Helping you drive the energy transition through innovation, local insights and sustainable strategies
Power and utilities
The energy sector faces mounting pressure to deliver secure, affordable, and low-carbon power. But the path forward is complex: grid stability is increasingly threatened by ageing infrastructure and evolving risks including cyber threats and extreme weather, while capital investment must dramatically scale to support modernisation and renewable integration.
How to succeed? Australian power and utility companies must meet diverse customer, business, and community needs within a rapidly shifting regulatory and technological landscape—including embracing AI, digital platforms, and sustainable practices.
The winners will be those who act decisively, innovate relentlessly, and adapt swiftly to this new era.
Key trends impacting power and utilities
Electricity leads the energy shift
The future is built on electricity. More sectors – from transport to heavy industry – are electrifying. Power companies must prepare for skyrocketing demand while maintaining stability. AI and interconnectivity are fuelling growth in data centres for computing and storage, significantly increasing power consumption across Australia and globally. Energy utilities must evolve to support this demand by delivering sophisticated, human-centred services.
Renewables take centre stage
Net zero is impossible without clean energy. Investing in renewables and grid resilience is essential not optional. Leaders are pushing ahead, with initiatives like community batteries and expanded solar and battery programs fostering wider access to clean energy. Utilities are collaborating on new business models to better support community-level energy solutions and drive the energy transition.
Efficiency is everything
Energy demand is rising, and costs remain volatile. Efficiency gains are the fastest, most cost-effective path to reducing emissions and improving profitability. Digital tools enable customers and utilities to optimise usage, manage demand, and reduce waste.
Mega blackouts loom
Ageing grids face increasing pressure from extreme weather, geopolitical risks, and escalating cyber threats. Power outages are a growing risk that demands urgent attention. Utilities must prioritise investments in resilience, cybersecurity frameworks, and smart infrastructure to anticipate and mitigate these threats, ensuring reliable energy delivery.
Grid companies must step up
Companies must lead integration of renewables, modernise infrastructure, and educate consumers about the energy transition. By reinventing business models around human needs and fostering trust through consumer protection and transparent data usage, grid companies can become enablers of a dynamic, decarbonised energy future.
How we can help
- Assurance
- Consulting
- Deals
- Workforce
- Taxation
- Legal
- Infrastructure
Assurance
Providing internal audit, external financial statement audit and risk assurance services, including energy focussed services such as risk and controls optimisation.
Consulting
Helping organisations to work smarter and grow faster by working with clients to build more effective organisations, innovate their business model, reduce costs and manage risk & regulation through energy industry specific consulting expertise and services.
Deals
Working with domestic, outbound and inbound businesses to raise capital and complete acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic alliances. We bring deep industry experience and international networks to help you succeed across the deal lifecycle.
Workforce
People & Organisation Helping clients to realise and discover the potential of their people by providing a single integrated people consulting and solutions service.
Taxation
Combining the skills of financial and tax specialists with those of economists, lawyers and other in-house specialists, we help solve tax problems from the ideas stage through to execution.
Legal
Bringing specialist legal advice and transaction support across the power and utilities sector, including corporate and M&A projects, and project finance.
Infrastructure
Integrated Infrastructure delivers the end-to-end expertise to support your energy or utilities organisations' growth today, and tomorrow. We combine industry experience and insight to drive confidence in infrastructure outcomes.
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Contact us
Kerryl Bradshaw
Partner, Advisory, Energy Utilities & Resources Industry Leader, PwC Australia
Tel: +61 447 203 471
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