, Amber, to talk about how unlocking flexible demand can support the renewable energy transition. Claire Richards from Enel X and Michael Zammit from Viotas talked about how commercial and industrial facilities are able to provide both rapid (1 second response times) and longer term flexible demand resources to the grid that help in times of supply-wide emergencies, but also on a day-to-day basis to keep the grid ticking along smoothly as more variable renewables are built. In the residential sector, Tim Barson showed how Amber’s innovative pricing and automation software is able to unlock the sizable flexible demand resources from households, with and without batteries in periods of peak demand. Stephen Buckley outlined the NSW Government’s plans for new activities to be incorporated into that state’s nation-leading Peak Demand Reduction Scheme, which provides incentives for businesses and households to provide flexible demand resources to the grid, helping NSW to accelerate the transition away from its fleet of ageing coal generators.

EMZ Day Two, chaired by Rachael Wilkinson

Session 1: Get smart: harnessing energy efficiency through intelligent systems
‘Get smart’ focused on how technology can help us to better use and manage energy, with solutions such as predictive analytics, smart meters, and various smart devices, to name a few.
At times, it feels like we’re being bombarded with information about the impact of technology, and it can be hard to cut through this noise to really understand what the state of play is for a particular industry or purpose, such as energy management, and what the potential is in real terms to improve productivity and performance by harnessing this.
The panel contextualised the opportunity that smart tech can offer us, particularly in the energy efficiency and energy management space. The panellists also walked the audience through some real-world applications, as well as providing a download on how Australia is progressing on the smart tech front.

Session 2: Pumped for progress: the heat pump hot water opportunity
Heat pump hot water systems provide opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the amount of energy needed to provide water heating services. They also unlock the potential to deliver heating and cooling services with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions through integration with renewable energy. This is significant, because domestic hot water use is responsible for around a fifth of Australian residential greenhouse gas emissions and a quarter of household energy use.  A recent government report says it’s possible that HPHWS could achieve around 40% of the market by 2036 – a big departure from the gas and electric resistive systems that have primarily dominated the market up to now.

The panel how HPHWS work, and what they can do to help Australia get to net zero and save money on energy bills doing it.

Session 3: Sealing Success: cultivating excellence and innovation in the insulation and thermal performance industry
More than eight million Australian homes were built prior to mandatory minimum energy efficiency requirements, and a substantial portion of these homes lack basic measures to ensure thermal comfort and safety such as insulation.
Homes are not short-lived consumer goods – making sure they are healthy, affordable and decarbonised is a national infrastructure issue.
Insulation makes a big difference to the health and comfort of homes – stabilising temperature in summer and winter, keeping heating and cooling bills down, reducing conditions for mould and damp to cause risks, and ultimately supporting grid decarbonisation by reducing reliance on heating and cooling during times of peak demand.
An experienced panel of insulation industry veterans discussed the innovation, circular economy potential and technical sophistication of the insulation product and industry, and dug down on what the future for the product looks like.