The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency and a Global Power System Transformation (G-PST) Consortium regional lead organization, released a Roadmap highlighting the research required to continue Australia’s transition to a more secure and affordable electricity system, showing that innovation can drive the integration of renewables. The Roadmap was developed in collaboration with G-PST Founding System Operator, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), and is based on input from leading Australian and international system operators as well as research agencies from the G-PST. The G-PST’s System Operator Research and Peer Learning Pillar (Pillar 1) adapted key research questions from the G-PST Research Agenda to the Australian context, with the goal of supporting Australia’s energy transition in the long-term interests of consumers.

The research areas identified by G-PST’s Pillar 1 address the challenge of rapid change faced by Australia’s National Electricity Market and Wholesale Electricity Market. Australia’s electricity systems face several key challenges, including ageing infrastructure, increasing complexity, and the need for investment in transmission and distribution. The Roadmap summarizes the outcomes of nine individual research plans, including their criticality to Australia’s energy transition, which research should be prioritized, and how the research could form individual programs. The key research topics are:

  • Inverter design
  • Stability tools and methods
  • Control room of the future
  • Planning
  • Restoration and Black Start
  • Services
  • Architecture (Australian-specific)
  • Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) (Australian-specific)
  • DERs and Stability (Australian-specific)

Specifically, the whole Research Roadmap provides both high-level and detailed descriptions of the purpose and objectives of each of the nine research plans, including the high priority tasks proposed to be delivered in the short term. The nine research plans and the accompanying documents also outline why the research specified in the Roadmap is critical to Australia, how the outcomes apply to Australia, and how Australian research can contribute to the meeting the G-PST’s goals. In addition, the expected timeline and associated risks to deliver the Research Roadmap are also provided.

Download Australia’s G-PST Research Roadmap and accompanying documents.