Richard Gill

The solar industry has a service problem. In the latest episode from Your Energy Media, I spoke with David Pethick, Head of Omnidian Australia, about why long-term solar performance and post-install care are critical — and how Omnidian is changing the game with real-time monitoring, battery support, and U.S.-inspired service models. If your business, clients, or community depends on solar, this is an essential viewing. Watch now here: https://lnkd.in/gBAPjqSx

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Some promising news from one of Australia's most promising tech innovators: Australian solar innovator signs up China manufacturing heavyweights to help launch its potentially game-changing copper-based PV technology onto the global market.

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Launching Kraken Distribution, The Business Operating System for grid operators. Kraken now supports the full energy value chain: generation → distribution → supply & retail. 🚀 Proud to be working on this new offering with John Cleland and his team at Essential Energy, one of Australia’s largest electricity networks. Their pace and forward looking ambition are world-class. Distribution network operators are at the forefront of the energy transition. But siloed, legacy software systems are still holding many back. 🔋The rise of distributed energy, primarily from solar, batteries and EVs, has profound operational and economic implications for DNOs: * Bi-directional energy flows,dynamic and less predictable, straining the grid * Exponential device and meter data volumes, increasing 5x by 2030 * Ever increasing regulatory and tariff complexity as markets adapt Distributors need new technology to meet these challenges and seize the opportunities. Imagine you can drive the energy transition by having visibility of all the distributed generation across the grid. You can turn high frequency, complex meter data into insights to better manage energy consumption and assets. You can innovate and develop new dynamic tariffs to capture the value from flexibility and reduce infrastructure investment. You can put customers at the heart and help end-users share in the benefits of load-shifting or virtual power plant programs. That’s where Kraken Distribution comes in. An operating system purpose-built for distribution network operators. Turning operational challenges into irrefutable opportunities at every turn. Onward. ⚡🌍 #energy #AI

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What if the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) is... kinda right? We spend most of our time at Rewiring Australia telling people to get solar and a battery. So it might surprise you that we've just submitted to the AEMC pricing review arguing that the way we recover network costs needs to change, and it might indeed involve higher fixed charges. [If you already know what I'm talking about and you've spat out your coffee, you can read our full submission here and see what you think: https://lnkd.in/gCZ6D-6M ] The problem is complicated, but basically, before we had tonnes of solar and battery, ‘volumetric’ (per kwh) charges for using the grid used to be roughly fair. Bigger house, more appliances, higher bill, bigger contribution to the grid. That assumption is breaking down. The households reducing their grid consumption fastest are the ones with the capital to invest in solar and batteries. Great for savings for those homes, and great for reducing emissions for everyone. But - those homes will still rely on the network after a couple of cloudy days and join the peak winter demand for a couple of days a year. The households left paying the same overall cost for our poles and wires? Renters. Apartment dwellers. People who can't access electrification upgrades. That's not a sustainable foundation for the electrification transition we're trying to build. But… flat fixed charges probably aren't the answer either. A low-income renter shouldn't pay the same fixed charge as a five-bedroom house. Our submission proposes something different: 1. Property-value-scaled fixed charges to become a higher share of network recovery (levied on owners, not renters) to make cost recovery genuinely progressive 2. Strong dynamic network pricing so batteries earn returns by actually reducing peaks - not just avoiding costs Lowering volumetric rates is a tiny step towards the energy abundance our renewable-powered system could offer: instead of a relentless scarcity mindset, people can heat and cool their homes as they need and face the real marginal cost of energy that choice entails. And if dynamic pricing is done right, it makes the investment case for solar and battery on our community rooftops stronger, not weaker. A battery responding to network price signals is substituting for poles and wires. That's a real service, and households providing it should share in the savings. You can actually play with a simulation we’ve quickly assembled to see what different changes to these prices might mean for different kinds of households. And you can dive under the hood and change all the assumptions. Check it out > https://lnkd.in/gaHCYcUp

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Today marks the start of a 5-year plan to increase power prices in Aotearoa, following the Commerce Commission’s ruling that lines companies and utilities need to invest more in the grid to guarantee power security. Although this is necessary, we also need to manage the other side of the coin, which is energy demand. The greenest kilowatt is the one we don’t use and the more of those we have the less pressure there is on our power supply. If we flatten peak demand we won’t need more increases after 2030. The great news is there are three technologies available today that can help with this. 1. Home energy management systems that can turn off appliances and systems when peak load is being reached. 2. Microgrids, putting capacity and batteries closer to where the peak power needs are. 3. Home batteries, enabling more dynamic pricing and energy storage, to incentivise this adoption. Industry and government need to work together to make these solutions accessible and affordable, so that we can keep energy prices down for everyone and reduce the coal and gas being used to burn to keep the lights on. #Collaboration #SaveEnergy #SmartHomes #Microgrids #LifeIsOn

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Very pleased to show off "Capacity charts", the latest feature of OpenElectricity (formerly OpenNEM). https://lnkd.in/gPZd36dj With this new feature you can see the changing mix of Australia's generation fleet — by capacity (rather than output). I've wanted this feature for years, but first we had to collect data on all 478 significant generators connected to the two grids we monitor. It's been a great pleasure to be the product manager of OE since 2017. OE is built on the great foundations and expertise of Dylan McConnell. Front-end by Steven Tan, Back-end by Nik Cubrilovic and facility data lovingly curated by Lynton Hoey and help from many others at its "new" home The Superpower Institute. Special acknowledgements to APVI - Australian PV Institute for the solar PV data and Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) for their long term commitment to open data.

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Renewable energy developers will need to prove they have met "minimum expectations" for community engagement to get grid access. The standards are the most prescriptive I've seen from any state. But based on what I'm hearing at conferences and in conversations, explicit expectations will be welcome over the current choose-your-own-adventure system where it's not clear whether what you're doing is enough. #energy #cleanenergy #vicpol #climate https://lnkd.in/gFBQABPb

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Strong signals from the EU to other regions like Australia last week around building AI driven innovation into industry and science: align data policy, build alliances, get better cohesion amongst existing programs, and generate better speed 'lab-to-market'. The Commision unveiled two complementary AI strategies worth watching. “Apply AI” aims to accelerate adoption across specific sectors including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, energy, mobility, manufacturing, construction, agri-food, defence, communications and culture, (I wonder if that's in order of prioritisation?). They have also signaled the need to do this across the public sector - as well as industry and academia. I think getting governments at all levels fast tracking their own AI adoption, (therefore their knowledge, comfort, and capabilities) is a critical Stage 0. The second strategy is “AI in Science” to push frontier research. Highlights include ~€1B to catalyse deployment, advanced screening centres in healthcare, and sector-tailored agentic AI. On the science side: ���600M for compute via (the gargantuan) Horizon Europe Program, a goal to double AI funding above €3B, and €58M for excellence and doctoral networks to attract global talent. Press Release with a more info here https://lnkd.in/e6Yiziv7 My Ask: Recently returned from the UK, I have senior experience to bring to bear in the public/private/academia, startup and scaleup tech innovation space, and I'm open to opportunities - let me know about conversations I should be having. 🙏 Graham #innovation #economnicgrowth #startups #scaleups

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