EnergyAustralia, Spotless Group, Amazon Web Services, Cisco and the Victorian Government are working together to create a new start accelerator that will focus on the some of the disruptive forces hitting our power system. I worked in the power industry for ten years and can tell you this is the sort of thing this highly conservative industry really needs.
The three month program, which is kicking off in January 2018, is looking for ten teams to tackle challenges such as smart grid, sustainable cities and living, smart buildings and infrastructure, IoT and connectivity, energy sharing and trading, big data and advanced analytics, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The program will be headed by local Managing Director, Trevor Townsend who has an extensive background in Melbourne as an Investor, Director and Founder. He was the Managing Director, Australasia at TIBCO Software and designed the first wholesale energy software trading system in Australia during this time.
I’m looking forward to what this group can achieve but fear that the program is too limited in its scope. Having just three months to accomplish real change will be a challenge. Most market changes, even relatively small ones could take years to accomplish within the industry’s regulatory regime.
But, it’s a start and could lead to something more substantial.
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