During the 1960s Australia was a world leader in setting safety criteria for POCO, power coordination between telecommunication plant and the impacts of the power industry, EPR and LFI. During the 1970s and 1980s the world leaders in earthing where grounding experts based in North America. They developed IEEE Std 80 and IEEE Std 81. Both these documents became the defacto international standards for earthing and grounding. Earthing in Australia at this time was a specialist role within power utilities and the Post Master Generals (PMG) Office.
In the 1990s in Australia earthing became an industry. It started small but grew into an industry unlike anything previously seen in the world. By the start of the 2010’s Australia was leading the world in earthing safety criteria and testing techniques.
This presentation explores what has changed, where we think we are now and where we could go. Society wants to change its power system, but the drivers are not necessarily all pushing in the same direction. Society wants to reduce its dependence on fuel based energy sources increasing renewable dependency. AI is increasing loads at an unprecedented rate but power systems are no quicker to build. The only real certainty is that change will happen.