December 2023 - The Energy Charter

Community of Practice – Engagement that informs strategy and customer pricing

A transformational journey toward best practice customer and community engagement

Discover the expert-led discussions as part of the ‘Know your Customers + Communities’ Community of Practice’ that covers a range of engagement topics specific to the energy and water sectors. These sessions focus on insight sharing and building capability to better engage with customers and communities and ensure the ‘customer voice’ can be heard across all levels within businesses.

In December, we heard from Kellie King, General Manager Community & Corporate Services at Wannon Water about their transformational journey, starting in 2017, toward better practice customer and community engagement, in pursuit of becoming a truly customer centric organisation.

In 2023, Wannon Water won the IAP2 Core Values Organisation of the year for Australasia, and also took out the IAP2 Core Values Organisation of the year Internationally!

Wannon Water began by developing their own definition of community engagement and a new Community Engagement Framework and ‘toolkit’. Built on a commitment to best practice from their most senior levels, the framework is based on the IAP2 Core Values.

They delivered framework training across their organisation and designed a new “Wannon Water Engagement Cycle” (WWEC), a comprehensive annual program that informs their yearly strategic plan and provides iterative input to setting our five-yearly customer pricing.

Watch Kellie discuss Wannon Water's engagement journey

Engaging Wannon Water PowerPoint

Check out Kellie’s PowerPoint from the session to refer back to resources and access in future.

Introducing Kellie King, General Manager Community and Corporate Services at Wannon Water

“My purpose is to facilitate great outcomes for people and their communities. I am a values driven, people-centred, leader and executive. My focus is on partnership, engagement, relationships, wellbeing, integrity, and ethics.

My background includes working within local and state governments, not-for-profit organisations, small business, government business enterprise and running my own consultancy business.

Past roles have spanned the education, health, community, and water sectors in metropolitan and regional areas in Victoria, Australia. I’m grateful to be a graduate of Leadership Victoria’s Williamson Community Leadership Program, JMW’s Leader of the Future Program, the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) course and hold accreditation as a Partnership Broker with the Partnership Brokers Association (PBA).”

About the Know your Customers + Communities events

This event is part of the Energy Charter’s ‘Know your Customers + Communities’ Community of Practice. This Community of Practice is a collaboration between the Energy Charter and Water Services Association of Australia under our Collaboration Memo of Understanding (MoU).

Charting a Better Energy Future

Charting a better future is always an iterative process. Every year since 2019, I have seen the Energy Charter grow its reach and impact through our #BetterTogether initiatives and stay nimble in aligning to customer and community expectations in an energy system that’s rapidly transforming.

I’m proud to share the Energy Charter Disclosure 2022-23. Its purpose is two-fold: to provide an overview of the collective progress we have made over the past year across #BetterTogether initiatives and through our Accountability Process, and to inform where we focus our efforts in the future.

In our Disclosure, there’s a summary of our 12 #BetterTogether initiatives and their outcomes, our observations on the collective maturity self-assessments and a summary view of themes across all Signatory Disclosures. Overall, the maturity of Signatories has continued to trend in the right direction, however at a pace that reflects the growing complexity of the cost-of-living and transition challenges for our customers and communities.

Looking to the future, it’s clear we must stay the course with our #BetterTogether initiatives and Communities of Practice to address growing cost-of-living pressures and social licence challenges.

There is always more we can do…..

Sabiene Heindl
Executive Director
The Energy Charter

Our collaborative highlights

Our outgoing CEO Council Chair 2023, Guy Chalkley, CEO Endeavour Energy proudly shared some key highlights that we have delivered for customers and communities, including:

Welcomed SA Power Networks and AusNet Services as Full Signatories and Marinus Link and Energy Estate as #BetterTogether Collaborators.
In May, released our Better Practice Social Licence Guideline in collaboration with the agricultural sector.
In June, launched the Knock to Stay Connected Customer Code, a nationally consistent, customer-led approach aimed at keeping customers connected to their energy.
In July, unveiled the “Keep the money. It’s yours” National Concessions Awareness + Engagement Campaign with close to 20 community bodies, targeting the 60% of Australians who are not accessing energy concessions they’re entitled to.

Guy Chalkley
CEO Council Chair 2023
CEO Endeavour Energy

Celebrating our key achievements with Energy Charter Signatory CEOs

On 6 December 2023, we celebrated our collective achievements for customers and communities at our CEO Forum: Charting a Better Energy future.

“There’s such a willingness to share and finding better ways of doing things” – Stephanie Unwin on our unique CEO-led collaboration.

“The #BetterPractice Social Licence Guideline is a bible” – Sean Mc Goldrick on the importance of working together on the issues that matter.

We were thrilled to hear from a panel of Energy Charter Signatory CEOs from across the nation to celebrate our collaboration highlights, including:

Guy Chalkley, CEO Council Chair and CEO Endeavour Energy (NSW)
Andrew Bills, CEO Council Deputy Chair and CEO SA Power Networks
Stephanie Unwin, CEO Horizon Power
Louisa Kinnear, CEO Jacana Energy
John Cleland, CEO Essential Energy
Seán Mc Goldrick, CEO TasNetworks
Mark Brownfield, CCO EnergyAustralia
Sabiene Heindl, ED Energy Charter

And last, but certainly not least, a massive thank you!

Thank you to our Independent Chairs and Administrator, End-User Consultative Group and Consumer + Community Outcome Group members together with the Energy Charter Signatories for your continued support and active participation.

By working #BetterTogether and leading the way, we can continue to put customers and communities at the centre of our business and the energy system. We can chart a better future for us all, together.

Accountability Disclosure