Turning intent into action: Delivery of energy infrastructure requires people, organisational capability and cohesion

Australia’s energy sector is under pressure. It’s a potent mix of renewable energy developers working through regulatory and financial challenges, steady-state and new operators facing large-scale, capital-intensive program and project delivery, and electricity and gas generators addressing ageing portfolios and price volatility. Increasingly, organisations straddle multiple parts of the energy sector, navigating against a backdrop of global geopolitical and economic pressures. 

This is not simply the next wave of projects. It is a structural shift in how Australia's energy sector functions, which is really timely in the current climate.

The Australian Energy Market Operator estimates nearly 6,000 km of new transmission lines will be needed by 2050, including more than 4,500 km this decade to connect renewable energy zones and maintain reliability. At the same time, Australia’s renewable sector is rapidly expanding, with around 80 utility-scale projects underway or launching, representing more than 13 GW of new wind, solar and storage capacity. And there is another whole tranche of early-stage ideas sitting on global investor drawing boards, tracking the Australian opportunity. 

Working alongside energy infrastructure developers, Aurecon is seeing firsthand the challenge of activation and implementation. Australia’s energy transition is being driven by technically complex plans, but these are ineffective without the people, organisational capability, and cohesion to new strategic direction, particularly with projects that are significantly larger or more complex than ever built before. 

With this rapid scaling, often involving a step change in organisational size, comes a need to reshape operating models and structures – redefining governance, systems, processes, culture and behaviours. Four ways to move from intent to action for delivery of energy infrastructure:

1. Shape cohesion, camaraderie and culture early

All organisations understand delivery risk; fewer consider culture risk. Yet in complex energy infrastructure delivery, projects are often delivered by ecosystems of partners – each bringing their own culture. 

For a project, there is value in framing the partnership culture early, as trust, transparency and ways of working take time to align. This is also increasingly visible to investors. Early choices about how project partnerships are formed, how roles are defined, and how trust is built, may be seen as indicators of the overall health of a project. When partnerships do the heavy lifting up front to align ways of working and build trust across parties, it signals a level of maturity and can reduce perceived delivery risk.

This is equally important when reshaping an established entity overseeing the delivery of significant projects; any new or pivoted strategic priority often requires a cultural shift. This is powered by embedding new leadership and governance models and driving programs that are explicit about expected values and behaviours. It’s obvious when these factors don’t exist, but when they do, high-performing teams get activated and evolve. They understand what they're trying to achieve, how they continue to build trust and transparency, and how they show up for each other when things get difficult.

2. Understand people capacity constraints to flex and scale

By shaping culture early, and mapping out program and project demand profiles, organisations and partnerships can pinpoint potential shortages and target skills gaps. 

For instance, the Australian Energy Council estimates that by 2030, Australia will need an additional 85,000 workers to support the construction, operation and maintenance of renewable energy infrastructure. Jobs and Skills Australia have also highlighted the structural shift in employment opportunities for technical, professional and construction resources with predicted growth of between 12 per cent and 18 per cent by 2035.

Program and project workforce planning is needed to respond to capacity constraints across the lifecycle for a strong and adaptable talent pipeline. It provides the foundation for targeted, multi-faceted strategies that allow organisations and partnerships to move decisively when they need to ‘build, buy, borrow and bind’ human resources. It supports multiple business unit, organisation and partner collaborations and informs long-term investment profiling and decision-making.

3. Intentionally invest in capability at the right time

By building a predictable rhythm of connection and collaboration across lifecycles, teams can build knowledge and close gaps together.   

A flexible workforce, enabling growth, rewarding the right behaviours, and planning for critical roles are fundamental to effective people and culture strategies. In this environment, capability needs to be considered as a strategic investment, with careful thought given to both timing and leverage. Investing too late may lead to productivity loss or project delays, while bringing in technical skills too early, without clear alignment, may place unnecessary burdens on constrained budgets. 

Organisations that intentionally build and leverage capability at the right time and location are better positioned to balance cost, performance, flexibility and scalability across project phases. This can sometimes feel out of reach. So, a clear charter, vision, purpose and structure directs the energy of individuals towards a common goal, while empowering leaders and individuals to adopt a learning mindset to celebrate regular opportunities for reflection and correction in-line with the program or project lifecycle. 

4. Identify people who can translate and connect interdependencies 

Organisations delivering the energy transition are building infrastructure that underpins energy security for decades to come. Early-stage decisions around structure, governance, culture and key processes are increasingly linked to productivity outcomes, and must be made while navigating evolving regulatory frameworks and diverse community and stakeholder expectations. In this environment, having key people who understand and translate these interdependencies is increasingly critical.

While partnerships are being formed at pace, it’s important that these ‘connectors’ are dispersed across business units and teams to help bridge knowledge gaps, understand key interconnected risks, and innovate in ways that deliver value to more than one stakeholder at a time.

The energy sector is still maturing in how new partnerships and collaborations align to deliver key milestones, operating as unified organisational or team cultures. While standards such as ISO 44001:2017 provide a strong foundation for collaborative business relationships, the partnerships that stand out are those that establish clear structure, governance, role clarity and shared behaviours from the outset, to be leveraged across long-term delivery.

Organisations taking an intentional approach across these four areas are more likely to activate delivery at pace, strengthen investor confidence and build enduring stakeholder relationships. In doing so, enabling organisations and teams to deliver energy infrastructure with clarity, resilience and impact.