2023 Archives - Page 3 of 4 - The Energy Charter

Resilience Community of Practice – Using new tech to improve customer outcomes

In the Energy Charter’s first-ever Resilience Community of Practice, we heard from Endeavour Energy on how they collaborated with others and used new-tech to deliver better outcomes for flood-affected communities.

In 2022, significant rainfall caused flooding in parts of regional and rural NSW, damaging the electricity network and causing wide-spread power outages.

Endeavour Energy’s digital twin platform processed large amounts of data quickly to enable better, faster and more accurate engineering decisions. It works by using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data captured from helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and vehicles and links it with network data to generate an engineering-grade digital 3D network model.

During the floods, Endeavour Energy used this new technology to simulate the impact of major flooding in the Hawkesbury and Nepean Rivers.

Rather than wait for visual inspections after the floodwaters receded, the digital twin modeled flood impacts to eliminate 300 hours of inspection time and enable a targeted response to the customers that needed assistance the most.

Endeavour Energy is the first electricity network in Australia to deploy an engineering grade digital twin to combat the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.

Better communication and customer experience

The modelling provided by the digital twin enabled the business to know where customers were likely to be impacted by flooding ahead of time, so targeted communication could promote safety and preparedness.
Social media was strategically focused to ensure widespread communication across impacted communities. The community responded, appreciating real-time news and two-way engagement
Digital communication was supported by teams on the ground, including community liaison officers at dedicated storm centers. With the help of the modelling data, these teams were able to provide real-time and accurate communication, including on road closures and likely restoration times
Informed on-ground teams and real-time information on digital channels enabled a community network to share reliable information with each other. Those that could access digital resources helped by printing and sharing information with others.

Session resources

Explore Endevour Energy’s response to the 2022 floods in NSW, including how they used digital-twin technology to reduce inspection time, improve safety, support real-time communication, and target their response to the customers that needed assistance the most.

Improving the customer experience in the face of climate change impacts using digital twins also extends to managing bushfire impacts.

Energy Charter Signatories, Collaborators and Supporters can access the full session recording via The Source to learn more.

About this event

This event is part of the Energy Charter’s Resilience Community of Practice dedicated to helping customers and communities better prepare, respond and recover from disaster events.

Every second month, the Energy Charter host a Community of Practice, including expert-led discussions building on the topics covered in the Energy Charter’s Disaster Response Playbook:

Communication and Education – where do communities get information, how is it delivered and who needs to know? This includes sharing learnings on successful communication and education campaigns as an essential aspect of disaster preparedness, response and recovery.
Coordination and Collaboration – what are the opportunities to better work together across the energy sector and within the broader eco-system? This includes better practice case studies on successful collaboration.
Planning and Preparedness – what is our role in building community and individual capacity to plan and prepare for a disaster? This includes opportunities to build resilience ownership and literacy within communities, so they can better respond in a disaster.
Learning loops – It’s essential to share back to enable continuous improvement. This includes sharing insights from recent disaster events and building a resilience learning library.

Learn more on the dedicated Resileince Community of Practice page here.

#BT Resilience

June 2023 News Update

In this June 2023 News Update, CEO Council Chair, Guy Chalkley highlights the upcoming launch of the Knock to Stay Connected Customer Code, the roll out of National Concessions Awareness and Engagement Campaign in partnership and much more.

CEO Council Chair

Unlocking Better Practice in Social Licence

What does social licence look like in practice?

Love it or loath it, the term ‘social licence’ is being discussed in the board rooms of energy businesses across Australia. It’s also a hot topic on the lips of government, energy regulators and industry bodies as ‘once in generation’ transmission development projects progress across our regions.

For many, the question being asked is simple: what does co-existence and shared value for transmission and agricultural landholders look like in practice?

Through the Energy Charter – a unique coalition of like-minded energy organisations with a shared purpose and passion for customers and communities – transmission businesses Transgrid, Powerlink Queensland, TasNetworks, AusNet and ElectraNet have collaborated with the agricultural sector to answer this question.

Energy Charter Executive Director, Sabiene Heindl and Director Innovation, Amy Abraham who led the collaboration, offer their insights on unlocking better practice in social licence.

What we heard

Working closely with a Community Outcomes Group (COG) of landholder and community representatives, and research partner KPMG Australia, the Energy Charter’s social licence research included a survey and deep-dive interviews with agricultural landholders across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, who all shared their experiences of how transmission infrastructure has, or is expected to, impact them.

Significantly, the research validated 33 individual impacts, with visual impacts, financial loss and biosecurity risks most significantly felt by landholders. In particular:

58 percent of surveyed landholders said that transmission infrastructure will result in a direct loss of farmable land or disruption to their land productivity.
60 percent also believe that transmission infrastructure will impact their use of machinery or equipment.

Overall, landholders also expressed disappointment and frustration with the quality of engagement they had participated in.

However, it’s not all bad news. From this important insight work, the Energy Charter’s Better Practice Social Licence Guideline was born.

By validating impacts and identifying opportunities to improve outcomes for agricultural landholders, the Better Practice Guideline will support transmission businesses to better understand and act on, the factors that contribute to building trust and maintaining social licence with agricultural landholders and their communities.

The evidence-based Better Practice Guideline reflects a genuine and shared commitment from industry collaborators to ensure that the lived experiences of agricultural landholders remain front and centre in informing the industries’ collective understanding of both impact and opportunity.

The Better Practice Guideline provides a checklist of practical actions and activities required to minimise impact and meet landholders’ expectations, along with a range of better practice opportunities, detailing the actions and activities transmission businesses should look to progress, align to and build on, to deliver shared value and build social licence.

In many cases, these actions align to the existing commitments or aspirations of the transmission businesses involved, with the ‘lighthouse’ examples featured showcasing where innovative practice is already underway to better manage impact and provide benefit to landholders and their communities.

The social licence connection

The Better Practice Guideline were developed through the frame of social licence.

By applying a social licence lens, we were able see how individual impacts, actions and relationships add up and affect the building of trust and acceptance.

Importantly, through this unique collaboration we were also able to bring consistency to the energy industry’s understanding of how social licence is built and maintained.

The concept of a social licence to operate emerged in the late 1990s, as affected communities and governments required the mining industry to increase its focus on social obligations and corporate social responsibility programs. It is now considered a key condition for many other industries, including in the energy sector.

The Better Practice Social Licence Guideline defines social licence to operate as a concept that reflects community acceptance or approval around the operations of an organisation and its developments. Community acceptance comes from prioritising trust, delivering overall positive impact and is granted and denied by the community in line with their social, political and economic conditions. However, establishing social licence to operate is not simple due to it being based on the diverse values, interests and concerns that contribute to community expectations and as such requires the consideration of relational aspects between the industry and communities, industry affects, community understanding and confidence in a particular project.

Informed by research and discussions with landholders, four key principles have been identified as fundamental to transmission businesses building and maintaining social licence with affected landholders and their communities:

Procedural fairness: giving affected landholders and communities reasonable opportunity to engage with decision making that can, or will, impact their lives and livelihoods
Distributional fairness: considering equity across tangible and intangible outcomes for affected landholders and communities.
Stewardship: acting as stewards of land and communities through the planning and development of transmission infrastructure.
Partnership: working with landholders and their communities in partnership to deliver positive outcomes for people and land.

Key takeaways

As Australia moves rapidly towards our renewable energy future, a growing number of agricultural landholders are being approached to host electricity transmission and other energy infrastructure, on their land.

Energy Charter signatories recognise that these transmission development projects, as well as the maintenance of existing infrastructure, can impact agricultural operations and lives and livelihoods of agricultural landholders. They also understand that they have a responsibility to recognise and minimise these impacts and work towards shared value outcomes for everyone.

In simple terms, this means applying a genuine and consistent commitment to mitigating significant impacts, providing meaningful benefits and meeting the engagement needs of landholders and their communities.

However, social licence exists on a spectrum and is dynamic. It can be weakened and strengthened by the actions of businesses and communities at any point within a project lifecycle. For long, linear transmission projects that can run for hundreds of kilometres, impacting on dozens, if not hundreds of unique communities, acceptance, understanding, trust and confidence in an organisation and its developments can vary significantly. Social licence lost in one community often influences how the organisation and its developments are viewed in their entirety.

Critically, landholders’ experience of transmission infrastructure developments and their impacts is significantly influenced by the way they are engaged. Landholders strongly believe that transmission businesses need to spend time getting to know the land, the people and their needs to facilitate better outcomes for all parties.

It’s also critical to acknowledge transmission investigations, construction and maintenance activities can have serious impacts on land condition, productivity and livestock if potential disturbances are not proactively and diligently managed.

A final note collaboration

There is absolutely no doubt that transitioning to a low-emissions future needs collaboration with customers and across the energy sector. We must be willing to come together to share knowledge and insight from all sides and, importantly, to proactively co-design customer-led solutions.

At the Energy Charter our role is to encourage the difficult conversations and to amplify the customer and community needs. To bridge the gap between ‘hardto-do’ and ‘can-do’; to go beyond what any one of us could achieve alone. For us, the opportunity is to keep humans at the centre of the design and delivery of energy solutions; to navigate the changing needs of customers and communities as we transform to a cleaner energy future.

The Social Licence Better Practice Guideline is just one example of what can be achieved when businesses come together and work across sectors to unlock better practice. We encourage others to take the lead from this collaboration; to take a whole-of-sector view; to collaborate, innovate and strive for better.

The Better Practice Social Licence Guideline is available here.

#BT

May 2023 News Update

In this May 2023 News Update, CEO Council Chair, Guy Chalkley highlights the upcoming launch of the Better Practice Social Licence Guideline with an impressive panel across the agricultural and energy sectors, the First Nations Community Engagement Toolkit launch which includes insights and conversations to highlight practical ways to better engage First Nations communities, our Concessions campaign and more.

CEO Council Chair

#BetterTogether Blood Drive 2023

What's the Energy Charter #BetterTogether Blood Drive?

Each year, the Energy Charter invites all Signatories, Collaborators and Supporters to participate in the annual Energy Charter Blood Drive, an initiative which unites organisations across Australia to give life by giving blood and plasma.

Australia needs 33,000 donations every week. From 1 February to 30 April 2023, we asked our energy businesses to give blood like life depends on it!

This year’s challenge goal was to make 1,400 donations collectively, which has the power to save around 4,200 lives: 1 blood donation has the power to save 3 lives.

How’d we do against our shared goal?

While we didn’t make it to 1,400, together we made a very solid contribution to the blood bank with 1,313 donations made. This equates to 3,846 lives saved.  

Every donation, from every team is valued – not only from Lifeblood, but by the many recipients and their loved ones who are impacted by serious health conditions.

The 2023 Blood Drive leader board

For a full list of all donations, please visit  Lifeblood challenges.

While we don’t mind a bit of friendly competition; at its core the blood drive is really just another way we can come together around a community need, and each play a part in contributing to a solution.

…Because we are #BetterTogther.

To everyone involved, once again, thank you for supporting this year’s blood drive!

How the Blood Drive is making a difference

Australia needs over 1.7 million donations every year to meet demand: that’s three every minute. Below are some of the ways blood donations are used.

Image: Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, Why donate blood | Lifeblood

Want to donate?

If you’re ready to give life, start by checking availability at your nearest donor centre, whether you’re home or away.

Lifeblood | Be a life-saver today | Donate blood and more

April 2023 News Update

In this April 2023 News Update, CEO Council Chair, Guy Chalkley highlights our Concessions Campaign, AG + Energy Social Licence Roundtable as well as updates on our Collaboration on Biodiversity.

CEO Council Chair

Community Benefit Sharing: Insights from RE Alliance

Last month, the Energy Charter’s passion for customers and communities was highlighted with our signing of a sector-first Collaboration Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RE Alliance.

RE-Alliance is an independent, not-for-profit advocacy organisation working to secure an energy transformation that delivers long-term benefits and prosperity to regional Australia.

This month we’ve invited Padmapriya Muralidharan, Communications Manager at RE-Alliance to share her thoughts on what an energy transition that benefits communities looks like, including the important role of Community Benefit Sharing programs.

Australia’s renewable energy transformation is bringing clean energy to power our homes, communities, businesses and industries.

Regional Australian communities who host the energy infrastructure are vital to how and how quickly we transition. It is crucial to consider that many host communities are witnessing the first ever, large-scale industrialization of their landscape. In the renewables industry, community benefit sharing programs have become an important output of community engagement programs, where developers can respond to regional communities’ aspirations by both mitigating project impacts but also sharing financial benefits with those communities evolved as an important measure to gain social licence in. Done well, such programs strengthen the relationship between developers and communities, which is especially important for those developers that will operate the asset for the long term. Most than just a way to deliver social licence for a project, benefit sharing programs are a way for host communities to build resilience and thrive.

A whole-of-community approach to energy in regional communities

As Australia approaches one hundred wind farms in operation, we can see wind energy’s pioneering role in the development of community benefit sharing programs. RE-Alliance’s 2019 report on wind energy in regional Australia investigated a range of benefit sharing mechanisms such as landholder payments, neighbour payments, community enhancement funds and community co ownership. Together, these funds were estimated to contribute between $56.5 and $61 million annually to regional communities. We have seen communities with existing capacity and strong leadership deploy these funds strategically to move towards their self-determined, long-term vision. 

With the energy ecosystem evolving to include new modes of generation and increased transmission sited in large Renewable Energy Zones (REZs), the amount of funds contributing to regional communities is increasing. This is an opportunity to provide long-term investment to build strong and resilient regional communities. To grasp the unfulfilled potential of community benefit sharing programs we need to shift these programs from the current project-by-project, piecemeal approach and move to a whole-of-community approach. 

Benefits of a whole-of-community approach

The whole-of-community approach delivers two important benefits. Firstly, it enables communities to move from only responding to small-scale or short-term requirements to addressing long-term needs, including capacity building. Secondly, it creates the space for collaboration and allows the community to identify their long-term vision, addressing the impacts of renewable energy developments and engaging with the opportunities such developments present. 

The role of the host community in the community benefit sharing arrangements is important. When host communities play the role of active partners, with agency and capacity to direct community benefit arrangements for their communities, this creates an environment for increased social cohesion and more equitable sharing of benefits, ultimately strengthening  the social and economic fabric of regional Australia

An energy system for all stakeholders

Our energy transition requires speed, but also justice. Community benefit sharing programs, done well, can deliver both a fast and just transition. With community benefit sharing, we have the opportunity to create an energy system that works for all stakeholders across the value chain – from individual hosts, communities, industry and the energy consumer. 

RE-Alliance is conducting a study on the current state of community benefit sharing programs. The findings of this study will be released as a report that aims to improve community benefit sharing arrangements. If you would like to participate in the study, please contact padmapriya@re-qlliance.org.au.

You may also be interested in…

Community of Practice – Inclusive and Accessible Engagement

Diversity and Inclusion Energy Charter blog

‘Hard to reach’ or ‘easy to ignore’? That’s the question communication, engagement and customer specialists need to ask when they use the phrase “hard to reach”. Cohorts of the community that require us to be a little more proactive, or adjust our practices to accommodate participation, are all too often excluded from engagement and the opportunity to contribute to decision-making processes on issues that affect them.

In our first Know Your Customers + Communities session for 2023, we explored the topic of inclusion in engagement, particularly with vulnerable or marginalised groups within our community.

Based on her many years of experience as an engagement practitioner and facilitator, Nicola Wass, Director Engagement at RPS Group shared practical guidance on how to create more inclusive and accessible engagement programs that support people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to participate, learn, contribute and belong.

Eve Rodrigues, Manager Customer and Community at Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) shared this write-up on her take-aways from the session.

To kick off, Nicola reminded us about the importance of inclusive engagement.

She pointed out that often, those that ‘easy’ to engage are negatively motivated, or already have strong views about the engagement topic. Therefore, if the aim is to capture a broad set of perspectives that represent your customer base, or local community, it’s critical to purposefully engage with diverse groups. Importantly, this includes those from disadvantaged and minority communities who offer unique lived experience perspectives and whose voices are often underrepresented.

One key takeaway is that it may not be enough to simply engage with customers or community members that have a diverse range of backgrounds and lived experience.

In some cases, asking diverse groups to participate in the same engagement process together introduces barriers to participation. Participant biases, judgements or lack of insight into the lived experiences of others can lead to participants being reluctant to contribute, or at worst feeling that they are not psychologically, emotionally or culturally safe.

One option, particularly for short engagement processes, where there is not sufficient time build the foundations of an inclusive group culture, is to offer tailored engagement opportunities for people that have identified as belonging to a specific group, or who have the same communication or accessibility needs.

These more individualised processes are often valued by participants, who feel supported being able to share their perspectives with others who have experienced similar situations. A good example of this is the mini-panels that Yarra Valley Water ran as part of the engagement for their pricing submission (p24), or TasNetworks Youth Panel for the North West Transmission Developments (pictured right).

Nicola also pointed out that good facilitation is a crucial part of the engagement process. An experienced, independent facilitator can help to ensure that your business communicates in an unbiased and inclusive manner, including ensuring that questions are not leading.

She explained that participants should always know: there are no right or wrong answers and they are there because their perspectives and lived experience is valued.

Critical Success Factors

Active, targeted recruitment: It’s important to develop relationships with advocates, networks and community groups that work with diverse groups in advance of any engagement. They are an excellent source of knowledge and it’s important to invest in these relationships outside of a particular engagement process.
Audience-centered communication: This includes considering what will attract participants to the process, as well as how to carry out the engagement in a way that creates a safe space and provides the best environment for the particular group. For example, the use of diagrams for those who have low literacy, or providing accessible material well in advance for those who are vision impaired.
Fair financial recognition: Financial compensation is essential to get an unbiased view and ensure that we properly recognise the value of participant time and context expertise.
Accessible, inclusive participation: Means anticipating and listing to individual needs, prioritising support, and always checking-in. For example, do they need a support person, a scribe, transport assistance or child-minding support to ensure they are able to fully participate?

Delivering on an organisational commitment to ‘best-practice’ in accessible and inclusive engagement can be challenging. However, it is critical to build organisational capability, bring in experts when needed, and avoid ‘tick the box’ engagement programs at all costs. Poor engagement can be harmful to participants and damages trust and relationships communities and advocates.

Lastly, it’s important to demonstrate the positive impacts of each person’s contribution. One of the most powerful drivers for individuals to be involved in engagement is knowing that they made a difference to others in their situation or community. Feedback or “closing the loop” is an essential part of the process.

Helpful resources

Watch the ‘Accessibility and Inclusion in Engagement’ session

If you would like to watch the Know Your Customers + Communities – Accessibility and Inclusion in Engagement session that explored inclusion in engagement, particularly with vulnerable or marginalised groups within our community, you can watch the recorded session here.

About this event

This event was part of the ‘Know Your Customers + Communities’ Community of Practice dedicated to building capability around robust and fit-for-purpose customer, community, and stakeholder engagement, and building organisational cultures that value the customer voice in decision making.

Know Your Customers + Communities is a collaboration with between the Energy Charter and Water Services Association of Australia under our Collaboration Memo of Understanding (MoU).

To become a regular member of this Community of Practice, please contact Bec Jolly, Director Collaboration at bec.jolly@theenergycharter.com.au.

#BT

March 2023 News Update

In this March 2023 News Update, CEO Council Chair, Guy Chalkley, highlights our sector-first Collaboration Memorandum of Understanding with RE Alliance. We also share on recent events, plus our #BetterTogether initiatives, including the launch of the Disaster Response Playbook, Cost-of-Living Supports, Landholder and Community Social Licence and the Customer Code ‘Knock to Stay Connected’.

CEO Council Chair

Collaboration spotlight: Energy transformation that delivers benefits to regional Australia

Highlighting the Energy Charter’s passion for customers and communities, is our signing of a sector-first Collaboration Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RE Alliance.

RE-Alliance is an independent, not-for-profit advocacy organisation working to secure an energy transformation that delivers long-term benefits and prosperity to regional Australia. It starts with the needs of local communities, collaborates with industry to deliver social outcomes, and advocates for meaningful benefits for regions. We’re delighted to be working closely with CEO, Andrew Bray and the team on issues of social licence, biodiversity and renewables.

“As an independent community organisation, RE-Alliance has over a decade of experience in bringing community voices to the development conversation, especially voices that are often silent or less heard in the mainstream transformation narrative.

“Our experience with regional communities has shown us that the challenges and opportunities through the energy transformation are unique to each community.

“In order to create long-term trust in the transformation, it is important to understand the impacts of developments at the community-level and let this understanding drive solutions, engagements and partnerships in the community” says Andrew Bray, National Director of RE-Alliance.

Why a Collaboration MoU?

The purpose of our Collaboration MoU is to create a high-level commitment to collaborate for customer and community outcomes through the energy transformation. The MoU seeks to deliver outcomes through collaboration, co-design and harnessing mutually beneficial opportunities.

Together, RE-Alliance + Energy Charter aim to:

Build trust between RE-Alliance, regional community stakeholders and Energy Charter signatories and collaborators
Drive collaboration through sharing data, research and insights on lived regional community experience in the energy transformation
Leverage innovative opportunities to support regional communities impacted by the energy transformation
Foster a culture of listening and learning from each other, particularly around the lived experience of regional communities and showcasing examples of better practice.

Our 2023 Collaboration Roadmap

Together, RE Alliance + Energy Charter have three core objectives for 2023.

1. Increased awareness of regional community issues in the energy transformation

Together, we’ll reinforce the importance of regional communities in the energy transformation and the opportunities for better outcomes through collaboration.

2. Tangible collaboration

Together, we’ll explore opportunities to create shared value and continue to work together on landholder co-existence, biodiversity and renewables initiatives.

3. Showcase better community outcomes

Together we’ll share “lighthouse” activities in the energy sector or other sectors to inspire change for regional communities.