Clean Energy Regulator named as a finalist in prestigious IT awards

The Clean Energy Regulator has been announced as a finalist in the itnews Benchmark Awards 2022.

 The federal government agency, responsible for emissions reduction and carbon abatement, was nominated in the “Best Federal Government Project” category.

 That project is delivering an ambitious program that aims to digitally transform the Clean Energy Regulator and to revolutionise the way it operates and delivers government services.

The itnews Benchmark Awards 2022 recognise Australia's leading IT projects for their ambition, innovation and the value they deliver to government, industry and the public.

Past winners include Service NSW, Boost Juice, Melbourne Water and the Commonwealth Bank. The awards 2022 winners in each of 12 categories and an overall “project of the year” will be announced at a gala dinner at the Barangaroo offices of major sponsor, KPMG, on June 15.

The aim of the Regulator’s digital transformation project has been to adapt to the evolving renewable energy sector and to enhance the nation’s ability to reduce emissions and improve carbon abatement.

The program is being delivered through “three lenses”: performance and culture; cloud enablement for productivity and growth; and technological innovation. Planning began in 2019 and the first two stages were delivered with the third stage beginning through 2020-21.

 Performance and culture focused on new ways of working. The first transformation was to introduce an Agile approach to deliver organisational value through technology with business leaders at the forefront of strategic delivery.

 The Regulator then sought to modernise its digital foundations through cloud enablement. In 2020 the agency completed a 9-month cloud transition project. The project saw datacentre compute shift to a mix of Microsoft Azure Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service, as well as Microsoft365 services including SharePoint Online and Dynamics. These changes proved to be instrumental during COVID-19 in enabling a change in the work culture of the agency as to how, where, and when people work.

 The agency is now in the technological innovation stage and building “eCarbon”; a “multi-channel carbon market engagement hub” that will deliver a single point of contact for government, sector participants, industry, and community.

Chair of the Clean Energy Regulator, David Parker, said the agency had earlier realised that its future success lay in its ability to fully embrace a digital environment.

“As a relatively small government agency we have fostered a culture where we constantly strive to create and deliver solutions that help us to work more efficiently and effectively,” he said.

“These solutions need to not only meet our needs, but those of our broader stakeholders – and all within the constraints of a budget environment where we must constantly deliver value-for-money to the taxpayer.”

Mr Parker commended Chief Information Officer, Steven Stolk, for his stewardship of the digital transformation project and the commitment of his team and external partners in delivering it.

“Our Digital Services Branch (IT) took on a mammoth task that was characterised by continual challenges in a highly complex, technical environment,” he said.

“The delivery has truly been innovative and transformative – and it has certainly been instrumental in us being able to maintain and even exceed our productivity goals during extended periods of working from home,” he said.

 Mr Parker said the last stage, the delivery of the eCarbon environment would be a further gamechanger that would benefit the agency’s external stakeholders, particularly as its next significant innovation, the Australian Carbon Exchange, takes shape.