Grid connection, firming capacity, and community trust: Here’s what we learnt Australian Clean Energy Summit 2025

The Australian Clean Energy Summit (ACES) 2025 offered a clear snapshot of Australia’s energy transition: ambition is high, but delivery is under pressure. Over two days, industry leaders, government officials, and project developers unpacked the opportunities and pain points shaping the next phase of the transition. Here are the three themes that stood out most for the Intium team:

1. Grid connection challenges persist, but reforms will pave the way to success.
   
   Connection delays, complexity, and inconsistency were recurring themes across multiple sessions at ACES 2025 with challenges around technical uncertainty and slow processes, describing connection risk as one of the biggest barriers to project delivery. AEMO and transmission operators were confident reforms will help, with efforts underway to streamline approvals, improve transparency, and reduce rework under the Connections Reform Initiative. While national coordination remains a long-term goal, the consensus at the summit was that practical, project-level improvements will deliver the most immediate impact. The transition depends not just on ambition, but on making connection pathways faster, clearer, and more predictable.
   
   
   
2. Firming capacity and grid stability are front and centre.
   
   Grid stability is no longer a planning consideration, it’s a daily operational pressure. AEMO reported a dramatic rise in manual grid interventions, from just 6 in 2016 to over 1,800 in the past year. This underscored the system’s increasing flexibility and the need for firming technologies such as batteries, pumped hydro, and flexible demand. At the summit, NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe announced the opening of a competitive tender for new firming infrastructure under LTESA contracts, as part of the state’s Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap, a clear signal that government is responding to reliability challenges with targeted policy. The tender seeks to secure dispatchable capacity, including BESS's, VPPs and gas generators to rapidly call on demand at short notice to support the grid as ageing coal plants exit the system.
   
   
   
3. Genuine engagement with regional Australia is critical.
   
   Many projects continue to face delays due to weak or late-stage community engagement. Communities expect early involvement, honest dialogue, and meaningful long-term benefits including jobs, skills, infrastructure upgrades, and respect for local identity and Indigenous land rights. Without this, trust is difficult to earn and easy to lose. ACES 2025 reinforced that technology and policy are only part of the transition. Success depends on execution, trust, and building the infrastructure that keeps the grid stable and connected. As Intium continues to partner on complex energy projects, these three themes guide how we help deliver the transition — reliably, efficiently, and with communities at the centre of everything we do.