Hello, and thank you for your interest in our year at Energy Queensland… it’s truly been an amazing one!

That’s why I’m so pleased to showcase - just a handful of Energy Queensland’s highlights from our 2022 to 2023 financial year.

A major transformation is underway in the energy sector; with our businesses having to manage both the speed and sheer degree of change.

Gone are the days of a single-direction flow of electricity from powerlines into homes and businesses.

Now, it’s two-way, with 800,000 solar energy systems feeding energy into the grid - and a growing presence of electric vehicles, batteries and other products.

Our successful utility-scaled battery trial is already leading the way.

Five network-connected batteries commissioned during the year, now provide 40MWh of energy storage across the state - in areas where rooftop solar penetration is high.

Stage two, detailed in the annual report, is now underway.

This investment is about storing the solar energy created locally, during the day, for use locally during the evening peak, when demand is high, to help manage reliability across the network.

Change is also impacting the wholesale energy market and electricity retailing .

Over the past year, customers were supported through bill relief, retail tariff reforms, and the roll out of digital meters, as well as the introduction of new measures to support customers affected by family violence and financial hardship.

Demonstrating our commitment to delivering outstanding local service, this year Ergon Retail also opened a new contact centre in Mackay, adding to our two existing centres in regional Queensland.

In support of the electrification of transport, our non-regulated business, Yurika is leveraging its experience, rolling out the Queensland Electric Super Highway, with a landmark partnership with Ampol commencing this year - to install 34 electric vehicle fast chargers across Australia.

It’s just one of many success stories highlighted in this report where Yurika is connecting its customers to a sustainable energy future.

We’re growing our diverse workforce, with hundreds of new employees joining us during the year, including 153 apprentices.

We’re also investing in the development of our people, organisation-wide.

In addition, in June this year, we announced the recipients of 100 new $20,000 engineering scholarships.

It’s all part of a commitment to training the workforce of the future .

Of course, underpinning everything we do at Energy Queensland is safety.

One of our greatest achievements over the past year has been in our workplace safety .

By maintaining continuous learning, targeting key safety areas, with critical controls for high-risk hazards, we’ve recorded an outstanding reduction in significant workplace safety incidents by 31%.

We’ve also continued to invest in network renewal, as part of an ongoing, vital, safety-driven, reliability response to an elevated rate of pole, cross arm and conductor defects.

These highlights are all part of our commitment to working collaboratively to deliver Queensland’s transition to renewable energy and delivering on our ‘electric life’ ambition.

The decisions we make now, and the technologies we enable, I am sure, will deliver clean, sustainable and affordable energy for generations to come.