As mentioned last week, Australia’s centralised electricity model is cracking under pressure—climate extremes, AI-driven demand, decentralised generation, and public resistance to top-down infrastructure. If we are to meet these challenges, we need not just smarter grids, but smarter civic energy systems.
Beyond the market: rethinking energy as infrastructure
Electricity is too often treated as a commodity, managed through market abstractions. But it is also essential infrastructure—as critical as roads, water, and communications. Its reliability, affordability, and equity should not be determined solely by profit or outdated regulation.
The current framework rewards capital investment, not efficiency or resilience. As we discussed last week, Travis Kavulla notes, utilities make more by building more. But instead of challenging that logic, most reforms try to nudge it at the edges. That’s no longer good enough.
A new civic energy vision
Here are six steps we can take:
- Reform utility regulation – As Kavulla argues, put utilities on a budget. Cap capital-driven returns. Reward efficiency, not excess. But reform must also incorporate climate responsibility and democratic accountability—goals often missing from pure market critiques.
- Modernise grid rules – Enable dynamic pricing, storage integration, and consumer aggregation. Remove barriers to peer-to-peer energy trading.
Australia’s new solar trading trial in Wingecarribee Shire shows the way forward. Households without panels can now buy cheaper local solar from neighbours, while panel owners earn more than standard feed-in tariffs. This model illustrates how existing poles and wires can support fairer, cleaner local energy.
- Decentralise resilience – Support community microgrids, local storage, and co-operative energy platforms. Businesses are following suit, adopting on-site generation to hedge against price volatility and instability. This decentralisation forces distributors to rethink their role.
- Hold data centres accountable – Require large energy users to self-supply a percentage of their consumption through renewables or storage. Set emissions and resilience standards from the outset—not as an afterthought.
- Integrate communications and energy – We need hybrid resilience models. Dutch technologist Jaap van Till proposed SPANs (Smartphone Ad Hoc Networks) as one peer-to-peer communications model. While technically limited, the broader principle of local, decentralised networks remains compelling. Funding mesh pilots and community technology initiatives could yield scalable emergency tools.
- Invest in energy literacy – Build public understanding of how the grid works—and how it doesn’t. But education must be paired with participation. Citizens need clear avenues to join community energy schemes, shape planning processes, and assert their rights.
Power companies must evolve
All of this has profound implications for electricity distributors. The traditional model—top-down, one-way, and centralised—is being undermined not only by rooftop solar and storage, but by the very policies now coming from federal and state governments.
The question is not whether change is coming, but whether incumbents will fight it or adapt. Distribution companies must learn to manage local two-way power flows, incorporate EVs, balance supply with voltage control, and partner with communities, not just serve them.
The global momentum is real
The shift toward microgrids and distributed resilience is not just Australian. Across the U.S., from New England to California, businesses are embracing local generation to shield themselves from volatile markets. Their actions are a warning: if the grid can’t adapt, consumers will.
Conclusion: we can build a better system, together
Australia’s energy system must serve more than just markets and megawatts. It must serve people, communities, and the planet. That means rejecting outdated ideas about grid centralisation and embracing a civic vision of distributed, participatory power.
The good news is that the pieces are already falling into place. New trials, battery subsidies, community pilots—they point toward a different future. But we must accelerate, integrate, and democratise these efforts.
As we confront the next phase of energy disruption, let’s remember: power is not just something we consume. It’s something we share.
Paul Budde
With thanks to Arjen Lentz, Jaap van Vaardegem, Erwin Budde, Richard Shockey, and Fred Goldstein for their valuable insights and feedback on these issues.