The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has been awarded AU$728.1 million (US$459.55m) in the mid-year budget to upgrade its IT systems.

As reported by ITNews, AEMO will use the funding to upgrade its core digital systems over the next five years.

The funding was announced in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook budget update and aims to "enhance energy security and reliability" for AEMO.

According to AEMO's 2024 Annual Results, a priority for 2025 is to "uplift operational digital systems" as well as to continue to improve its cyber security.

DCD has contacted AEMO for more information about its planned IT upgrades.

AEMO is 60 percent government-owned and oversees the retail and wholesale gas markets in south-eastern Australia.

In a 2023 case study from Energy Exemplar, Jerôme Declerck, group manager of Enterprise Application Services at AEMO, was quoted, stating that when he joined the organization, AEMO was still operator from on-premise servers.

In 2018, AEMO presented a technology strategy noting the need for an upgrade to its legacy IT system. The organization opted to use "PLEXOS Cloud," an Energy Exemplar cloud-based solution.

In 2021, AEMO was awarded AU$2.23 million (US$1.41m) to develop a cloud-based connections simulation tool to help it evaluate new grid connections in Australia more efficiently.

Also in the Mid-Year Economic and Financial Outlook budget is AU$7.6 million (US$4.8m), set to be allocated over five years for the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards to update its IT system, AU$600,000 (US$378,920) for Aboriginal Hostels to upgrade its IT systems, and AU$500,000 (US$315,765) over four years from 2024–25 to establish and remunerate members of a new Artificial Intelligence Advisory Body.