The next revolution we need is not technological, it's institutional.

During the Australia Mission, a perception solidified with each meeting. Although we were visiting universities, technology companies, investors, and agents in the electricity sector, everyone, from different perspectives, seemed to converge on answering the same question.

I confess that I embarked on my trip to Australia imagining that much of the discussion would focus on expanding renewable energy generation. After all, it's a country facing similar challenges to Brazil, such as integrating intermittent sources and the need to expand its electrical infrastructure. But the focus of the conversations was different.

My impression is that the predominant discussion has shifted from whether renewables will grow to how to operate a highly renewable system. The debate now is about how to manage a system in which millions of consumers also play an active role in operating the grid.

This vision emerged right from the first meetings held at UNSW (University of New South Wales) and CEEM (Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets).

The expansion of distributed generation, residential batteries, and electric vehicles is not only altering the energy matrix, but also changing the very logic of how the electricity sector operates.

The question stayed with me throughout the mission: has Brazil already entered this same discussion, or are we still focused on the challenges of expanding supply?

It is no coincidence that this debate needs to gain relevance precisely when Brazil is beginning to attract investments in data centers, artificial intelligence, low-carbon hydrogen, and industrial electrification. All of these movements will require a much more flexible electrical system than the one we are used to operating with.

For decades, the great challenge for the electricity sector was producing enough energy. Now, the challenge is using it at the right time, in the right place, and in the most efficient way possible.

Instead of viewing consumers merely as recipients of energy produced by power plants, the system now sees them as agents capable of consuming, storing, and even supplying energy back to the grid, according to economic signals. It has become clear that in Australia, the consumer is no longer seen simply as a load. They are now considered a resource of the system.

This perception gained even more strength during the visit to Kraken, the technological platform of the Octopus Energy Group. At one point we heard a simple but extremely powerful phrase: "Flexibility is becoming the new fuel."

The phrase encapsulates a profound paradigm shift. Value is no longer solely in energy production. It also lies in the ability to decide when to consume, when to store, and when to make that energy available to the system. This logic became even more evident in discussions about the evolution of the retail energy market and distributed storage programs.

One example particularly caught my attention. Starting in July 2026, Australian consumers would be incentivized to use, during a approximate period of three hoursEnergy from the grid can be used to charge home batteries at no cost. At first glance, this seems like just a benefit to the consumer. But the rationale behind the measure is much more sophisticated.

The goal is not just to reduce household energy bills. It's to create incentives for consumers to purchase larger batteries than those needed solely to meet their home's consumption. These batteries cease to function merely as household equipment and become integrated into the country's electrical infrastructure, increasing distributed storage capacity and offering greater flexibility to the system during peak demand times.

This was perhaps one of the most interesting ideas of the entire mission. Instead of concentrating all investments in large, centralized assets, the system creates economic incentives for millions of consumers to voluntarily invest in a resource that also benefits the community. It's the use of market signals to transform individual decisions into systemic gains.

This logic reveals an important shift. Instead of responding to new challenges simply with more infrastructure, part of the solution becomes using existing infrastructure much more intelligently.

This perception gained an even more interesting dimension in the conversation with Origin Energy. It became clear there that the home battery is no longer just a piece of equipment installed in the consumer's home. It has become integrated into an intelligent platform that automatically responds to market signals.

Depending on the price of energy, it may be more advantageous to charge the battery during periods of low demand, use that energy throughout the day, or even return it to the grid when needed.

In practice, the battery ceases to be merely a physical asset. It transforms into an economic asset, capable of providing services to the electrical system and generating new revenue streams for its owner.

This logic reappeared in the conversation with CEFC (Clean Energy Finance Corporation). It struck me that a large part of the discussions about financing wasn't solely related to the construction of new power plants. The focus was on creating conditions to increase the flexibility of the electrical system as a whole, supporting technologies, infrastructure, and business models capable of integrating a growing volume of renewable generation.

This perspective helps explain why institutions like CEFC finance not only generation assets, but also solutions that increase the system's flexibility. Investment is no longer evaluated solely by the amount of energy produced, but begins to consider the capacity to make the entire system more efficient.

Perhaps the greatest lesson of the mission was realizing that this transformation is not being driven solely by technology. It is being driven by economic incentives such as proper market design.

The real challenge is no longer technological, but institutional: creating rules, markets, and incentives capable of coordinating millions of individual decisions for the benefit of the entire electrical system.

In different meetings we heard very similar messages. One of them sums up this logic well: "If you get the market signals right, consumers will respond." In other words: "When the economic signals are right, the market itself responds."

This statement deserves deeper reflection. It's not about convincing consumers to install batteries or change their habits out of environmental awareness. It's about creating a regulatory and market environment where the most economically rational decision is precisely to contribute to the balance of the electrical system.

This is perhaps the main difference I've observed compared to the debate we frequently have in Brazil. We still concentrate a good part of our efforts on discussing the expansion of energy supply. Obviously, expanding generation and transmission will continue to be indispensable. But the Australian experience shows that the next leap in competitiveness will also depend on the ability to use this energy in a much more intelligent way.

A low-carbon economy will require not only more clean energy, but also a system capable of using that energy intelligently.

At the end of the mission, I was left with one conviction: the next revolution in the electricity sector will not be determined solely by batteries, artificial intelligence, or electric vehicles. These technologies are already available.

The real difference will lie in the ability to build markets, regulations, and incentives capable of making the system more efficient, resilient, and flexible.

Brazil starts from a privileged position. Our electricity grid is already one of the cleanest in the world. Perhaps precisely for this reason we can make a faster leap in building a more flexible system, provided we can align regulation, economic incentives, and innovation.

Perhaps the big question for Brazil isn't how much the energy transition will cost. Perhaps it's how much it will cost not to build a system prepared for it now.

In the first article of this series, the main reflection was the need for coordination between government, regulators, investors, and companies. After this second stage of the mission, I became convinced that this coordination will also need to reach millions of consumers, transforming them into active participants in the electricity system.

This may be the greatest challenge of the next decade for Brazil. Not because we lack technology—batteries, artificial intelligence, digitalization, and distributed energy resources, for example. The real challenge will be building institutions, markets, and incentives capable of making all of this work in a coordinated way. The revolution we need is not technological. It's institutional.

Check out the first article from "Mission Australia"

From technology to system: Australia's first lesson.

The opinions and information expressed are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position of the author. Canal Solar.