by Wayne Pales | Apr 26, 2018
In recent weeks, I have been involved in several conversations about distributors (DBs) not being able to include demand response investments in their asset base. Instead they will need to contract in demand response services from third parties. The rationale behind...
by Wayne Pales | Apr 7, 2018
The potential of blockchain in the energy industry, which most people know as the distributed ledger technology powering Bitcoin, has had me excited for some time. The more I delve into blockchain, assuming the known issues are ironed out in the coming years, the...
by Wayne Pales | Mar 28, 2018
As Australia continues to navigate the evolution of demand response, an interesting question has emerged. Who is accountable for the network ‘going dark’ if the distributors are forced to use contracted demand response? Let’s take a step back. ...
by Wayne Pales | Mar 19, 2018
A few weeks ago I had the good fortune of presenting at Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) Foresighting Forum 2018. Rosemary Sinclair, ECA’s CEO stated in her opening speech. “The theme for Foresighting Forum 18 is take charge, shifting power to consumers,...
by Wayne Pales | Mar 8, 2018
It is a great step forward to see the COAG Energy Council’s consultation paper, Facilitating Access to Consumer Energy Data. I am pleased with the overall direction. I believe we could move faster than the recommended timeframes, but then I am always impatient...
by Wayne Pales | Mar 7, 2018
Since 2012 I have been leading smart energy programs and helping develop digital utility roadmaps. The most important lesson I learned along the way is to focus on services that are in the best interests of the consumers and communities you serve. This in turn will...
by Wayne Pales | Feb 26, 2018
In a previous post, I talked about the six utility industry truths. Much like the ‘canary in the coal mine’ concept, awareness of these six industry truths can act as an early warning system and can be used to help us navigate the following eight utility industry...
by Wayne Pales | Feb 14, 2018
I believe there are six immutable utility industry truths. How we decide to interpret these is up to us, but we cannot ignore them. Like the canary in the coal mine, these industry truths should be used as an early warning to help inform the decisions we make when...
by Wayne Pales | Feb 5, 2018
In this, the final post in the series on designing third party access to energy data, let’s discuss the decisions that need to be made ‘under the hood’. You may recall in an earlier post I talked about four components. Source, Transport, Store, and...
by Wayne Pales | Jan 30, 2018
The spike in temperature into the 40’s in Melbourne on the weekend got me thinking of the old lady who was ahead of me in the queue at the post office last week. She was beside herself with worry over a “threatening letter” she had received from her electricity...
