Nearly two years ago, GridLab, Advanced Energy United, and RMI launched the CHARGED Initiative, a collaborative effort designed to help prepare the distribution system for electrification so that customers benefit from low costs and high reliability. The CHARGED team marked this anniversary of the growing program by leading a delegation of US state utility commissioners “down under” to learn from their experience integrating and deploying distributed energy resources. The fact that these commissioners were willing to make time for this fact finding tour signals the commitment to getting electrification right in their states. Luckily, the Aussies had a lot to teach us about approaches and tools for supporting a better distribution system back home.
Why Australia? It’s almost cliche at this point to talk about how easy it is to install rooftop solar in Australia, but the numbers are truly impressive. One in three Australians have solar on their roofs, and in South Australia, it’s one in two. Residential rooftop solar costs roughly one quarter to one fifth of what it costs in the US, due to reduced red tape and a vibrant industry. Home battery installations are also rising quickly, with a federal incentive leading to a fast growing market (with installations going from 500 MWh to 3,500 MWh in the last six months of 2025!). Australia, like Texas, is fully restructured with competitive wholesale generation, competitive retailers, and regulated distribution and transmission utilities. Australia’s National Electricity Market covers the populous eastern seaboard of the country, home to 11 million people across six states and represents roughly 35 gigawatts of peak load. The grid operator, Australia Energy Market Operator (AEMO), runs a 5-minute real-time market similar to Texas’s ERCOT – with no capacity or longer-term market.
The delegation visited with a broad set of actors in the Australian energy ecosystem:
- AEMO
- South Australia Government
- SA Power Networks (SAPN), the distribution utility for South Australia,
- Endeavor, Ausgrid and Essential, the distribution utilities for New South Wales,
- Australian Energy Regulator (AER), the federal regulator,
- Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), the federal rule maker,
- ARENA, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, a grant making body that supports innovation in clean energy.
Coming from the US, with a fragmented patchwork of 53 regulatory bodies and thousands of utilities, it was a departure to be in a country with fewer actors and less complexity. Australia seems more willing to try new things and figure out all the details later, while the US often moves cautiously, trying to get everything right before making a move.
In SAPN’s case, they grew concerned by the growth of rooftop solar in their territory, specifically the effect on distribution operations. They implemented a solution called “Dynamic Operating Envelopes,” known as “flexible interconnection” here in the US. SAPN provides an option to residential solar installers – either choose to interconnect with a fixed export limit of 1.5 kW, or choose an option that allows 10 kW of export but may be curtailed when system conditions require it. They implemented this flexible connection approach through a standard communications protocol, called CSIP-Aus, via the customer’s Wifi connection and then relied on the customer’s inverter to curtail the export when given a command. This approach, while simple and elegant, required getting the communications protocol right, as well as trusting installers to configure and commission customer’s inverters correctly.
This approach differs from utilities here in the US, who prefer a more top-down approach with utility-owned hardware. For example, in Pennsylvania, the utility PPL requires new solar rooftop owners to have a meter collar installed that allows the utility to control the customer’s solar inverter, via a private cellular connection. This is despite PPL’s solar penetration of just 2 percent, compared to SAPN’s 50 percent. US utilities (as well as permitting authorities) are also less willing to trust customers or installers, and instead opt to inspect systems, which slows the process and increases costs.
The customer relationship was a recurring theme during the tour. The delegation met with a group of energy retailers that were implementing innovative customer programs, such as Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), managed EV charging, and other programs – funded by ARENA. In contrast to the US, Australia uses the term “Customer Energy Resources” which demonstrates their focus on the customer and customer experience, a critical ingredient in their success deploying customer resources. Australia’s approach seemed to be “deploy and innovate” – they would deploy customer technologies, often driven via incentive, and then innovate to understand how best to integrate those technologies.
There was plenty for the CHARGED delegation to process on the journey home including key elements to consider when modernizing their own distribution systems:
- Get the “plumbing” right: advanced tools like flexible grid connection (dynamic operating envelopes) require standard communications protocols that consumer devices like solar inverters can adopt. However, this communications and data infrastructure can be implemented at very low cost. Commissioners were surprised to learn that Australian utilities did not have DERMS platforms and often lacked AMI, building blocks that US utilities with far lower solar penetration insist are required.
- Connect and Innovate: US utilities often want to solve all the potential problems before implementing a program. In Australia, policymakers acted and the utilities figured out how to manage the deployment after the fact.
- Customer Focus: Something as simple as a name change (hello, Customer Energy Resources!) demonstrates that in Australia, the customer was the focus, not the technology. Competitive retailers were constantly working on developing clear and simple value propositions for their customers.
The transition of our distribution system in the US is not without challenges, but by learning from others around the globe, policymakers and regulators can ensure the transition shifts more power and benefits to the US electricity customer.