ENERGY FUTURES PUBLIC FORUM: US and Australian journeys on the road to net-zero

IN PERSON EVENT ONLY

Join The Melbourne Energy Institute and Grattan Institute on Wednesday 1st May 2024, for a public forum that will cover US and Australian journeys on the road to net-zero.

Australia and the United States are both on the journey to a net-zero energy system. This is a transformative journey, and we are not yet half-way there. Energy is a fundamental underpinning of our modern lives and what this transformation looks like will be explored by the next event in the Future Energy series of public forums, jointly presented by the Melbourne Energy Institute and the Grattan Institute.

You are invited to hear about how the two countries are travelling and what the future holds. The event will feature a key address from Ms. Allison Clements, Commissioner of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This will be mirrored with input from the Australian perspective through a panel discussion featuring Ms Sally McMahon, Commissioner at the Australian Energy Market Commission, and Prof. Pierluigi Mancarella, Energy Systems Program Leader and Chair of Electrical Power Systems at the University of Melbourne. An opportunity to put questions to the panel will follow.

SPEAKERS / PANEL MEMBERS:

Ms. Allison Clements

Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

Commissioner Allison Clements joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in December 2020 following a range of public and private sector experience in energy law and grid modernization policy. Prior to her current role, she worked at Energy Foundation, Goodgrid LLC, and Natural Resources Defense Council. She began her legal career in private practice at Troutman Sanders LLP and Chadbourne & Parke LLP. Over the course of her career, her clients have included utilities, independent power producers, developers, lenders, nonprofits, and philanthropies.

Commissioner Clements has also served as a federal energy expert in several capacities, including as a member of a National Academies of Sciences committee on grid resilience and as a clinical visiting lecturer at Yale Law School. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctorate from The George Washington University Law School.

Ms. Sally McMahon

Commissioner, Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC)

Sally McMahon is an economist with more than 25 years’ experience in energy and industry reform programs. Commencing her career investigating third-party gas access regimes, she has been an advisor and executive with economic regulators, governments, electricity and gas businesses, and investment funds in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and Canada.

Sally has held key roles in the evolution of jurisdictional energy markets and the establishment and ongoing development of the law and rules for the National Electricity and Gas Market. IN addition to her role as Commissioner at the AEMC, she is the Independent Chair of the Market Advisory Committee, the Gas Advisory Board and the Pilbara Advisory Committee in Western Australia and is a part-time Councillor of the National Competition Council.

Sally holds an Honours degree in Economics from the Flinders University of South Australia and is a GAICD. Sally is also a member of the Economic Society of Australia and a former Chair of Women in Economics Network of WA.

Prof. Pierluigi Mancarella

Energy Systems Program Leader, Melbourne Energy Institute, and
Chair Of Electrical Power Systems, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne  

Pierluigi is Chair Professor of Electrical Power Systems at the University of Melbourne and Professor of Smart Energy Systems at the University of Manchester, UK. He obtained the PhD degree in Power Systems from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, did his post-doc at Imperial College London, UK, and has held visiting research positions at Sintef/NTNU in Norway and NREL in Colorado, as well as visiting professorships at Ecole Centrale de Lille in France, the Universidad de Chile, and Tsinghua University in China.

MODERATOR:

Mr. Tony Wood

Energy and Climate Change Program Director, Grattan Institute

Tony has been Director of the Energy Program since 2011 after 14 years working at Origin Energy in senior executive roles.

From 2009 to 2014 he was also Program Director of Clean Energy Projects at the Clinton Foundation, advising governments in the Asia-Pacific region on effective deployment of large-scale, low-emission energy technologies.
In 2008, he was seconded to provide an industry perspective to the first Garnaut climate change review.

HOST:

Prof. Michael Brear

Director, Melbourne Energy Institute, University of Melbourne

Michael Brear is a mechanical engineer and the Director of the Melbourne Energy Institute (MEI) at the University of Melbourne. MEI facilitates the University’s research on the technical, economic, environmental and social impacts of energy.

Michael is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Combustion Institute, Engineers Australia and the Australian Institute of Energy. He previously established the University’s multi-disciplinary degree, the Master of Energy Systems. Prior to commencing at the University of Melbourne, Michael worked for ICI Australia (now Orica), and then undertook graduate studies at Cambridge University and post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.