Dr Elizabeth Ratnam

Research highlights

ARC LIEF 2023 LE23010058 - National Facility for Electricity Grid Security and Resilience Research (ARC Funding $400,000)

• Media Release: $39 million awarded to build research infrastructure, equipment, and facilities
• CI Team: Dr Elizabeth Ratnam (Lead CI), Professor Ian Petersen, Professor Iman Shames, Professor Jochen Trumpf, Professor Lachlan Blackhall, Associate Professor Guodong Shi, Professor Ian Manchester, Associate Professor Gregor Verbic, Professor Jian Zhu, Professor Vijay Varadharajan, Professor Steven Weller.

ANU - Major Equipment Grant (2022) - Facility for Energy Security and Resilience Research (ANU MEC funding $100,000)

• CI Team: Dr Elizabeth Ratnam (Lead CI), Professor Ian Petersen, Professor Iman Shames, Dr Abhishek Bhardwaj, Professor Jochen Trumpf.

ARC Linkage Project LP210200473 (2021-2024) - Building Australia's Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Infrastructure (ARC Funding $481,767)

• CI Team: Dr Elizabeth Ratnam (Lead CI), Dr Guodong Shi, Professor Ian Petersen, Dr Andrew Mears, Dr Abhishek Bhardwaj.
• Project Partner: SwitchDin

ARC Discovery Project DP220101035 (2021-2024)  - Democratisation of Deep Learning: Neural Architecture Search at Low Cost (ARC Funding $390,000) (Led by Uni of Melbourne)

• CI Team: Prof Saman Halgamuge (Lead CI), Professor Ponnuthurai Suganthan, Dr Julian de Hoog, Dr Elizabeth Ratnam

Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program (BSGIP)

Research highlights

• The award winning project Evolve: smart software for the orchestration of 21^st century electricity systems wrapped-up in 2022. The $13M project was the largest collaboration of distributed network service providers, technologists, aggregators, academia and government ever assembled. The software developed in the project has been used in a number of other multi-million dollar renewable energy-based projects across Australia.
• New project: Converge. Following on from the success of the Evolve project, BSGIP and partners will be demonstrating the next step to dynamic operating envelopes, called ‘shaped operating envelopes’ in an ACT-based project exploring the grid participation of distributed energy resources.
• Victoria’s first inner-urban community battery heralds in a new age in shared renewable energy storage. BSGIP played a key role in the Fitzroy North Community Battery project providing expertise that has underpinned and guided the development of the project.
• Australia – Germany collaboration evaluates dual-ion batteries with phosphorus negative electrodes. BSGIP’s battery materials team from the ANU Research School of Chemistry joined forces with the Munster Electrochemical Energy Technology (MEET) Centre to assess a new variety of dual-ion battery that utilises negative electrode materials containing black phosphorus.
• NSW South Coast communities selected for microgrid studies. A federally funded project examining the use of microgrids to bolster local energy resilience has selected eight sites across the Eurobodalla for further studies. The Southcoast microgrid Reliability Feasibility (SµRF) project, led by Bjorn Sturmberg and Hedda Ransan-Cooper is exploring the feasibility of microgrids in regional contexts that face challenges from events such as bushfires.
• Program extends research into agricultural industry with funding win. Lachlan Blackhall led a team that was awarded funding from the Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology Strategic Investment Program for a project titled ‘Multi Energy System Modelling for the Agricultural Sector.
• BSGIP teams up with ANU Research School of Earth Sciences to explore high pressure synthesis of battery materials. Alexey Glushenkov and colleagues from the Research School of Earth Sciences received funding from the ANU College of Science Research Strategic Programs funding for a project looking at critical minerals at high pressures – novel compounds for storage batteries.
• The Neighbourhood Battery team within BSGIP has been engaged in a research partnership with the Victorian Department of Environment Land Water and Planning under their Neighbourhood Battery initiative. This interdisciplinary team, comprising Marnie Shaw, Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Louise Bardwell and Wendy Russell is about to launch a set of Neighbourhood Battery Guidelines (Nov/Dec 2022), developed as an online, interactive knowledge hub, which will have a broad and diverse audience, including community members and groups, local councils, energy businesses and government bodies.

Outreach

Converge: enabling greater integration of rooftop solar into the grid. Webinar featuring Shane Rattenbury, Minister for Water, Energy and Emissions Reduction, ACT, launched a new project exploring the grid participation of distributed energy resources within the ACT

‘DEIP Dive’ 2022 explores a distributed energy future. Hosted at ANU by BSGIP and ARENA on 12 September, this knowledge sharing event brought together close to 140 representatives from energy retailers, researchers, networks, market bodies, consultants, technology providers, peak bodies and federal and state government. The keynote speech on Public Interest Technology was jointly delivered by Prof Lachlan Blackhall and Dr Hedda Ransan-Cooper.

Image: DEIP Chair Rachele Williams (centre) flanked by keynote speakers Professor Lachlan Blackhall (left) and Dr Hedda Ransan-Cooper (right) (arena.gov.au).

Children’s book helps power clean energy transition . Dr Bjorn Sturmberg launched his first children’s book with a special book reading by ANU VC, Prof Brian Schmidt, at Parliament House on 7 November.

The Future of Neighbourhood Batteries in Australia (28 November 2022). BSGIP hosted experts from across industry, academia and government to outline actions required of different actors to ensure this form of technology has a positive impact. Organised by Dr Marnie Shaw and Dr Hedda Ransan-Cooper.

BSGIP online seminar series (ongoing). BSGIP hosted 10 online seminars in 2022 on a diverse range of topics from optimised electric vehicle fast charging to integrating distributed energy resources in remote Western Australia to governing just energy transitions in the Asia-Pacific. In the interests of knowledge sharing these seminars were open to a wide audience via University and BSGIP social media channels.

Pierrick Chalaye presented at the Social Dimensions of Climate Change in Australia seminar series: How to Improve Energy Resilience in the Eurobodalla Shire, 27 October 2022.  Pierrick Chalaye also presented work at the European Consortium for Political Research, August 2022.

Awards and honours

Evolve takes out Engineers Australia Canberra Excellence Project Award - Project Evolve won the Engineers Australia ACT project award. A project on Community Energy Models led by Dr Marnie Shaw received a ‘Highly Commended’ honour.

Dr Bjorn Sturmberg receives Tall Poppy honour - Dr Sturmberg also led a project that will be part of the Engaged ANU pilot for ‘Navigating the Energy Transition’.

Accolades for BSGIP at national engineering awards ceremony - The Evolve project team were finalists for the Sir William Hudson Award wich recognises Australia’s top engineering projects and the teams behind them.  Prof Lachlan Blackhall also recieved an individual award, the M A Sargent Medal recognising a highly significant contribution, through technical innovation, to the science or practice of electrical engineering and leadership relating to electrical engineering. 

Image: Lachlan Blackhall was recognised for his leadership in the field of electrical engineering (bsgip.com).

Dr Marnie Shaw recognised for leadership in clean energy - Dr Marnie Shaw was recognised for her leadership in clean energy, receiving a Chloe Munro Scholarship for Transformational Leadership from the Clean Energy Council.

Media

• Neighbourhood batteries: If you want to bring power to the people, you need to listen to what they want, Renew Economy, 25 May. A new paradigm is needed in the energy sector, one that encapsulates people’s hopes and ideals. Neighbourhood batteries could help with this, but the positive benefits are not guaranteed. Opinion article written by Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Marnie Shaw, Wendy Russell and Louise Bardwell.
• The clean energy revolution is more than just a techno-fix, The Conversation, 24 June. Black Summer bushfires devastated parts of the Eurobodalla region in New South Wales. Then earlier this year, the area was hit by floods. As climate change threatens to bring more severe and frequent extreme weather events, how can we help future-proof such communities? Authors: Bjorn Sturmberg, Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Johannes Hendriks and Pierrick Chalaye.
• Australians are installing rooftop solar like never before. Who is burdened with taking care of it?, The Conversation, 15 July. New research has found rooftop solar maintenance, as with other forms of housework, has the potential to become an equity issue. And the burden of this unrecognised work is set to worsen as the energy transition accelerates. Authors: Kathryn Lucas-Healey, Wendy Russell, Hedda Ransan-Cooper and Hugo Temby.
• One skill shortage more than any is holding back Australia in the race to net zero, Renew Economy, 31 August. Opinion piece by Bjorn Sturmberg.
• Good news – there’s a clean energy gold rush under way. We’ll need it to tackle energy price turbulence and coal’s exodus, The Conversation, 2 September. Opinion piece by Bjorn Sturmberg.