The Melbourne networking event, which welcomed the delegation to Australia saw participation from Kane Thornton, Chief Executive of the Clean Energy Council, Mason Interlandi, Business Liaison and External Relations Officer from DFAT’s Victorian State Office and Bhishma Pandit, INFRA Asia & Pacific, International Finance Corporation. The formal discussions at the event were followed by speed networking around the table for all event participants. The Melbourne event was attended by 25+ Australian industry participants who mingled with the 20 course participants.

While in Hobart, the participants attended two networking events where they met with Roger Gill, Chair of TasNetworks and Marinus Link, Erin van Maanen, Executive General Manager of Strategy at Hydro Tasmania, Bess Clark, Senior Executive at TasRex and Michael Connarty, ACEN Australia’s Head of Operations and Trading amongst others. Both events included other invited guests from the power sector. Tasmanian State Director of DFAT, Ruth Baird, also welcomed and met with the delegates separately on site during their first training day in Hobart.

ECEWI’s program covered key power market topics including transmission and interconnection, power exchange market models, details of the Australian national electricity market, the changing nature of markets in a renewable energy future and the role of new interconnection, the factors involved in participating operating and participating in those markets, and the importance of environment, social and governance principles for new generation and transmission. Time was also spent on covering the South Asian context in particular, the status and progress in each country and the opportunities and challenges in increasing interconnection and establishing power exchange markets in the region. The sessions were delivered by Entura’s most experienced power specialists, as well as guests from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), the University of Tasmania, Hydro Tasmania, Momentum Energy and Marinus Link.