Power without permission? Energy Networks Conference 2026

The technical expertise and capacity to deliver Australia’s energy transition is largely in hand. Current AEMO Integrated System Plan draft (coming out June 2026) estimated 6,000km of new transmission lines are needed by 2050, with the majority by 2030. 

But the energy transition is more than a technical exercise. It’s a human project being rolled out in local communities, in an intensive infrastructure bills environment, and a complex policy context. 

Considering people in power (how we change, access and deliver it) is crucial to a fair and just energy transition.

At the recent Energy Networks 2026 conference in Adelaide, I2S Director Professor Sara Bice joined Alivya Powell, Founder and CEO of Wambinya Enterprise and Ed Coper, Executive Director and Founder of The Center for Impact Communications, CEO of Populares, moderated byDominique van den Berg, CEO of Energy Networks Australia, to discuss how social licence is operating in Australia's energy transition and what can be done to better integrate the technical transition with the social one. 

The panel followed international keynote speaker Dan Gardner whose 'Getting Big Things Done' with Professor Bent Flyvbjerg is well known to many in the sector. Dan's talk focused largely on project management and the internal components essential to project success. In the panel that followed, Sara emphasised that good project teams and project management are important, but they're not all. Where Flyvbjerg and Gardner rightly encourage us to 'Think Slow. Act Fast', Sara suggested the audience should also 'Think Slow. Act Social.' In other words, the 'we' of project management must include our communities, including their long-term visions for local futures. She shared I2S' work on the influences of stakeholder and community pressure and policy backflipping on project delays and cancellations, the impacts of cumulative effects and intensive project environments and the importance of focusing on relationships to build trust through listening and promise-keeping. 

For those who haven't been, the Energy Networks Conference is an impressive convening of the minds shaping our nation's energy infrastructure and we'd highly recommend it for 2027. Plus, you might even get a Kraken.