By Lisa Maro, Industry Adviser (Renewables & Transport)
Australia’s renewable energy build is accelerating, but there’s a danger that local suppliers are still looking at a fragmented picture of demand and opportunity. The next frontier for impact is not necessarily just for “more projects”, but smarter coordination of government and private investment so that industry has the confidence to scale, specialise and compete.
From big ambitions to siloed delivery
Victoria’s renewables and transmission pipeline spans more than sixty government‑funded and private projects, from onshore and offshore wind to solar, storage and transmission lines all supported by the Victorian Government. However, many delivery and policy teams still work with limited visibility of how their decisions land across Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers.
Agencies – quite rightly – focus on getting individual projects to market, but the cumulative impact of dozens of tenders, standards, engagement forums and reporting requirements is felt most acutely by smaller local manufacturers, contractors and service providers. Without a whole‑of‑sector supply chain lens, this activity can look like noise rather than a coherent market signal.
Why coordination matters more in Australia
Compared with European markets, Australia’s investment scale is modest, which makes coordination – not competition – critical to building globally competitive capability.
When each project runs its own engagement, prequalification, documentation and social procurement approach, suppliers face duplicated costs and fragmented demand signals that discourage long‑term investment in people, plants and technology.
Our experience has clearly shown that it’s not easy to sequence projects in-market, and this is compounded by the overriding speed to market that’s required for Victoria’s energy transition. That said, when agencies align timing, standards, skills and local content expectations, they create a clearer runway of opportunity that justifies new facilities, new product lines and deeper specialisation. This is especially important in regions like Gippsland, where offshore wind, transmission, storage and supporting infrastructure are all converging on the same local supply base.
ICN Victoria has a deep understanding of the opportunities that exist to generate this alignment and sequencing. While it may feel like a unique moment in time, this level of investment alignment has been successfully executed before, such as in rail and tunnelling projects across Australia, especially in Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales.
ICN Victoria as market intelligence and connector
Across renewables, ICN Victoria is already tracking more than 60 Victorian projects and advising on local content strategies, supply‑chain readiness and Local Jobs First reporting. Agencies and project owners increasingly rely on ICN Victoria’s data, sector insights to understand downstream capability and quantify local participation beyond the immediate Tier 1s.
This vantage point gives ICN Victoria a unique, system‑wide line of sight: where projects overlap, where specific capabilities are emerging, and where there are looming gaps in skills, manufacturing capacity or regional infrastructure. It also provides a practical feedback loop from suppliers – particularly Tier 2 and Tier 3 businesses – about what is helping or hindering their ability to participate.
Elevating the conversation: from projects to portfolios
There is now a strong opportunity for ICN Victoria to help agencies shift the discussion from “How do we deliver this project?” to “How do our combined investments build enduring capability and jobs?”. That means constructively challenging siloed practices and encouraging:
- Shared market narratives: common, accessible messages about the pipeline, timing and demand profiles, so suppliers can plan across projects rather than respond in isolation.
- Coordinated engagement: fewer, higher‑value touchpoints, such as focused market updates and regional briefings, that bring multiple proponents and agencies into the same room with local suppliers.
- Aligned expectations: greater consistency in how Local Jobs First, social procurement and reporting are applied. This makes it much easier for suppliers to invest in systems and processes that work across portfolios.
This is not about adding new layers of governance; it is about using existing forums and tools more strategically to unlock collective buying power and send clearer, longer‑term signals to industry.
A call to action for agencies and project owners
For agencies and major proponents, the challenge – and opportunity – is clear. The question is no longer whether Victoria will invest in renewables and transmission, but whether those investments will be coordinated enough to build the scale and certainty local suppliers need to step up.
Practical next steps include:
- Engaging early with ICN Victoria to understand overlapping project timelines, capability hotspots and emerging gaps across portfolios.
- Using ICN Victoria’s tools and insights to harmonise supplier engagement, local content strategies and reporting requirements wherever possible.
- Treating market updates and regional briefings as strategic co‑design opportunities with industry, rather than one‑way information sessions.
If agencies can align around a more coordinated, whole‑of‑portfolio view of investment, Victoria’s renewables transition will not just meet energy and emissions targets, it will anchor a stronger, more competitive local supply chain for decades to come.