The winners of the 2023 Energy Networks Industry awards have been announced at the Energy Networks Australia (ENA) annual dinner.
Ausgrid was announced as the winner of the Energy Network Industry Innovation Award 2023, which recognises leadership in the design, development and application of a ground-breaking Australian energy network initiative.
Endeavour Energy has taken home the Consumer Engagement Award for 2023, which recognises an Australian energy network that demonstrates best practice consumer engagement.
Ausgrid received the award in recognition of its program, Project Edith – dynamic network pricing for market active consumer energy resources.
Project Edith was a collaboration with Reposit Power, an aggregator that orchestrates customer resources into Virtual Power Plants that can participate in the NEM. The objective is to showcase how, through dynamic network prices, distribution networks can unlock more value for and from customer energy resources.
ENA CEO, Dominique van den Berg, said that the project took a collaborative approach, co-designing alongside project partners and engaging with stakeholders from across the industry.
“Australia’s energy networks are world leaders in innovation and Project Edith shows networks taking a more customer centric approach to innovation and are engaging closely with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure customers are taken on the journey to net zero,” Ms van den Berg said.
“This project demonstrates how networks can utilise the grid in an economic manner while at the same time connecting with customers along the network.”
Project Edith is named after Edith Clarke, a pioneer of electrical power system analysis, considered the ‘Mother of Invention’ at GE alongside Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.
Endeavour was presented its award for its project, Power Together – Collaborating on Our Energy Future.
Endeavour Energy’s program was centred around fulfilling a goal to deliver a Revenue Proposal for 2024-2029 that balanced the current and future needs of its customers and was supported by key stakeholders.
Endeavour delivered an engagement program that was designed to embed an enterprise wide, customer-centric culture, led from the top.
Ms van den Berg said that Endeavour’s engagement strategy displayed a strong desire to fully embed customer needs within the Revenue Proposal.
“Engaging with customers on the type of services they expect from their network service providers is a critical component of leading consumer engagement best practice.”
Energy Consumers Australia Interim CEO, Jacqueline Crawshaw, said consumers want to be part of Australia’s energy future, and including their voices and designing for them will be vital for a successful energy transition.
“Key to this, and to ensuring better outcomes for consumers in general, is better engagement practices,” Ms Crawshaw said.
Endeavour Energy’s consumer engagement program spanned five co-designed engagement phases and involved more than 1,800 customers and stakeholders representing 124 organisations. Over 150 employees played an active role in engagement, committing 2,770 hours of face-to-face engagement.
Featured image: The ENA annual dinner. Image credit: Energy Networks Australia.
