Integrating Electric Vehicles Into The Electricity System: Challenges, Opportunities, and Possible Futures

1 hour and 30 minutes

This session will discuss the challenges and opportunities of EV grid integration, with particular reference to smart charging, bi-directional charging and the consumer experience.

Kate O’Callaghan

Director | Project Delivery-Knowledge Sharing, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)

Kate has a background in environmental policy and public service. She is the Director of ARENA’s Knowledge Sharing Team, which aims to ensure  knowledge, insights and lessons learnt from ARENA projects and activities are widely shared with the Australian renewable energy sector. Kate also chairs the Distributed Energy Integration Program (DEIP) Electric Vehicle Grid Integration Workstream.

Laura Jones

Senior Analyst, The Australian National University

Laura Jones is a Senior Analyst with The Battery Storage and Grid Integration Team with the ANU College of Engineering & Computer Science.

Laura is an experienced innovator and engineer with a demonstrated history of working across multiple industries and has been central to delivering on large customer-focussed projects such as Bruny Island Battery Trial. She has had a diverse work history spanning field testing, power system analysis, planning, innovation, and most recently economics & business models and currently works as an economist on a Vehicle to Grid/grid services demonstration project.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-jones-57266339/

Tim Washington

CEO, JET Charge

Tim Washington is the co-founder and CEO of JET Charge, Australia’s largest EV charging infrastructure deployment company.  He also sits on the Board of Chargefox, Australia’s largest EV charging network.  Tim is the Chair of the Electric Vehicle Council, the EV industry’s peak representative group.

Chau Le

General Manager Strategy and eMobility, Origin Energy

Chau started her career in investment banking with Macquarie Capital before joining Origin in 2011. Chau has held diverse roles at Origin spanning from Corporate Finance to leading the Investor Relations team to her current role leading the Corporate Strategy and E-mobility teams. She is passionate about helping customers transition to sustainability energy and mobility solutions. Chau holds a combined Commerce and Law degree, majoring in Finance. Chau is a director on the board of the Electric Vehicle Council.

Eddie Thanavelil

Future Networks Portfolio Lead, Evoenergy

As the Future Networks Portfolio Lead at Evoenergy in the nations’ capital, Eddie is responsible for the delivery of new advanced technology systems required to successfully transition Evoenergy into the new energy future. Eddie has a decade’s worth of experience in a variety of energy policy and program administration roles in the public and private sector. Eddie is part of the team at Evoenergy that assesses the feasibility for non-network solutions as alternatives to the augmentation of the network, including distributed energy resources (DER) and demand side solutions. Previously Eddie had been involved in providing strategic advice to Energy Ministers and innovation agencies like ARENA and the Clean Energy Regulator on renewable and carbon policies including the Renewable Energy Target and the Emissions Reduction Fund.

Eddie has also contributed to regulatory rule changes and led the delivery of key pilots and trials focussed on enabling the successful integration of DER into the ACT distribution network to provide long term customer benefits. Currently Eddie is focussed on investigating energy market innovation in the DER sector and its impact in a traditional electricity distribution businesses.