Australian electricity networks - a statement on national research priorities for natural hazards emergency management and resilience

In August 2018, electricity network service providers from around Australia participated in a workshop hosted by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC to consider the most significant natural hazard emergency management issues they are facing over the next ten years.

This publication on Australian electricity networks summarises the outcome of the workshop and poses questions as a guide for a national research agenda and outlines priorities for knowledge gaps to be filled. Download at the top right.

Four high level priorities for research related to natural hazard resilience for electricity networks were identified:

• Understanding the fundamental vulnerabilities of Australia’s electricity networks and strategies to minimise the risks posed by those vulnerabilities   
• New approaches to stakeholder engagement to support better planning and implementation of resilient networks and distributed generation capability
• New concepts in operation and regulation of electricity networks (including frameworks)
• Harnessing current and new data to enhance forecasting and modelling of electricity networks to better manage the risk and impacts associated with natural hazards.

These research priorities represent the consensus view of industry experts and are based on extensive consultation and discussion. By synthesising this information, it will be easier for researchers, policy makers and practitioners at all levels to plan and prioritise their work, to enable a nationally coordinated research capacity to address the major issues of our day and to support the uptake of that research into practice.