The energy transition is speeding up, just as CIGRE Australia prepares for its landmark suite of conferences in 2025.
With a suite of summits packed into a few short days, CIGRE Australia’s events will show much more is needed, and quickly.
From 2–4 September 2025, Adelaide will host a packed program of high-level technical discussion, global insights and industry networking under the banner ‘Shaping the Power Systems of Tomorrow’.
Held at the Adelaide Convention Centre, the conference suite brings together the ninth South East Asia Protection, Automation and Control Conference (SEAPAC25), the sixth Conference on the Integration of Distributed Energy Resources (CIDER25), and a three-day general conference stream focused on the broad spectrum of challenges in delivering a decarbonised energy future.
It is not just one conference but several, co-located and coordinated to maximise engagement and impact.
“The scale of change required in our power systems is unprecedented,” says CIGRE Australia Chairman Seán McGoldrick.
“We’ve made strong progress decarbonising generation, but we now face the task of adding six times today’s utility-scale wind and solar, and five times today’s consumer energy resources, within 25 years… all while maintaining the reliability that Australians rightly expect.”
Mc Goldrick’s comments reflect a key challenge for the sector – expanding renewable generation and managing the complexity that follows.
Distributed energy, digitalisation, market design, cybersecurity and grid flexibility all demand urgent attention and technical sophistication.
This year’s event is intentionally technical. With more than 150 presentations, tutorials and workshops across three days, attendees can expect deep dives into subjects that often receive only surface treatment at broader industry conferences.
“CIGRE’s value lies in its technical depth and collaboration,” says CIGRE Australia CEO Peter McIntyre.
“This event is unashamedly technical and jam-packed with insights for engineers, planners, regulators and market designers who are grappling with real-world system challenges.”
Conference highlights
The general conference stream will span six key areas: digitalisation; solar, wind and emerging energy sources; storage; hydrogen; grids and flexibility; and consumers, prosumers and electric vehicles.
Each stream tackles a central issue in the transition from a legacy fossil-based system to one that is renewable, decentralised and dynamic.
One of three running in parallel, SEAPAC25 will explore the design and operation of protection, control and monitoring systems, with a strong focus on interfaces between primary equipment, SCADA and telecoms.
Meanwhile, CIDER25 will examine the integration of distributed energy resources (DER), with a spotlight on connection standards, network hosting capacity, customer-side control and demand-side flexibility.
The program also includes tutorials on DER from five perspectives – planning, operations, market regulation, integration and IT/cybersecurity – along with presentations on harmonics, power quality, digital twins and the interplay between market mechanisms and technical grid performance.
“We are seeing increasingly complex interactions between electricity markets and physical power systems,” said McIntyre.
“Australia’s high renewables penetration, especially rooftop solar, places us at the leading edge of many of these challenges. That’s why we’re bringing in both domestic and international expertise to share what’s working, and what’s not.”
Global lessons, local application
A major strength of the CIGRE format is its global knowledge-sharing. Delegates in Adelaide will hear directly from CIGRE President Professor Konstantin Papailiou, who will deliver a keynote on international energy transition trends.
Other headliners include Associate Professor Tim Nelson, Chair of the National Electricity Market (NEM) Review, and Nicola Falcon, incoming Executive General Manager of System Design at the Australian Energy Market Operator and a CIGRE Australia board member.
An important workshop will analyse recent major system disturbances in Spain and Peru – events that have prompted serious international reflection on renewable integration and grid resilience.
Australia’s own experience, particularly its world-leading rooftop solar uptake, continues to offer both lessons and warnings.
“In Australia, we’ve been forced to innovate,” said Dr Mc Goldrick.
“Our LV and MV networks have encountered the real impacts of high DER penetration. We’ve made great strides, but the next phase is even more interconnected.”
Networking, inclusion and the next generation
Beyond the technical agenda, the conference suite will include social and professional events to foster dialogue across sectors and generations.
A Women in Energy-hosted leadership breakfast aims to elevate leadership diversity, while a NextGen Power Professionals seminar supports early-career engineers with personal and professional development.
The flagship gala dinner and welcome reception offer additional chances for delegates to connect with peers, suppliers, policy experts and project leaders from across Australia and internationally.
“Industry transformation requires people as well as technology,” said McIntyre.
“We need to build capability across the entire workforce – and ensure we’re bringing the best minds together to work on common problems.”
A growing audience
At the close of early-bird registrations in May, over 700 delegates had already signed up, indicating a strong appetite for deep technical exchange. That number is continuing to grow, with participation open to both members and non-members.
The event also overlaps conveniently with the Asia-Oceania Regional Council (AORC) meetings in New Zealand from 5–7 September, allowing international delegates to extend their trip across both.
“This is more than a conference… it’s a platform,” said Dr Mc Goldrick.
“It’s where we test ideas, share knowledge, and shape the technical roadmap for one of the most ambitious energy transitions in the world.”