By 2030 up to 45% of our energy generation is predicted to be behind the meter. Households and businesses are no longer passive energy consumers but are actively producing and storing energy through rooftop solar, batteries and electric vehicles.

At the next meeting of Renew's Melbourne Branch, Ben Bowen will give a fascinating talk about the move towards a more flexible and decentralised energy system that values and rewards the participation of customer-owned distributed energy resources. Ben will cover:

• Why we need flexible grids to cope with decentralised energy supply and a future that must be powered, for the most part, by renewables
• The technology that is required to achieve it, i.e. dynamic connections for distributed energy; what solar can learn from electric vehicles
• Why market-enabling software platforms are playing a vital role in flexible grids
• What is the Decentralised Energy Exchange and how it is allowing electricity networks to better co-ordinate the increasing volume of distributed energy resources in the electricity grid
• How we can unlock additional network capacity for solar and storage by increasing visibility and orchestration of distributed energy across networks
• How customers can be contracted (and rewarded) for participating in grid services to ensure the long-term reliability and sustainability of our energy systems in a low-carbon future.