The era of digital complexity in Australian energy, utilities and infrastructure

Australia's largest industrial, infrastructure and energy projects rest on complex digital backbones. Hard hats and cranes are giving way to data interoperability, cyber resilience and AI governance.

Yet, traditional risk and procurement models remain heavily focused on financial and physical risks, overlooking the specific vulnerabilities posed by today’s high-tech, interconnected infrastructure.

The era of digital complexity in Australian energy, utilities and infrastructure, written by Clayton Utz in partnership with The Action Exchange, explores the changing nature of procurement and contracting in increasingly digitally-connected infrastructure, energy and utilities projects. It argues that traditional risk and procurement models fall short in Australia’s new era of heightened regulatory demands, governance requirements and sophisticated cyber risks.

This report examines the convergence of these trends through the lens of three overarching complexity drivers - sentience, interoperability and security - to understand how asset owners and operators are grappling with them.

Read the report here.