The full agenda — with receipts

Ministers, regulators and industry heads opening the event signals how much political capital sits behind Australia's grid transition — for charging operators, the real question is whether the rhetoric translates into permitting speed, grid connection reform or EV-specific investment signals. Watch for concrete commitments versus general decarbonisation talk.

Energy security framing matters to CPOs because EV load is both a grid stress point and a flexibility asset — this panel's answer on where efficiency and storage fit determines whether charging infrastructure gets treated as a problem to manage or a resource to dispatch. IEEFA and Grattan involvement suggests a policy-economics lens rather than technical detail.

AEMO's modelling assumptions directly shape network augmentation timelines and connection costs that charging operators depend on — this session should clarify how EV charging demand is being forecast and weighted in national grid planning. Anyone siting DC fast charging on constrained networks needs to know these assumptions.

With EVC, NSW DCCEEW and ARENA on the panel, this is the closest thing to a policy roadmap session at the event — expect discussion of incentive design, infrastructure funding and regulatory settings shaping the 2035 electrification target. CPOs and fleet operators should listen for anything committing dollars or deadlines, not just aspiration.

Battery recycling and second-life value chains matter to charging operators managing degraded fleet or stationary storage assets — Renewable Metals and Vaulta's pitches signal where materials recovery economics are heading. Relevant mainly to those thinking about battery asset lifecycle, not charging infrastructure itself.

Introductory framing session with no stated content — value depends entirely on what follows in the masterclass track.

Building efficiency and insulation scheme changes are adjacent to electrification but not core EV charging territory — relevant mainly to those tracking how household energy upgrade programs intersect with electrification incentives more broadly.

A dataset spanning 100+ BESS projects is rare and directly useful for anyone co-locating storage with charging infrastructure — the question is what ACCURE's data says about degradation, utilisation and revenue stacking in real operating conditions versus business-case assumptions. Owners and operators should extract the failure modes, not just the averages.

Multi-unit dwellings remain the hardest segment for EV charging access — this session's focus on solar as an electrification gateway should surface what's blocking apartment charging rollout: strata rules, metering, or grid connection costs. Solar Victoria and ACT Government involvement suggests a program-design rather than technology angle.

A change in Victorian government could reshape EV incentives, charging infrastructure grants and network tariff settings that operators currently plan around — this session is a risk assessment exercise, not a technical one. Anyone with Victorian capital commitments should treat the polling analysis as material.

Standards Australia's process determines how long it takes for new charging connector, safety or interoperability standards to reach enforceable status — relevant to any CPO or manufacturer waiting on standards clarity before committing hardware specs. The session should clarify timelines and where EV charging standards currently sit in the pipeline.

Most CPO discussion focuses on deployment; this session's framing — roles 'beyond building' — suggests attention to what happens after installation: uptime, utilisation, servicing and revenue models. That's the part of the CPO business that determines whether charging sites are actually profitable, and it's the least discussed publicly.

DC coupling of solar, storage and load is the architecture question behind every high-power charging site with on-site generation — it determines conversion losses, inverter sizing and whether a hub can actually monetise co-located solar. For charge point operators evaluating solar+storage+charging builds, the session should clarify what value is actually captured versus lost to AC/DC conversion overhead.

Home EV charging is the largest untapped flexible load in the grid, and Australia's trial data on managed charging, batteries and rooftop solar will shape tariff design and VPP eligibility rules that directly affect residential charger uptake. Charging professionals should watch for concrete participation and curtailment numbers, not just trial intent.

Summing grid and behind-the-meter supplementary supply (solar, battery, generator) onto shared conductors is a live compliance risk as sites add DC fast chargers alongside on-site generation — get the overcurrent protection design wrong and it's a fire and warranty issue, not a theoretical one. Installers and design engineers need this session's guidance to translate into updated wiring rules practice, not just standards commentary.

State energy policy sets the runway for charging infrastructure investment — grid connection timelines, renewable fuels positioning, and capital allocation priorities all flow from decisions made in Melbourne, not Canberra. Anyone building a charging network pipeline in Victoria needs to know whether this signals faster approvals or new competing priorities for grid capacity.

EV uptake, rooftop solar and home batteries are converging into a single household energy system, and charging operators need to know whether that convergence helps or cannibalises public charging demand. The real question: what does rising home battery attach-rate do to daytime/overnight charging patterns operators are pricing against?

Grid-scale batteries have displaced gas peakers as the marginal flexibility asset, and the control architecture question — who dispatches what, on what signal — will determine whether EV charging gets treated as controllable load or ignored as noise. Charging network operators should listen for how batteries and charging are expected to coordinate under the next market/control framework, since that's not yet settled.

Charging infrastructure competes with solar, storage and transmission for the same capital pool, and bankability hinges on utilisation certainty that many charging business cases still can't demonstrate. This session should surface what financiers actually need to see before writing debt or equity into a charging project, not generic transition rhetoric.

With retailers, networks and Tesla all in the room, this is where EV charging's role as flexible/dispatchable demand gets negotiated in practice — tariffs, control signals and aggregation rules. Charging operators should care about whether managed charging is being designed as a network cost-saver they get paid for, or a compliance burden imposed on them.

Startup pitch competitions are an early signal of where technical and commercial innovation is heading in Australian energy — worth watching for any charging, software or hardware plays that could become procurement options in 12-18 months.

Solar asset performance and reliability directly affects the economics of co-located solar-plus-charging sites, and topics like O&M, insurance and monitoring (Raptor Maps, Aon, RINA) are exactly what determines uptime for hybrid charging hubs. Relevant to anyone pairing generation with charging infrastructure rather than pure grid-draw models.

Electrification finance and enablement platforms (Brighte, Hubble) are increasingly bundling EV charging with home battery and solar finance products — this is where the consumer-facing packaging of electrification, including charging hardware, gets decided. Worth attending to see whether charging is being treated as a standalone product or folded into a broader electrification bundle.

Grid-scale solar build-out pace determines how much cheap daytime energy is available to price charging against, and policy friction here (connection queues, curtailment, market design) is a leading indicator of charging economics two to three years out. Operators modelling future charging tariffs should track what panelists identify as the binding policy constraint right now.

A six-speaker panel spanning finance, state solar programs, climate consulting and commercial solar signals this is about connecting capital to deployment, not just targets. For charging operators, the real question is whether decarbonisation funding mechanisms (like CEFC-backed finance) will extend beyond rooftop solar into charging infrastructure, and how state programs plan to sequence EV charging against battery and solar incentives.

SunWiz tracks installation data across Australia's solar and storage market, making this a rare data-backed read on where battery adoption is actually heading rather than vendor forecasts. Charging professionals should care because home/business battery uptake directly affects local grid headroom for EV charging and shapes whether V2G or bidirectional charging becomes commercially relevant sooner than expected.

Kerbside charging is the unresolved problem for the ~30% of households without off-street parking, and CitiPower/Powercor/United Energy are among the first Australian DNSPs to publicly address it at network level. Watch for concrete detail on tariff design, connection costs and rollout timelines — this is where policy intent meets distribution network economics.

A mixed panel of legal, battery intelligence and transmission specialists suggests the session will connect regulatory investment cycles with the hard technical question of asset degradation and grid capacity — both directly limit how fast charging infrastructure can scale. Anyone planning fleet or public charging rollouts needs to know where transmission bottlenecks will bite first and on what timeline.

Hybrid inverters sit at the intersection of solar, storage and increasingly EV charging integration, so a technical review from GSES matters for installers deciding which hardware architecture to standardise on. Key question: how do current hybrid inverter designs handle EV load management and V2G/V2H functionality versus dedicated EVSE.

Water heating is one of the largest flexible residential loads and a direct competitor to EV charging for rooftop solar self-consumption and off-peak tariff slots. Rheem's take on connected water heating signals how appliance manufacturers see demand-side orchestration evolving — relevant to anyone designing home energy management systems that need to arbitrate between EV charging and other loads.

Apartment charging remains the single biggest access gap in Australian EV infrastructure, hitting strata approval processes, shared electrical capacity and cost allocation between residents. Origin Energy's perspective as an energy retailer entering this space should clarify whether utilities plan to offer end-to-end solutions or leave installation complexity to third parties.

Compliance failures in heat pump installations are a cautionary parallel for the EV charging sector, which faces similar risks as installer volume scales faster than inspection capacity. Solar Victoria and Energy Safe Victoria's field data on what goes wrong is directly transferable to how charging equipment standards and installer accreditation should be enforced.

Distribution System Operator transformation is the precondition for scaled EV charging — without dynamic network visibility, DNSPs default to conservative connection limits that throttle charger deployment. Schneider Electric's AI-assisted grid pitch should be tested against a concrete question: does this reduce connection timeframes and unlock capacity for high-power charging sites today, or is it still roadmap.

Transgrid electrifying its own operational fleet is a real-world case study in heavy-vehicle charging — depot design, duty cycles, and grid connection requirements that mirror what logistics and utility fleets nationally are grappling with. The value here is operational specifics: charging infrastructure sizing, downtime tolerance and total cost of ownership data from an organisation that also owns transmission assets.

C&I energy transition sessions typically cover behind-the-meter generation, demand response and electrification economics — for charging professionals, the open question is where fleet and workplace EV charging fits into SEC's view of commercial opportunity. Worth attending for clarity on whether C&I charging is being treated as a distinct revenue category or folded into broader electrification messaging.

This panel brings together a state energy department, a major DNSP, a charging hardware provider and a dynamic-pricing retailer — the exact stakeholder mix needed to discuss EVs as grid assets rather than just transport. Expect discussion of vehicle-to-grid readiness, tariff innovation and whether Victoria's network planning is actually pricing in EV load growth or still reacting to it.

Energy data visibility underpins fleet and site-level charging decisions, yet most commercial operators still can't see real-time consumption against tariffs. This session should clarify what metering and monitoring stack actually gives depot and retail operators actionable control — not just dashboards. Relevant to anyone sizing infrastructure investment against real load data rather than assumptions.

Duck-curve stress is compounding as EV load and rooftop solar both scale on the same low-voltage feeders, and DNSPs like AusNet are the ones absorbing the volatility. The session should address how distribution networks are quantifying and managing this collision — critical for charge point operators planning connections in solar-dense areas.

Europe is years ahead on heavy-vehicle charging — megawatt charging standards, depot design, grid connection lead times — and Australia's freight electrification is about to hit the same infrastructure bottlenecks. Fleet operators and charging providers need concrete lessons on what failed and what scaled, not theory.

Data centre load growth is now a bigger grid planning variable than EV uptake in many networks, and the two are competing for the same transmission and generation headroom. Anyone in charging infrastructure should track how AEMC and network operators are treating data centres as flexible or inflexible load, since that shapes connection queues everyone else sits in.

Renewable Energy Zones determine where new generation and grid capacity land, which directly dictates where fast-charging corridors and depot connections become viable. Regional workforce and community outcomes are the political price of REZ delivery — delays here ripple into charging infrastructure timelines.

Electrification without efficiency gains just shifts peak demand problems rather than solving them, and this panel spans policy, research and delivery perspectives on that tension. Charging professionals should care because efficiency standards and incentive design directly affect how much grid headroom is left for vehicle charging.

AI is being pitched for grid forecasting, network modelling and dynamic load management — all of which bear directly on EV charging's biggest constraint: available network capacity. The open question is whether these tools are operational today or still pilot-stage, which matters for anyone deciding whether to wait or build around current grid data.

Low-carbon fuels compete with electrification for freight and heavy transport decarbonisation dollars and policy attention, and the outcome affects how much heavy-vehicle charging infrastructure gets built versus displaced. Charging professionals should watch whether this session frames fuels as complementary or as a competing pathway for capital.

Electrician and technician shortages are already delaying EV charger installations and grid connection works across Australia. This session should specify concrete training pipeline and accreditation progress — the industry needs numbers on capacity, not general workforce sentiment.

Efficiency measures at the building and tariff level directly change how much spare capacity exists for EV charging loads without network augmentation. With speakers spanning solar-sharing, retail tariffs and optimisation software, this should surface concrete tools operators can deploy now rather than aspirational efficiency targets.

Battery storage and utility-scale renewables set the wholesale price and capacity backdrop that determines whether EV charging is cheap, clean and available, or constrained. With battery and storage vendors on the panel, expect discussion of how storage buildout timelines intersect with rising charging demand on the same grid.

Kerbside charging is the unresolved piece of Australian EV infrastructure — no consistent national model for permitting, cost recovery or operator access exists yet, and councils are making decisions ad hoc. With council, OEM and consultancy voices present, this should clarify who pays, who owns the asset, and how fast this segment can actually scale.

Grid integration is where charging infrastructure plans meet physical network limits — hosting capacity, DER orchestration and storage co-location decisions made here directly shape which sites are viable for high-power charging. With network operators, storage and inverter players on the panel, the real question is whose technology roadmap the grid actually accommodates first.

Grid-forming BESS is the missing link for weak grids and remote charging sites that can't rely on synchronous generation for voltage and frequency support. Operational data from a live deployment matters more than vendor claims — anyone planning charging infrastructure in constrained networks should be asking what stability guarantees this actually delivers under load.

Heavy vehicle electrification keeps stalling on depot power availability, grid connection timelines and charger reliability at scale — not truck supply. This session should answer what's actually blocking megawatt-class charging deployment today and who bears the cost of fixing it.

Long-duration storage is increasingly framed as essential grid backbone, but market design still doesn't properly compensate for multi-hour discharge capability. For charging operators exposed to peak demand charges and network constraints, this session should clarify what policy changes would actually make LDES bankable at scale.

Kerbside and apartment charging remains the single biggest access gap in EV adoption, and multiple competing models — kerbside chargers, lamppost retrofits, community charging — are being trialled with no clear winner yet. Anyone deploying public infrastructure should watch which business model this panel of operators and advocates actually defends as viable.

As renewable penetration rises, storage is being positioned as the primary reliability backstop rather than a peaking asset — a shift with direct implications for how charging load can be scheduled and priced. Worth hearing how a major storage operator quantifies "reliability" versus simply capacity.

As homes become active grid participants via EVs, batteries and smart tariffs, consumer protection frameworks are lagging behind the technical capability to control household loads remotely. This matters to anyone selling VPP or managed-charging products — the regulatory guardrails discussed here will shape what's commercially permissible.

Public charging economics in Australia remain marginal — utilisation rates, network costs and CAPEX recovery timelines are the real constraints, not charger availability. A retailer's perspective on commercial viability is directly relevant to anyone underwriting a network build-out.

VPP value distribution is contested territory: networks want deferral value, retailers want dispatch margin, installers want hardware sales, and customers want bill savings — rarely all satisfied simultaneously. With AEMO, retailers and installers on the same panel, expect a genuine airing of where the value actually flows versus where it's marketed to flow.

Home battery flexibility is heavily hyped as a grid asset, but actual dispatch reliability, aggregation economics and consumer compensation remain unresolved. This panel — spanning research, consumer advocacy and network perspectives — should separate what flexibility is delivering today from what's still a pilot-stage promise.

Industrial decarbonisation and energy planning decisions made now — heat, process electrification, sector coupling — determine future grid load shapes that charging infrastructure will have to coexist with. Relevant for anyone forecasting network capacity or demand alongside EV growth over the next decade.

Early-stage energy tech pitches are a signal of where investor and industry attention is heading before it shows up in mainstream deployment. Worth watching for charging-adjacent innovations — software, hardware or business models — that could shift procurement decisions in 12-24 months.

NEM rule changes and dispatch dynamics increasingly set the economics of when and how EV charging draws power, especially as fast-charging load grows large enough to interact with wholesale price volatility. With Fluence, Tesla and OptiGrid on the panel, expect discussion of storage co-location and market participation models that charging operators will need to mirror to manage demand charges and grid constraints. Key question: what NEM settlement or connection rule changes should charging network operators be tracking now?

A cross-sector panel spanning distribution (ElectraNet), local government and regional/agricultural interests signals that net zero planning is moving beyond generation into land use, transmission siting and community acceptance — all of which affect where charging infrastructure can be built and connected. For charging professionals, the real question is how council and network net zero targets translate into concrete grid capacity and permitting timelines for depot and public charging sites.

BESS capex, degradation and revenue-stacking lessons from operators like Tesla, Shoals and Fox ESS translate directly to charging hubs pairing batteries with DC fast chargers to manage demand charges and grid constraints. The unanswered question for this session: which BESS investment failures or underperformance patterns should charging site developers avoid replicating.

With AEMO, CEFC, CSIRO and DNSPs Energex/Ergon in the room, this session sits at the center of the hosting-capacity and dynamic export/import debate that determines how much EV charging load a feeder can actually take without costly network upgrades. Charging network planners should listen for concrete detail on dynamic operating envelopes and DER visibility standards, since these will shape connection approval timelines for new charging sites.

Direct relevance: EVC, Evnex, Amped Consulting and Planit Charge cover the practical split between home/workplace and commercial charging deployment, where installation cost, tariff design and utilization rates determine project viability. The session should answer what's actually slowing residential and commercial rollout today — is it grid connection cost, hardware supply, or business model uncertainty.

Storage offtake and PPA structuring directly informs how charging operators contract battery-backed sites for revenue certainty against volatile per-kWh charging income. K&L Gates' legal lens matters for anyone negotiating land, grid connection or revenue-sharing agreements for hybrid charging-storage assets — expect detail on liability allocation and curtailment risk clauses.

This is primarily a solar/storage hardware panel (Fronius, SolarEdge, FOXESS, Winaico), but bidirectional inverter capability and installation standards discussed here increasingly overlap with V2G-ready charging hardware. Charging professionals should listen for any signals on inverter interoperability standards that could affect future V2G or solar-charging integration products.

Fleet operators and utilities are stuck making capex and grid-planning decisions without an agreed methodology for sizing charging infrastructure to freight demand — get this wrong and you either strand assets or bottleneck electrification. This session should answer: what assumptions (duty cycles, dwell times, megawatt charging vs. depot charging mix) drive the estimate, and how sensitive is the number to freight corridor and vehicle class. Anyone underwriting depot buildout or corridor DCFC investment for trucking needs this framework, not just a headline figure.

Grid-forming BESS technology is central to stabilizing networks carrying growing concentrations of high-power DC fast charging, particularly on weak rural or regional feeders. Fluence's connection experience matters to charging operators because grid-forming capability directly affects whether a fast-charging hub gets approved without expensive augmentation.

Revenue stacking and storage-led market design are the financial mechanics that make co-located battery-and-charger hubs commercially viable, turning idle charger capacity into a grid services asset. Hamilton Locke's policy and revenue-stacking analysis should clarify which market products (FCAS, capacity, wholesale arbitrage) charging site owners can realistically access alongside charging revenue.