Recap: TJ Effeney Award 2025 Scholars at CIGRÉ in Adelaide

The TJ Effeney Award 2025 gave a group of 15 outstanding undergraduate and post graduate students from around Australia the chance to immerse themselves in the leading edge of power systems knowledge at the CIGRÉ Australia Conference in Adelaide this September. 

This award, named in honor of the late Terry (TJ) Effeney, a respected leader and innovator in Australia’s power sector, is designed to recognise and support undergraduate engineering students who show both academic strength and a passion for contributing to the future of the energy industry. 

Read the 2025 Report now:

Visits to API Members  

As a part of the TJ Effeney Award we were lucky enough to be able to visit the Network Innovation Centre run by South Australia Power Networks (SAPN) and the SA Control Room and Substation at the Corporate Headquarters for ElectraNet.

The API would like to thank the following for facilitating and presenting at these sight tours. From SA Power networks: Eleanor Ostrenga, Vitor Klein and Adam Cameron. From ElectraNet: Lara Falting, Laura Yazbek and Brad Jones. 

Networking Opportunities 

Built into the TJ Effeney trip were 2 incredible opportunities for our awardees to network and meet with other like-minded young people in the Power Sector. On the 1^st of September our awardees met with the API board and on Tuesday the 2^nd of September we were lucky to be a part of CIGRE’s Next Generation Network (NGN) networking event. The API would like to thank Adrian Lloyd from NGN for making the networking event an amazing event. 

A Deep Dive into the Future of Power Systems 

Held from 2-4 September 2025, the conference theme of “Shaping the Power Systems of Tomorrow” gave our scholars the opportunity to hear directly from technical experts, industry executives, and international thought leaders. Across the three days, students attended: 

• SEAPAC 25 – Protection, automation and control sessions highlighting the resilience and reliability challenges of modern networks. 

• CIDER 25 – Sessions on integrating distributed energy resources (DERs), with strong focus on renewable generation 

Finally, the API would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the CIGRE board  the CIGRE CEO Peter McIntyre, for making TJ Effeney Award 2025 such a memorable experience for our awardees.