2026 Agenda

Specifically for engineers and technical specialists responsible for the installation, commissioning and ongoing maintenance of Battery Energy Storage Systems, this masterclass is designed to address the practical challenges of operating BESS assets in the Australian market. It is suited to BESS engineers working at utility-scale or large commercial installations who need to move beyond vendor manuals and understand how batteries actually perform in the field — under regulatory pressure, extreme conditions and evolving grid requirements. If you are grappling with degradation, safety obligations, inverter complexity or changing performance expectations, this masterclass is for you.

Upon completion of the masterclass, attendees will:

• Understand the key drivers of battery degradation and how operational decisions impact asset life and project economics
• Be able to operate and maintain BESS safely under Australian environmental, safety and regulatory conditions
• Gain practical insight into managing fire risk, safety standards and compliance obligations for high-density deployments
• Develop confidence in meeting new technical expectations, including PFR, FCAS and grid-forming inverter requirements
  
  

Outline:

08:30 Registration and coffee

09:00 Managing battery degradation and lifetime performance

• Understanding degradation mechanisms to protect capacity, availability and revenue
• Designing operating envelopes and cycling strategies to extend asset life
• Using data, diagnostics and warranties to align maintenance decisions with project economics
  
  

10:30 Morning tea

11:00 Operating utility-scale BESS under real-world conditions

• Managing thermal, environmental and load stress to maintain performance in extreme heat, dust and humidity
• Commissioning and maintaining systems to avoid latent faults and early-life failures
• Integrating operational lessons from Australian utility-scale deployments to reduce downtime
  
  

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Designing for safety in high-density BESS deployments

• Identifying fire, thermal runaway and propagation risks to protect people and assets
• Implementing detection, suppression and emergency response strategies that work in practice
• Translating incident learnings into installation, maintenance and operational procedures
  
  

15:00 Afternoon tea

15:30 Meeting new technical and regulatory expectations

• Adapting inverter, control and protection systems to meet PFR, FCAS and grid-forming requirements
• Navigating safety standards, performance obligations and registration pathways with confidence
• Preparing for national harmonisation of fire safety rules and grid-forming inverter standards to future-proof assets
  
  

17:00 Concludes

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
This masterclass qualifies as Type II CPD under Engineers Australia’s CPD framework.
Delegates may claim the full number of hours attended as CPD so please retain the program and any other relevant information for your personal CPD log.

• Examining what decades of transformer, cable, and machine failure investigations tell us about hidden ageing mechanisms
• Clarifying how voltage fluctuations accelerate thermal, dielectric and mechanical stress in legacy fleets
• Demonstrating how modern modelling, advanced diagnostics and predictive asset strategies are reshaping engineering decisions and improving asset risk visibility

• How is rising system instability, short-circuit variability, and harmonic distortion changing the way HV assets experience stress, and what emerging risks are engineers now observing in the field?
• How are utilities rethinking their protection philosophies, cooling approaches, and loading strategies to cope with today’s more dynamic and less predictable grid conditions?
• How can the integration of cross-functional data detect issues earlier and prevent major failures?
• Which investments should be priortised to maintain system reliability, strengthen asset resilience, and support a high-electrification network?

• Identifying developing end-winding defects by combining online vibration and partial discharge monitoring, enabling earlier detection of abnormal mechanical behaviour
• Improving diagnostic confidence through multi-parameter analysis of vibration, PD, load and temperature data, allowing engineers to locate faults and prioritise intervention decisions
• Maintaining safe operation through automated alarms and condition-informed operating strategies, reducing risk while enabling controlled operation until planned outage inspection

• Reducing the consequences of internal transformer faults by deploying ultra-fast mechanical protection systems to  limit tank  rupture and collateral damage
• Improving transformer safety outcomes by integrating last-line protection devices into HV substations and generation sites, strengthening defence-in-depth strategies alongside conventional protection and monitoring schemes
• Supporting safer asset operations through close collaboration between asset owners, OEMs and protection specialists, ensuring transformer protection solutions are correctly specified, installed and aligned

• Diagnosing rotor bar fatigue, cooling degradation, and vibration signatures under variable loading to improve failure prediction and extend machine lifespan
• Recalibrating ageing models for modern operational patterns to enhance accuracy in optimising maintenance planning
• Analysing a generator cooling failure through real diagnostic pathways to strengthen engineering decision-making and prevent repeat incidents

• Why 'critical spares optimisation' projects often go wrong
• Handling the challenge of third-party maintenance contracts
• Aligning diverse stakeholders and overcoming organisational silos: towards unified asset management

• Applying robust electrical design standards and risk assessment frameworks to strengthen asset outcomes and reduce failure exposure across power, water and industrial infrastructure
• Delivering complex capital works through disciplined lifecycle engineering and specification control to prevent safety, quality and operability issues from emerging post-handover
• Aligning engineering intent, project delivery and operational needs through collaborative technical leadership to improve reliability and defensibility in high-consequence environments

Roundtables are informal 30 min discussions, each facilitated by a leader who will introduce the topic before inviting delegates to join the conversation. Delegates can attend three sessions of their choice from the following:   

15:30    Discussion 1  

16:00    Discussion 2  

16:30    Discussion 3  

• Triaging HV failures using multi-evidence diagnostic pathways
• Reconstructing failure sequences from partial data sets
• Avoiding common analytical traps during time-critical investigations
• Lessons from a major substation or network event where early assumptions proved wrong

• Demonstrating how condition-based maintenance replaces time-based servicing through continuous asset data and trend analysis, enabling earlier intervention and reduced unexpected failures
• Justifying 24/7 online monitoring for remote and high-cost Australian operations, lowering labour deployment requirements while improving visibility of emerging asset risk
• Reducing operational uncertainty by continuously tracking asset condition and performance trends, preventing missed warning signs and strengthening maintenance decision confidence

This in-depth technical workshop examines the engineering, testing and reliability considerations involved in rewinding a 9375 kVA, 11 kV generator stator from Global VPI (GVPI) insulation to a resin-rich system. Using a real project as the foundation, the session explores how insulation philosophy, mechanical constraints and diagnostic findings influence long-term machine performance. Participants will walk through the technical decisions required to redesign an existing stator, validate insulation suitability, address hidden machine defects and establish monitoring strategies that protect reliability over the next operating lifecycle.  

• Comparing GVPI and resin-rich insulation systems, understanding differences in dielectric behaviour, thermal performance, mechanical robustness and lifecycle risk
• Analysing conductor configuration, insulation build, slot geometry and mechanical tolerances to ensure rewind compatibility and long-term winding integrity
• Qualifying insulation performance through a comprehensive electrical and mechanical test program, including acceptance criteria and reliability validation methods
• Detecting and rectifying rotor inter-turn faults while establishing condition monitoring strategies that safeguard the new winding and support reliable operation for the next two decades

• Applying sensors, analytics, and automation in distribution and transmission environments to detect faults earlier and enhance network safety
• Integrating detection systems with protection, SCADA, and cloud-based intelligence, to enable faster and more coordinated response to line failures
• Extracting lessons learned from utility pilots and deployments to refine implementation strategies and improve insights into real-world performance

• How do you approach prioritising investment when budgets are tight, but asset risks are rising?
• In what ways can greater transparency and better-quality data help leaders secure funding, build organisational alignment and justify long-term asset strategies?
• What engineering capabilities do you believe organisations must develop now to prepare their teams for a digital sustainable future?
• Looking ahead, what leadership decisions will matter most in building resilient assets that can withstand growing operational and environmental pressures?

• Understanding the compound effect of thermal cycling, moisture ingress, and partial discharge stress to more accurately diagnose degradation drivers and prevent premature cable failure
• Spotlighting how advanced modelling extended a critical feeder circuit to demonstrate predictive engineering’s ROI
• Clarifying condition-based cable risk profiling to give asset managers a practical template for prioritising interventions 

• Aligning OEM fire protection design with Australian regulatory and approval requirements
• Delivering a bankable Fire Safety Study covering hazard analysis, thermal runaway risk, and fire water demand
• Developing a practical Emergency Management Plan that satisfies regulators, insurers, and asset owners

• How contractual risk can become the dominating factor in risk equations, particular around handover requirements
• The lead time between start of works (the replacement) and when decisions need to be made
• The challenges of explaining technical reasoning to non-technical people

• Communicating the known unknowns, missing drawings, areas unable to be accessed and changes in standards over time
• Preparing for unexpected unknowns, what to do when they appear mid project
• Case study: unexpected unknowns encountered - what worked (and what didn't!)
• Ensuring that all rural projects’ risk assessments cover cows

• Identifying the critical capability gaps across asset management, reliability engineering and control systems to prepare teams for more complex, data-rich operational environments
• Embedding practical data interpretation and condition-based decision making into day-to-day maintenance and lifecycle planning to reduce failure risk and improve long-term asset performance
• Designing an operating model that links engineering, operations and maintenance through consistent frameworks, governance and digital workflows to deliver safer, more reliable infrastructure outcomes