Nicky Ison is a Senior Research Consultant at the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF). She is an expert in the field of community energy, specialising in energy policy and governance, energy options assessment and community owned renewable energy. She has extensively researched community energy projects, including undertaking two research projects examining both the technical and governance aspects of community energy projects – The Governance of Community Energy Projects in the UK and Overcoming Technical Knowledge Barriers to Community Energy Projects in Australia. During 2010, Nicky undertook a self-funded study tour of 30 community energy projects and organisations across Europe.
While at ISF Nicky has developed a detailed understanding of the working of the National Electricity Market. She was the lead author on the recent National Electricity Market Report Card for the Total Environment Centre and contributed to the Decentralised Energy Roadmap under the CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship.
Nicky is highly proficient in stakeholder engagement including workshop design and facilitation, and soft systems methodology and systemic inquiry. She has designed and run workshops and training for a range of ISF projects, the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, and numerous community organisations across Australia and the UK.
In addition to working at ISF, Nicky is Director and founder of the Community Power Agency. Nicky was previously the National Convenor for the Australian Student Environment Network and gained five years’ experience in the student and community climate sector as an advocate, facilitator and organiser.
