The State of Grid Transition 2026
About the report
The Scenarios for Future Living (SFL) project aims to support better decision-making capacity for the Australian energy sector through scenarios, models, tools, and design innovations that centre people’s everyday lives and expectations alongside emerging technology and energy trends. This requires both engagement with energy sector actors and an understanding of how industry expectations about probable, possible and preferable futures shape current decision-making.
The intent is to publish annual State of Grid Transition reports for the three years of the SFL project.
During the first year of the project, Work Package 6 has completed literature reviews on the value of foresighting practices, how foresighting influences thinking and practice and international examples of multi-stakeholder, future-focused energy fora. We have analysed the current state of grid transition in Australia and reviewed industry visions for the future. We have also collaborated closely with RACE for 2030 and Energy Catalyst on the design of a Consumer Grid Summit to take place in the second quarter of 2026.
The design process for the Summit included interviews and workshops conducted by Energy Catalyst and RACE for 2030 with 15 diverse senior leaders in the energy sector. It also included a foresighting session for energy researchers held at the State of Energy Research Conference 2025. The emerging design for the Summit is for a collaborative, multi-stakeholder process that responds to a broadly perceived gap in the strategic transformation arrangements of the NEM. It aims to bring together current and future leaders in grid transition to develop visions for the future of the grid and identify enablers of that vision. This Report is one input to that process.