Energy sector disruptions, and strategies to address them: 

‘With energy sector disruptions being a topic of much focus and debate, in particular, at this time of global scarcity and uncertainty this seminar offered insights into the current situation in Australia and Northern Europe. The audience heard from Mr. Johan Wasberg, Senior Expert at Merinova Technology Centre in Vaasa, Finland (OpenInnoTrain Secondee) about the impact in Northern Europe of the energy sector caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the large-scale societal impacts. Johan spotlighted the role that ‘Clusters’ can play into the future, as well as Ruchika Deora (C4Net), and Ying Luo (Australian Gas Infrastructure Group) from the Australian perspective. Collectively, this Panel of experts discussed policy options as well as the future outlook, expertly moderated by Dr. Zsuzsanna Csereklyei, RMIT University.’ 

From Johan’s Northern European perspective:

During the last year – from October 2021 to October 2022 – the average end user electricity bills in the EU capitals have increased by 69% and the natural gas bills by 111%. The causes for this are a stable demand combined by the closure of nuclear and fossil fuel-based power plants, especially in Germany and Sweden, without building enough new compensating power generation capacity replacing the closed plants. The Ukraine conflict, and associated import sanctions on Russian oil and gas and the sabotage on the North Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September 2022, have added to the energy shortage and price increases. As a result, both domestic consumers and businesses are now facing very high energy costs which affect all levels in society. Several countries are planning energy price caps and various energy subsidy schemes to overcome the high costs. Electricity savings between 8-18 % have already been noted in some regions, but the severity of the upcoming winter will largely determine how Europe will be able to cope with the present energy disruptions.

The 2020 Victorian CleanTech Expo was hosted by the Sustainable Technologies and Systems Enabling Capability Platform, RMIT – Director Professor Gary Rosengarten.