Towards a resilient net-zero national electricity grid
Conference
Climate Smart Engineering Conference 2025
Title
Towards a resilient net-zero national electricity grid
Abstract
Australia’s national electricity grid is a System-of-Systems (SoS) – a system comprising numerous semi-autonomous constituent systems. It is critical that this SoS delivers reliable, resilient, and accessible electrical energy to grid-connected consumers nationwide. The imperative to rapidly transition to decarbonised, netzero grids has made the delivery of this basic societal need more complicated. The system engineering of SoS, otherwise known as SoS Engineering (SoSE), has received much attention over the last 30 years during which it has been used to holistically address a wide range of large-scale systems problems. This paper explores the insights from this body of SoSE work and the potential benefits that can ensue from using it to address electricity grid evolution while simultaneously ensuring grid reliability and resilience. The paper opens by describing the background to the situation of interest and some of the challenges that have been identified internationally, and in Australia, in undertaking the integration of electricity grids comprising legacy and renewable energy generation and distribution elements. Following a brief introduction to systems engineering, the contribution that systems engineers have made to resilience engineering is outlined that concludes with a list of some of the means that can be applied to design inherently resilient systems and improve the operational resilience of evolving systems. SoSE is introduced next followed by a description of a SoSE toolbox comprising concepts, approaches, processes, methods, tools, and techniques. The paper finds that there are many benefits of applying a SoSE approach to the evolution of the National Energy Market electricity grid and briefly describes how a bespoke SoSE approach can be designed for this application.
Key takeaways:
- Australia’s electricity grid is not a single system, but an interrelated system-of-systems (SoS), where generation, storage, transmission and consumers all interact. Managing interconnectedness is critical to a reliable and resilient grid.
- The shift to decarbonised energy adds another layer of complexity, as new technologies must integrate with legacy infrastructure.
- Applying a System-of-Systems Engineering (SoSE) approach provides a structured way to identify risks, understand dependencies and design solutions to enable a resilient net-zero national energy grid.
Authors
Professor Stephen Cook FIEAust CPEng NER, Senior Principal Systems Engineer, Shoal Group
Dr Mark Unewisse MIEAust CPEng NER, Systems Engineering Advisor, Shoal Group
Matthew Wylie MBA CPE CSEP, Head of Engineering, Shoal Group
Date
Thursday 28 August 2025
Learn more
Towards a resilient net-zero national electricity grid
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About Shoal
Shoal is complex systems design company. We use Systems Engineering combined with Modelling, Simulation and Analysis to help our clients define, analyse, decide, optimise, and deliver technology-intensive projects in complex environments across Defence, Space, Transport, Energy and Infrastructure.
More: shoalgroup.com
Contact
Matthew Wylie
Chief Engineer, Shoal Group
[email protected]
