Lighting it up
Do you love your job? Lara Olsen does. She’s the head of strategy at CitiPower and Powercor, who service 45% of the energy market in the state of Victoria in Australia. I sat down with Lara to hear about why she thinks maths is cool, why diversity in the workplace is so crucial and how one goes about distributing 4.5 million light globes in a day. And you should know, she is a huge babe.
As a child, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be three things. I wanted to be a mathematician, a hairdresser or a rock journalist. I did my internship at a rock magazine and my experience there revealed pretty quickly that I would be best as a mathematician. I always loved science and maths, and for me, I love the power, the simplicity and the beauty of maths. If I look back, I would have done pure maths, but not really knowing how great it was at the time, I decided I wanted to be an engineer instead. So I did Engineering and also Arts, because I love languages. I had a plan to come out of university with a B.A. and a B.E., so I would be an official B.A.B.E! But unfortunately that didn’t happen, so it’s just a B.A for now!
How did you make the transition from applied science to strategy for a power company?
I love the study of engineering because it gives you a way of thinking and the structure to solve problems and for me, those problems didn’t necessarily need to be technical. I was just as interested if they were about how to develop a new market entry strategy, or how to re-organise a system for product delivery. I started interviewing for roles like that because I realised it would be great for me.
My background up until now can be defined as eclectic! I spent seven years at a consulting group, working across a range of different industries and looking at how we could solve key problems for key clients. Then I left and did an energy efficiency start-up when I was 30, and that looked at people’s perceptions of energy provision and what we found was that we could have done energy efficiency strategies on masse, but at that time, people just weren’t ready for it. We were in Europe, where they have targets as part of their carbon markets, particularly in the UK where utilities need to hit energy efficiency goals. This was before energy efficient lightglobes were in households and people said, well we can’t do it to households because it’s too expensive when you look at the logistics of putting them into every household. That was only if you thought you had to invent your own transport system though. If you used someone else’s logistics, then it could be done, and for much cheaper.
So we asked, who delivers to multiple points across the UK every day? In this case it was News International (who publishes the UK’s biggest daily paper, The Sun). We went to them and said, if we give you a gift worth 30 million pounds, which these lightbulbs were, can we use your logistics system for free and can you give us front page coverage? The caveat there was that our lightbulbs had to fit their magazine cases. So we went to GE and told them, we will buy 4.5 million of your light bulbs if you design them in these boxes. Then we went to the power companies and said, we will get you your energy efficiency credits at this lower price, and coverage in the Sun, but you need to buy it like this.
That was the deal, everyone got more than they expected and we were able to achieve a lot in terms of energy efficiency because we weren’t trying to create anything from scratch, we were just thinking about things differently.
What are your general impressions of the energy provision sector?
I really think it is one of the most exciting industries to be in right now. The reason I love energy is because it has the three really interesting components of any problem. One, it has a social component — it really is key to how we live and how our businesses run. Two, it has a technical component — all the different machines that actually get us to the point of having electricity. And of course third, it has an environmental component. For me, it’s the perfect industry because it presents that combination of those three types of problems, and also, it’s undergoing mass change. The decisions we make over the next five to ten years will impact our children, and our children’s children. It’s a joy to be given the chance to solve problems in that type of industry.
How do you see changes to technology and changing consumer demands affecting energy provision?
We’re hearing a lot of talk now about ‘an evolving and adapting grid.’ Where previously, the grid operators might have been seen as the only assets, we are now asking ourselves how we partner with people who want to own their own assets. What does that look like for us, in terms of households that might want, say batteries? How can we partner with them so that they have their batteries for when they need them but can maybe gain some benefit by feeding back into the grid? The exciting part for us is seeing customers choose different electricity options. How do we create a platform for people to be able to get what they want and do this all efficiently? The other thing for us is how we become part of the solution, and not part of the blocking. A lot of people have solar, and they want to feed it back into the grid sometimes. Or perhaps they have storage but don’t want to pay $100,000 to go completely off the grid. It’s all about deciding what mix to have and how we can facilitate that happening.
And technology is moving so quickly, it’s really exciting to be in this space. There has been research by UBS I think, that said that they expected a million batteries in Australia in the next year. We do have a high rate of solar on households now and so I think the next natural step is batteries. So how do we make these ecosystems work? What are different people looking for? What about the people who can’t afford that? How do you make it work for everyone?
What has been your biggest achievement over your career?
I think the UK distribution of 4.5 million light globes in one day was a pretty big win. We did also distribute 23 million in Mexico, of which 95% went to low income households. That was more of a challenge because the systems weren’t as established as they were in the UK. The environmental outcomes from those projects are particularly satisfying for me. If you take it down to a personal level, I also had a fantastic boss at the time, who always told me, “you can do this, you can lead it”. And I don’t know that I had that same confidence in myself. At some level I felt I did have the skills and capabilities, but I perhaps didn’t have the self belief. He backed me so hard that I feel like he allowed me to believe that I could do it, and that changed my whole career. It’s made me see challenges so differently to how I had previously. Later I went on to co-found a smart meter data company which still runs today, so it really changed my outlook on how to do things, and made me realise that the worst thing I could do was actually say I hadn’t tried, rather than that I’d failed.
What kinds of challenges have you faced with this work?
I think for me, not having a traditional background has been a challenge sometimes. There are people who see it is an advantage but many people see it as a risk. I haven’t been in the same company for 15 years — I’ve worked in corporates, government, strategy, I’ve done my own start-ups. For some people, they think that’s a really interesting background and you’ll know how to operate within all of those spheres, but other people think, well you’ll be constantly agitating and you won’t be able to fit in. I think we all have a bias towards our own background, so for some people who maybe have had a similar experience to me, they see it as innovative, but for other people who might have held more traditional roles, they see it as a lack of commitment. But our generation are not loyal to an industry, or sector like some older generations may have been. Sometimes not even to a company. But we are to individuals, so we might follow a good manager around, for example. I think generally, we enjoy working across sectors and taking that bigger, systems-thinking approach will affords flexibility and diversity.
Speaking of systems-thinking, what do you say to people who would argue if you’re not only doing clean energy, you’re doing dirty energy?
I see it as one system. I think it’s important that people providing that clean energy experience work within a more traditional grid system, and from the opposite perspective, we don’t only see ourselves as producing energy from large coal generators, we see it as being part of the solution for what people want in their households. I once had a friend say to me, “I can’t believe you’re going to the dark side”, which really surprised me! I think some people were quite disappointed in my choice and I think other people saw it as a positive move. I see it as a positive step forward that a traditional energy provision company has recognised my skills in renewables and energy efficiency as being valuable to them, and also as a major part of where they are going in the future.
Are there any other people who have inspired you to do this work, or be great at it? People you’ve been really grateful were on your team?
My former boss, who I spoke about earlier, wasn’t just supportive. He also taught me that while you can be primarily focused on the social outcomes of a project, you also have to have the business side, because without it, you are dependent on whether individuals decide to give you funds or not. Another person that comes to mind is my year 12 maths teacher. He taught maths particularly well, and he made it a joy to solve problems and I think he really did set me on the path of wanting to do maths and to do engineering and it really changed my life for the better. Also, my parents bought me Tonka trucks. There was never any expectation that I would go one way or another, they just encouraged me to go to university and do whatever I wanted to do. They taught me to put the hard yards in and they celebrated successes of all kinds.
How important do you think representation of women in senior roles in industry is?
I think it’s critical. There have been a number of times when I’ve looked up, and you can’t see a woman in a particular role, or a role similar to it, and you do start to wonder, could I do it, or does the company think I could do it? And I don’t think it’s just women, it’s diversity in general, so does the company support diversity and is there evidence that diversity is valued? I know from my own team that if you have diverse thinking, you do get better outcomes. So gender is a huge part, as is background..and style! Do you have style? Diversity should be present in all areas! We need women to take those risks and put themselves forward for those positions. Because the worst that can happen is that they say no, but wouldn’t you rather hear no than rule yourself out?
Where do you see the industry in ten years?
I think it will be completely transformed, mainly through partnerships. Partnerships between businesses, between energy companies and householders. I think that shift between who owns what will be fundamentally changed.
If you had one piece of advice for a young person looking to make a difference in this field, what would it be?
Just believe that you can do and keep pushing. And find someone who is always willing to give you that push when you stop being able to do it yourself.
