ECMC, the new energy sheriff in town
The ECMC (Energy & Climate Change Ministerial Council) met recently and reconfirmed its commitment to range of topics that will steer and support customers through the energy transition. We take a look.
A centrepiece of the Ministerial Council’s reforms was the long-awaited National Consumer Energy Resources Roadmap. This Roadmap has been in the works for a number of months and ENA has been working closely with the government and other key industry bodies to make sure it is as robust as possible to support customers through the energy transition.
For all its good intentions, one failing of the Energy Security Board (ESB) was its inability to achieve timely consensus across a broad church of the energy industry.
One aspect that sets the CER Roadmap apart from previous attempts at national reform is the urgency and the pace at which progress is being made. It is demonstrating leadership in moving fast and with a confidence that the industry has not seen in some time.
The CER highlights
The key artefact that has been developed to guide the national CER effort is the CER Roadmap Implementation Plan which is essentially the schedule of projects and the more detailed plan that steps out exactly what each project along the Roadmap will achieve and why it is important.
It seeks to deliver a big agenda that touches almost every potential point of friction between what customers see today and the seamless, sophisticated experience that incentivises their active participation, provides customer safeguards and supports their choices.
The Roadmap recognises the criticality of getting buy-in from the community by increasing energy literacy so they can understand and make better choices for themselves as well as seeing the impact of those choices to their community.
ENA is supporting the CER Roadmap
Networks, through ENA, are providing direct support to the CER Working Group by leading several projects that fall under the CER Roadmap agenda. These include implementing a nationally harmonised solution to Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), helping to deliver technical standards for CER, and promoting Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption and integration, to name a few.
In a future where consumers are active participants in the energy market, it is vital that they have a grid that gives them the best chance to lower bills, be more resilient, and enjoy the benefits of the energy transition in the way that consumers want.
Delivering a grid consumers want and deserve
The next frontier of the energy transition is not only happening in rural and regional Australia but in the streets, suburbs and local communities of our towns and cities.
Networks are doing our bit to deliver an equitable, able and decarbonised energy transition and we believe supporting the CER Roadmap is a big part of getting us there.
