Resilience Community of Practice – Bushfire Preparedness and Lessons Learnt

Preparing networks for extreme weather to keep customers and communities safe

After three years of La Niña rains suppressed bushfire activity, this spring and summer may be the most active fire season in four years. What does it mean to prepare well, and what have we learnt from previous bushfire responses?

In the November Resilience Community of Practice, we heard from Paul Erwin, Head of Customer Service at SA Power Networks regarding the work SA Power Networks (SAPN) is doing to prepare for the season ahead, including working with critical partners like the SA Country Fire Service.

The impacts of extreme weather on communities + energy networks

When it comes to extreme weather, energy network providers need to prepare for a range of scenarios to ensure customers and communities stay safe and connected to power.

Paul explains that there are various scenarios that need to be considered, especially when the hotter months are among us. Some of these extreme weather events include:

  • Extended heatwaves with hot nights result in high levels of energy demand and equipment gets little chance to cool
  • Bushfires that can cause significant damage and outages
  • Lightning strikes impact infrastructure and cause outages
  • High winds can bring down trees and tree limbs or propel airborne debris and cause significant damage.

These impacts are common challenges faced by all energy providers. Paul goes on the explain that,

“[Networks] can be damaged by a fire, it can be damaged by smoke from a fire that can trip it off and it’s vulnerable during storms to the impact of things like trees or wind blowing debris and other impacts like lightning strikes during a storm.

So, for those of you that are network providers, this is nothing unusual to you, but it’s something that’s important that you can relate in your communications to customers about why they’re experiencing a number of outages that they may experience throughout their lifetime connected to the network.”

Preparing for extreme weather conditions, including bushfire season, is critical to ensure customers, communities and equipment all stay safe.

Proactive measures and planning for extreme weather

At SAPN, Paul explains the sophisticated approach they take to minimising risks to customers and equipment, as well as the steps in preparing for the impacts of extreme weather events including bushfires and storms.

“We have what we believe is a sophisticated approach to minimising those risks to the best that we possibly can. Understanding we’re still going to bear some of those problems; we prepare for summer and extreme weather events well and truly in advance.”

SAPN use various tools and methods, such as daily monitoring of weather, twice-weekly briefings with meteorologists, and specific response levels (Fire Danger Level, Emergency Response Level and Minimum State Demand) to manage and mitigate potential risks.

The ‘weather and network impacts monitoring workflow’ below illustrates the extensive planning, communication and response in the case of an extreme event.

Bushfire seasonal preparations

When it comes to having an electricity network that’s primarily above ground, careful consideration is essential to minimise risks of the equipment starting fires.

Paul explains that when the bushfire season does start, asset inspectors continually assess the asset and look at whether there needs to be greater attention brought to certain areas. This includes the use of drones, helicopters and ground patrols.

We also heard the additional extensive bushfire seasonal preparation that SAPN completes ahead of the season, including:

  • Rectifying any identified bushfire and supply risk defects and ensuring key network projects completed prior to summer
  • Tree trimming
  • Training operational personnel/emergency management exercises
  • Ensuring emergency spare parts in stock
  • Preparing call centre and social media messaging
  • Writing to Life Support Customers, MP’s.

Emergency disconnections during bushfire season

When conditions are deteriorating and not looking to improve, in severe cases, emergency disconnections may be required. Paul explained the degree to which SAPN go to on a fire danger day in getting ready to proactively conduct an emergency disconnection to keep communities safe.

This response follows a Disconnection Procedure Flowchart (pictured below), where Paul explained the steps that are followed, including:

  • Continually assessing and monitoring reports, network activity, damage reports, weather reports and more
  • If a situation is verified to the appropriate Fire Danger Level which requires disconnection, a specialist group is formed called the Disconnection Order Group
  • The Disconnection Order group has various different components across the business, all the way from where Paul sits, in the customer and community space, through to network field services, logistics and more
  • They report directly to an Operations Director where they will make a recommendation after discussing with the CFS whether to disconnect and then seek authorised approval. This approval must come from SAPN’s CEO.

Keeping the community informed at every stage

SAPN engages in proactive communication with customers when forecasts indicate significant Emergency Response Level or Fire Danger Level conditions. This includes reaching out to Life Support Customers, MPs, nursing homes and other major customers, to inform them of preparations for extreme weather events.

Paul went on to explain that social media is a critical platform to spread messages during events, especially since the statewide blackout South Australia experienced in 2016. During this event, they saw an increase in Facebook followers who helped share posts and pictures. Social media continues to remain engaging with their community since.

They also utilise SMS as Paul explains “We’ve got automated systems that just immediately send out SMS messages to customers soon as we know a part of the network is off, either that we can see it remotely or that customers call us about it.”

This two-way communication with their customers is essential to see a full picture of what’s happening on the ground and let their customers that they are listening and acting to ensure they remain safe.

In major events, SAPN deliver targeted, bespoke messaging to localised groups of customers regarding restoration times.

During bushfires, communications can be quite different to usual. Paul states that, “we sort of broke that up where we twice a day we’ll go out to customers in the middle of the day at the end of the day to say this is how far we’ve got with our reconnections and your area is coming up next in the following day and again that that gathers kudos from customers.”

Paul highlights the importance of communicating to customers and communities, stating that “We do as much as we can to make sure that we are preparing and informing the community [about] what we’re doing to prepare … and advising them on what they need to do when there is a bushfire.”

Session resources 

Bushfire Preparedness + Lessons Learnt PowerPoint
Bushfire Preparedness + Lessons Learnt November 2023 recording
About the speaker

Head of Customer Service at SA Power Networks, Paul Erwin has three decades of experience in the energy sector and wealth of knowledge on driving better customer outcomes in the energy sector.

He’s a seasoned member of SAPNs emergency response team, having been involved in numerous incident responses, including for bushfires, floods events and severe storms. Paul is passionate about better protections for customers in vulnerable circumstances and ensuring businesses put their efforts toward the actions that matter most to customers.

In his time at SAPN, Paul has managed teams across customer, community and retailer relations. He also has an M.B.A and Graduate Certificate in Business Administration from the University of South Australia, and is Graduate of the University of Adelaide’s Professional Management program.

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. Learn more about the Resilience Community of Practice.

Resilience Community of Practice – Preparedness, Disruptions and Impact

Community of Practice – Resilience

Compelling narratives to showcase the power of resilience in action

In September, the Resilience Community of Practice explored how forward-thinking organisations:

  • Proactively prepare for disruptive events
  • The challenges of around real disruptions and how they can be overcome
  • The critical role that resilience and preparedness play in mitigating customer impacts.

Speaker Fiona Dunk, Group Manager, Business Resilience for Signatory Jemena unravelled the compelling narratives to showcase the power of resilience in action.

As a starting point, Fiona pointed to the preparedness as the foundation of proactive Resilience noting that,

“In the face of uncertainty, preparedness is the compass that guides us through the storm.”

She highlighted that preparing well is the ability to recognise precedence, have strong situational awareness and foresight,

“We can’t rely on the playbook from last year – we need to prepare for this year.”

Preparedness is also about never loosing site of the opportunity to capture and implement lessons learnt. Every disruptive event offers an opportunity to learn and improve.

Resilience blog Oct 2023 - Learn from experience

Regardless of the type of disruption, Fiona encourages a focus on community-centred resilience to achieve better outcomes for those impacted.

In simple terms, this means:

  • Providing empathetic and proactive customer service during disruptions to maintain trust
  • Rallying communities to support each other to minimise hardship during disruptions
  • Prioritise the needs of vulnerable customers during disruptions through outreach and assistance.

Part of this respecting and empowering your connections,

“Communities have vast resources and capacity to empower their people and respond to emergencies when you enable collective action. Provide the space and respect local partners.”

Key takeaways

  • Preparedness is the foundation
  • Disruptions are inevitable
  • Community-centric focus matters
  • Learn lessons for the future
  • We are always, #BetterTogether.

Participant reflections

Following the presentation participants reflected on the below question and encouraged others to do the same with colleagues:

  • Where are you getting your foresight for this year’s risks and what are you putting in place to share and prepare?
  • Supporting responder mental health through disaster is essential, how are you preparing to manage fatigue in teams, especially considering cumulative and compounding events are becoming more frequent?
  • Coming into a potentially very difficult year weather-wise, how are you working with your Board and Leadership to drive Resilience outcomes now. What do you have in place to track customer and community outcomes?
  • What do your simulations/preparedness events look like and how can you bring in other parties to ensure preparedness at a collaborative level?
  • In the context of resilience, what do you do in practice to create psychologically safe spaces for teams and communities?
  • How do you hear from communities on what they need from you? How are you brining these voices into your decision making now and in-disaster? 

Session resources 

Preparedness, Disruptions and Impacts PowerPoint
Preparedness, Disruptions and Impacts session recording
About our speaker

Fiona Dunk has more than 30 years of experience in Crisis & Emergency Management, Security and Resilience most recently as the Group Manager, Business Resilience for Jemena.

Fiona holds a Masters Degree in Business Technology from the University of New South Wales and has held roles in the Royal Australian Navy, Marine Safety Management, Port Emergency & Security Management, Crisis/Emergency management Consultancy and Project Management. 

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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 Resilience Community of Practice page here.

Register for the Energy Charter CEO Forum – Charting a Better Energy Future!

Join our panel of Energy Charter CEOs from across the nation on 6 December 2023 for our CEO Forum: Charting a Better Energy Future, hosted by Cath Smith, Chair of the End-User Consultative Group for the release of the Energy Charter Annual Disclosure 2023.

Register for the CEO Forum

About the CEO Forum

Together we will review and reflect on the collective achievements for customers and communities through the #BetterTogether initiatives in response to our priority areas: cost-of-living crisis and energy transition.

We’ll also dive into the critical role of authentic accountability and transparency in enabling continuous improvement, as well as focus on the future opportunities to continue building towards creating a better energy future for all Australians.

We look forward to your engagement and participation in this CEO Forum to help shape better outcomes for customers and communities today, and into the future, as we transition to a more sustainable, reliable and affordable energy future.

Introducing the host + panellists

Community of Practice – Stories from the frontline of the cost-of-living crunch

Stories from the frontline of the cost-of-living crunch

In our October Know Your Customers + Communities – Community of Practice, we heard firsthand from financial counsellors across Australia about how customers are managing the cost-of-living crisis specifically their energy and water bills.

Firsthand insights into the cost-of-living crisis with Financial Counselling Australia (FCA)

Leading the discussion was Fiona Guthrie, the CEO of Financial Counselling Australia (FCA), the national voice for the financial counselling profession in Australia.

To gain insights into cost-of-living crisis across the country, the panelists included:

  • From NSW: Vanessa Emergy, Financial Counsellor and Team Leader at Wesley Mission NSW, who represents FCA on the Australian Energy Regulator Consumer Consultative Group
  • From QLD: Rose McGrath, Financial Counsellor at YFS QLD
  • From Tasmania: Danielle Slade, Financial Counsellor at Anglicare TAS and President of the Financial Counsellors Association Tasmania
  • From Victoria: Andrea Osborne, Financial Counsellor at Uniting VIC as well as participates in the Utilities Working Group for FCA.

What does a Financial Counsellor do?

Financial counselling is a free service run by not-for-profits, offering information, options and support in regard to debts. 

One of the key benefits of a financial counsellor is they can provide information on benefits, concessions and entitlements including “concessions regarding energy, which is particularly important these days because a lot of people don’t know what they’re entitled to.”

A lot of financial counsellors are also trained in counselling and can offer emotional support.

“We provide information so customers can make informed choices and decisions and have ownership of their own situation. We don’t want to be telling them what they have to do, we want to give them the information so they can make decisions for themselves. It’s really important that they have control of their situation.”

To learn more, watch the short video where Andrea Osborne explains the wide range of services a financial counsellor can provide.

What are customers experiencing when it comes to energy and water costs?

Taking the time to listen to what financial counsellors are learning from their casework can offer valuable insight into the financial challenges people are facing. Below, the panel explores what they’re seeing firsthand when it comes to why customers are not able to pay their energy and water bills.

The gap between energy and other life essentials

Danielle Slade, who works for the National Debt Helpline 5 days a week, explains that “the biggest thing we’ve seen is extraordinarily large debts,” where in some cases, people can barely cover their current usage let alone also contribute towards old energy bills.

Danielle continued on to provide insight into the essentials that help create a comfortable life, including:

  1. Rent or housing
  2. Food
  3. Transport
  4. Medications
  5. Telecommunications
  6. Power

“I say power last because [in the eyes of the customer], that’s the only bill this fortnight that I can skip if I just don’t have enough money. If I don’t pay my rent, I get evicted. I have to eat. I can’t walk my children to school if it takes us 2 hours to get there. I can’t not take medication. So, the only thing that’s left that I can skip this fortnight is power. So, a lot of people leave it to that 3 month bill and then we get a debt that’s just so unmanageable.”

The link to housing and water costs

There has also been recent casework where customers are struggling to pay their water bills.

Rose McGrath explained, “For renters, they pay the landlords directly. They don’t have a direct billing relationship with the water company or with the council. So, water arrears are very much tied up with rent arrears and because rents have increased so much, people are really struggling to pay their water and rent. As a result, partly, they are being evicted for non-payment of their water.”

Rose goes on to explain that in some cases, there is such high demand for rental subsidies and rental arrears, it takes up to 2 months for people to receive them where they can be evicted within that time.

“With water, there are no hardship provisions like there is in energy. There is no hardship framework and there’s no concessions for renters.”

What can the energy sector do to help with the cost-of-living crunch?

When it comes to supporting customers with their energy and water bills, the panel provided insight into what’s currently working and what could be improved to help customers regain control of their financial situation.

  • Continue educating customers on ways to reduce their power bills, where Andrea mentions that once customers are given this information, “12-24 months down the track, we had observed their energy bills and they dropped hundreds [of dollars]. Just a bit of information and they were able to change their ways and reduce their bills.”
  • Continue energy audits for vulnerable customers as well as further to current government initiatives, there could be potential to replace faulty appliances causing higher energy bills.
  • More reference to the National Debt Helpline to ensure customers know where to go for financial help (for example, as shown in the Keep the money. It’s yours. National concessions campaign).
  • Matched payments, where possible, as Danielle explained that customers start to think “the energy provider is going to help me pay off my debt?” which helps to shift the mentality to ‘we’re in this together’ (acknowledging this may not be the case for all retailers).
  • Potential to introduce debt waivers, including an automatic debt waiver when there’s family violence.
Stories from the frontline of the cost-of-living crunch
Want to watch the full recording of ‘Stories from the frontline of the cost-of-living crunch’ session?

Listen to the full session to gain further insight into what financial counsellors are seeing in their casework and the impacts the cost-of-living crisis is having on their energy and water bills.

Watch the full session

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  bec.jolly@theenergycharter.com.au. 

Community of Practice – Financial and mental wellbeing

A dive into financial and mental wellbeing with Beyond Blue

In our August Know Your Customers + Communities – Community of Practice, we heard from Beyond Blue and how their Services Guide for Financial and Mental wellbeing can be used by energy & water customer teams to better support customers experiencing financial and mental health stress.

Beyond Blue is an Australian, not-for-profit organisation, whose vision is to help all people in Australia achieve their best possible mental health. Representing them was Irene Verins, their Wellness and Prevention Lead. She oversees development of research relating to Financial and Mental Wellbeing, and the design of tools and resources to support the community. Irene also oversees the Parenting and Mental Health portfolio.

Irene explained the purpose of the session was two-fold:

  1. to introduce Beyond Blue’s research, tools and resources and explore how they might be useful to your sector
  2. to build understanding between the energy, water and mental health services sectors.

What is financial and mental wellbeing and what does the research tell us about it?

Financial wellbeing is being able to meet current and ongoing expenses and commitments, being financially comfortable to be able to make choices to allow one to enjoy life, feeling secure about the financial future and having resilience to cope with financial adversity.

While financial challenges refers to any financial circumstances, thoughts and feelings that may negatively impact financial wellbeing (for example financial hardship, debt, unemployment, loss of income, low income)

In turn, mental wellbeing reflects a state of wellbeing in which every individual realises their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community.

While mental health challenges is an umbrella term that covers diagnosed mental health conditions, as well as any other mental health issues that may negatively impact mental health but may not meet the criteria for a diagnosed illness.

Beyond Blue’s recent Money and Mental Health Report found people experiencing financial challenges were at least twice as likely to experience mental health challenges and vice versa. We found that those people most affected by financial and mental challenges were:

  • young people,
  • women,
  • First Nations, and
  • small business owners.

What are factors that influence financial and mental wellbeing?

  • Relationships – People who felt they had no one to lean on are more likely to experience financial and mental health challenges.  And withdrawal from community and social interactions is a common response to financial challenges.
  • Life transitions – Young adults transition from school to university or their first-time job, transitioning out of work and into retirement. If support is not available, transitions can quickly become risky moments. 
  • Cultural narratives about success – often lead to expectations on what being financially stable symbolises. The environment you live in, or the expectations surrounding your circumstance may create a culture that contributes to self-blame or feeling ashamed. Job and income loss may lead to shame that you are not meeting expectations of managing your financial position and your family responsibilities. This was prominent for small business owners.
  • Stigma – plays a significant role in both mental and financial health and inhibits help-seeking. So often we hear that people feel enormous shame when they talk about financial difficulties, and this can deter them from seeking help when they need it most.
  • Adverse life events – are often outside your control and can be coupled with trauma. These may include divorce, separation, becoming widowed, job loss and family violence. These situations can lead to unexpected and rapid changes in income and financial stability.

This is important because a recent unpublished report has found that 37% of Australians reported that cost of living was the issues having the greatest negative impact on their mental health.

How can the Services Guide for Financial and Mental wellbeing help?

Developed in partnership with Financial Counselling Australia, this Guide provides practical advice on how services from both energy + water sectors, can provide greater support to customers.

We are not asking the energy and water sectors to become mental health counsellors or financial councillors. The aim of this Guide is to build the awareness and capability of energy + water sectors to work with mental health services, showing how they can both work more closely together. This flow on effect of bringing sectors together will drive action on support and referral options.

The Guide will help you:

  • Depict signs & behaviors of people in financial or mental hardship
  • Apply models and approaches in assessing hardship
  • Drive action on support and referral options.​​

A key tool in the Guide that you can have on your desk as a reference when you are meeting with clients is this continuum. It will help you evaluate a person’s financial and mental wellbeing. It starts with ‘In crisis’ and moves through stages until we get to ‘Thriving’.

Financial and mental wellbeing journeys are non-linear, meaning they can shift and change over time. That’s why managing financial and mental wellbeing together is important at all stages of the continuum. Whichever stage is identified by a customer along the continuum, there are broad actions and support you can provide in subsequent pages of the services guide.

Helpful resources 

Watch the ‘Support customers with financial & mental wellbeing’ session

If you would like to watch the Know Your Customers + Communities – Financial and mental wellbeing session that explored inclusion, 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. 

Resilience Community of Practice – Responding to trauma

Resilience Community of Practice – Responding to trauma

An essential connection to services and assistance

The Energy Charter’s Disaster Response Playbook recognises that following a disaster event, utility service providers are often a first point of contact for people as they provide an essential service for recovery.

They are an important part of the disaster response and recovery ecosystem as a ‘connector’ to other services and assistance. However, sometimes staff:

  • Lack the training and feel unprepared to support customers and peers who have experienced trauma, which can have negative impacts for mental health and wellbeing of both parties.
  • Are unclear on what the scope of their role is when responding to a disaster (i.e., when to refer to another service) which leaves them trying to ‘do it all’.
  • Experience personal trauma as a result the disaster, while also playing professional role in disaster response and recovery activities.

In our July Resilience Community of Practice, Alexandra Howard, Director, Disasters and Public Health Emergencies at Phoenix Australia offered strategies to help staff better recognise and respond to trauma in disaster impacted communities.

Here’s our key takeaways from Alex’s session

Disaster impacts are multi-faceted with impacts across multiple areas.

Within the essential services sector, we can often be focused on responding to build environment and economic/financial impacts. However, whether we know it or not, most of us in the disaster eco-system, also have a role in human phyco-social impacts

Image: “Multi-faceted impacts of disaster”, Pheonix Australia presentation

Acknowledging this, it can be helpful to apply a ‘trauma lens’ to all of the disaster preparedness, response, and recovery activities we undertake.

This is not about making everyone a counsellor or psychologist, rather the purpose is to help us to set boundaries and act within our skill set, taking a ‘no harm’ approach.

There are four common reactions to trauma and each can play out in several ways:

  1. Changes in mental or cognitive capacity
  2. Physiological or bodily changes
  3. Changes in behaviour
  4. Emotional changes.

All of these reactions are linked to our “Fight, Flight and Freeze response (our neurobiological responses to threat)

Image: “Common Responses”, Pheonix Australia presentation

It’s likely that all people will experience these responses, however, for most these will subside over time. However, sometimes we can get stuck in a ‘Fight, Flight and Freeze’ heightened awareness loop, constantly scanning for danger and being on high alert.

One of the things that puts people at greater risk of this over the long term, is exposure to secondary stressors.

Research has shown that even 10 years after the 2009 bushfires, impacted communities experienced higher rates of mental health disorders, difficulties with schooling and other challenges.

So, what can we do to reduce secondary stressors and support better long-term outcomes for disaster impacted communities?

Here’s a few quick tips:

  • Reduced memory and concentration, as well as difficulty planning and making decisions are common trauma responses. It’s important to consider an individual’s capacity to engage with complex processes immediately after disaster.
  • Feeling on edge and avoiding reminders of trauma are also a common trauma responses. We can help by reducing the number of times we ask customers and communities to re-tell their story. We can also avoid asking for unnecessary detail that is not essential to the task.
  • It’s not unusual for people to feel as if they are ‘going crazy’ and are out of control. We can help by giving people a sense of choice and the opportunity to regain a level of control over their personal situation.
  • Connectedness is one of the most important protective factors after disaster and energy. Essential service providers play a critical role in repairing the physical infrastructure that enables connectedness by resorting power and phone networks. They also play a key role within physical community spaces, such as emergency recovery and evacuation centres that support physical community connectedness during and immediately after a disaster event.

Key reflection points

During the session, Alex asked participants to reflect on a few simple things that could have big impacts in supporting better personal, organisational and community outcomes. Take a moment to consider…

Where’s the opportunity to create a learning loop?

It’s essential to share back to enable continuous improvement. Who else in your organisation has a “front-line” role? How can you share learnings, training options and resources with them? 

How can you prepare to support your own ‘connectedness’ needs?

How can you build the networks you might rely on in a disaster now? What can you do to keep these networks present and familiar, so it feels natural and intuitive to lean on them when you need to?

Session resources 

Recognising & Responding to Trauma Presentation
The Disaster Mental Health hub by Phoenix Australia
Education & Training by Phoenix Australia
Peer Support Guidelines by Phoenix Australia
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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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 Resilience Community of Practice page here.

Humanising the renewable energy transition

The Australian Clean Energy Summit 2023 (ACES23) brought together leaders across the renewable energy sector to discuss the state and outlook for the Australian clean energy industry, together with challenges and opportunities in realising Australia’s potential as a renewable energy superpower.

Our Executive Director, Sabiene Heindl presented at ACES23 on opportunities for social licence collaboration on 18 and 19 July in Sydney, and shares below the leadership of the Energy Charter on this very human element of the energy transition.

The state of play

Clearly the transition to clean energy is well underway. The sector is rapidly growing in terms of both household and large-scale renewable generation deployment and the necessary build of transmission and distribution network assets to support the move way from fossil fuel generation. While ambition and optimism to meet climate targets are high, social licence in communities remains a key challenge for both generation and transmission.

Humanising the renewable energy transition - Event 1

Social licence

Minister Bowen’s keynote address highlighted the importance of social licence. Speakers, including State Energy Ministers lamented the challenges in communities and the need for shared value. Community members Lee Kingma, Grazier from Tumut and Rosemary Hadaway, Chair of the Mudgee District Environment Group shared their insights from the ground:

  • Communities will wear the “product” for the long term
  • The benefit to the wider community is different to the local community
  • Local knowledge is key to decision
  • Regional and rural people have a strong sense of place and attachment to their land
  • Renewables are being imposed and people feel ignored
  • There are already insufficient local resources in terms of workers, accommodation, water supply and waste capacity
  • Community benefits should be just that, a benefit, not the provision of government services
  • Disturbance and vegetation loss should be minimised
  • The community is totally exhausted and need to be supported to engage meaningfully

They want leadership, open acknowledgement of all the costs, better communication and ethical behaviour. The bigger question was how?

Humanising the renewable energy transition - Event 2

Better Practice Social Licence Guidelines

The Energy Charter recently released a comprehensive Better Practice Social Licence Guideline (see below for the launch details). The Guideline was co-designed by the National Farmers Federation, Queensland Farmers Federation, NSW Farmers Federation, Victorian Farmers Federation, AgForce Queensland, Cotton Australia and Energy Charter signatories APA Group, Powerlink Queensland, TransGrid with support from Essential Energy and Jemena.  The Social Licence Guideline is underpinned by the Better Practice Guide to Landholder and Community Engagement which was launched at a National Farmers Federation event in September 2021.

Every stage of the Social Licence Guideline was collaboration – from designing the landholder survey, to analysing the results and developing the Social Licence Guideline.

  • Our dedicated Community Outcomes Group (COG) included representation from the Ag Energy Taskforce (representing over 30 ag bodies), Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner, Bundaberg Regional Irrigators Group, National Farmers’ Federation, National Irrigators Council, RE-Alliance, Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, Queensland Farmers’ Federation and Victorian Farmers Federation. 
  • Our Industry Collaborators included Energy Charter signatories Transgrid (NSW, ACT), Powerlink Queensland (QLD), TasNetworks (TAS), AusNet Services (VIC) + ElectraNet (SA).
  • Our research partner into the voice of landholders was KPMG Australia.

Importantly, Energy Charter signatories have committed to reporting against how they are meeting the Priority Actions of the Guidelines through their annual Disclosure Reports in the Energy Charter Accountability Process.

Training of Land Agents

This month we were involved in training land agents together with Andrew Dyer, the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner on bringing the Social Licence Guideline to life at a practical level.

AG Energy Social Licence Roundtable

Last year at the request of the ag sector, we established the Ag Energy Social Licence Roundtable. It most recently met in Dubbo in June following the Ag Renewables Conference to discuss challenges and opportunities for collaboration through the renewable energy transition.

Evaluating Transmission Undergrounding

Finally, we have recently kicked off a #BetterTogether initiative on evaluating transmission undergrounding which builds on our Social Licence Guideline. It aims to improve the experience of host landholders and communities by collaborating with community representatives and stakeholders to:

  • Validate community concerns, considerations and expectations for how the viability of underground compared to overhead transmission designs should be evaluated by transmission businesses
  • Co-develop a shared knowledge and evidence-base, including Better Practice approaches to assessing and evaluating social costs and mitigating impacts
  • Identify and address public information and evidence gaps, sources of (dis)information and practice (in)consistencies.

Working hand in hand with community, transmission businesses and other relevant stakeholders (through a Community Outcomes Group), we will collect and consider a wide variety of perspectives and evidence to bring greater transparency to how the viability of underground compared to overhead transmission designs are evaluated. This includes considering the insights gathered through the NSW Inquiry into the Feasibility of Undergrounding Transmission Infrastructure.

We’re proud to be supporting collaborative initiatives that highlight the human face of transition.  There’s no doubt that social licence challenges will only be solved #bettertogether.

Community of Practice – Engagement with Older Australians

Diversity and Inclusion Energy Charter blog

Many older people have AND are carers and may have another person who regularly acts on their behalf. Older people are more likely to struggle with smaller print, quiet audio and long wait times.

They are also more likely to be unable to live without utilities!

The Energy Charter’s Better Practice Customer Engagement Toolkit acknowledges the robust processes businesses need to understand their customers and communities. The Toolkit provides practical strategies for energy businesses on ways to incorporate feedback into their decision making.

Essentially, all energy businesses are here to serve customers and communities (whether they are residential, small & medium business, or large commercial and industrial). To deliver energy products and services in a way that meets customer and community needs and expectations, we first need to understand: what are those needs and expectations?

That’s why engaging with customers and communities is critical.

In our June Know Your Customer + Communities – Community of Practice, we heard from Elise Lloyd and Sharmilla Zaluski from the Council of the Ageing (COTA), South Australia (SA) and The Plug-In who work with Australians aged 50 and over in the design of products and services and the delivery of research.  

Who are the subject matter experts?

Elyse is Acting Research Manager at the Plug-in. She is a psychological scientist and data analyst with experience in market and social research across an array of sectors. She has previously worked as a specialist in ageing research, focusing on quantitative methodologies.

Sharmilla is an Associate at The Plug-in. Sharmilla is an original member of The Plug-in start-up team and now contributes her expertise on a project basis as an advisor, co-researcher and workshop facilitator. She has previous experience working in policy, community engagement and customer service roles in local government.

 

Why is it important for energy businesses to engage with Older Australians?

Australia has an aging population with 34% aged over 50 in 2020 and 21% of Australians expected to be 85 or over by 2066.

Older Australians are diverse. For those over 65, 37% were born outside of Australian and 18% speak a language other than English at home. More than a third live in regional or remote areas. The aging experience for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is different from that of the non-indigenous Australians with only 16% aged over 50 (compared to 34% of non-indigenous Australians).

How do you effectively engage with Older Australians?

  • Have a clear purpose! Older Australians need to know what you need from them.
  • Be inclusive. Make sure you engage and provide opportunities for older Australians to be part of the engagement in an appropriate way (see more on this later).
  • Reflect the diversity of older Australians. One size does not fit all. Older Australians are multi-lingual, live in cities and regional areas, and are identified as older over 50 in First Nations communities.
  • Work with older Australians not for them, provide processes where they can participate in the design, delivery, and outcomes of your engagement with them.
  • Build relationships. It can be difficult to get communities on board if there is not an existing relationship with them. Consider how you will build trust with communities and the organisations who represent & support them.
  • Be respectful. Be mindful of the language that you use particularly terminology that can be invertedly ageist, for example instead of a dementia sufferer use strength-based terms such as a person with dementia OR person living with dementia OR person with a diagnosis of dementia.
  • Reflect, adapt and improve. Close the loop when you engage with communities to check in on what you heard and feedback how the engagement has been incorporated into the product or service.

What considerations and adaptations are important when reaching out to older Australians?

Digital access and literacy vary. Most older Australians are online (93% of 65+ age group have internet access at home) however, they still experience low digital literacy which impacts how they use digital tools. For example, many use social media (43% on FB or Instagram) but are unable to use apps. It is important to offer offline alternatives and make sure it is easy to find these alternatives. This includes options for a third-party such as a family member or carer, to assist.

Consider older Australians preferred methods of communication and engagement. Conversations are often much easier and preferred by older people. It is also important to consider if your customer contact options are potentially discriminatory. If your service has limited its methods of contact i.e., an online contact form only, this can open your service up to increased risk of regulation or action by consumer advocacy bodies.

There are current examples of consumer action against the rental and property sector (who only offered applications online), airlines (who provided age-based discounts to passengers because they required less support) and television suppliers in Australia (who supplied TVs without audio descriptive technology).

Older people are more likely to have physical health issues and therefore will have carers or family to support them. Be aware that another person may act on their behalf, consider if your processes accommodate the carer. Consider how your service uses small print, quiet audio and if customers experience long wait times, these barriers will impact the service you can provide to older people.

Helpful resources 

Watch the ‘Engagement with Older Australians’ session

If you would like to watch the Know Your Customers + Communities – Engagement with Older Australians session that looked at how to work with Australians aged 50 and over in the design of products and services and the delivery of research, 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  bec.jolly@theenergycharter.com.au. 

Community of Practice – Lived Experience Voices

Diversity and Inclusion Energy Charter blog

Context vs. Content: when designing products and services for our customers, context expertise (or lived experience) is just as important as including content expertise..

The Energy Charter’s Better Practice Customer Engagement Toolkit acknowledges the robust processes businesses need to understand their customers and communities. The Toolkit provides practical strategies for energy businesses on ways to incorporate feedback into their decision making.

Essentially, all energy businesses are here to serve customers and communities (whether they are residential, small & medium business, or large commercial and industrial). To deliver energy products and services in a way that meets customer and community needs and expectations, we first need to understand: what are those needs and expectations?

That’s why engaging with customers and communities is critical.

In our May Know Your Customer + Communities – Community of Practice, we looked at a case study that involved the energy sector co-designing a lived experience advocacy program with Tasmanian Council of Social Service (TasCOSS) for customers who experience low-income.  

The panel included: 

  • Dr Lucy Mercer-Mapstone; Community Voices Lived Experience Program Coordinator at the TasCOSS, who was key in the development of the Community Voices Program – a lived experience advocacy program which trains and mentors community members to influence a services’ systems, policies, and decisions to become more equitable for people living on low incomes. 
  • Jarrah Keenan, who is a Community Voices Program Partner. He shared his lived experience in creating change, making sure services and decisions which affect Tasmanians on low incomes are truly fit-for-purpose.
  • Amy Abraham who in her previous role at Aurora spoke about how they embedded the lived experience into their work and the steps it took to make it happen.  

Why is lived-experience important for energy businesses?

When designing products and services for our customers, context expertise (or lived experience) is just as important as including content expertise – and it should be paid for accordingly.  People with lived experience can help shape the policy decisions and processes that impact them, ensuring better customer uptake of what is delivered.

To support this, businesses and organisations should ensure they have the right capability to do so and are aware (and adhere to the principles) of safe and respectful engagement with people with lived experience and their advocates. TasCOSS has developed resources and provides mentoring to deliver engagement that enables a safe space.

Jarrah Keenan provided some insight on what it means to be a Community Voice Partner. His experience with government included a project for communities who experience low literacy. His key takeaways include:

  • Support people from within the community to carry out engagement and to ask the community for their input. This will enable people feel safe in their own environment and in turn, provide honest insights.
  • Be aware that those with lived experience may not feel comfortable providing their input within a group environment. Consider one on one engagement to enable a depth of insight from individuals.
  • Engage after the engagement! This will help show how the original engagement has been included and will support further feedback – it’s worth the additional cost! Jarrah noted this step restored the community’s trust in the government.

“That they (the government) made the effort to engage with those that were ‘hard to reach’ and that they were genuine in seeking and incorporating their input, this made all the difference.”

  • The process is important. Community Voice Partners receive excellent training, but the biggest motivator Jarrah explained, “is that our opinion is valued, and we feel heard. It is an excellent innovation in how people can contribute and be heard by government, business and other organisations.”

Amy Abraham talked about her experience working with Aurora. The program was a new approach to engagement specifically to engage with those members of the community we had not worked with before in the co-design of our programs. Key insights include:

  • The process helped us recognise our unconscious bias and made it clear that we needed people with lived experience to be part of the co-design process.
  • For example, the introduction of a ‘quick exit button’ for people who experience family safety issues, was included in the design of services and support for customers once we listened to people with lived experience of family violence.
  • Reflect on the capability and maturity of your organisation in making the engagement safe for people with lived experience. Consider if it is better to partner with expertise to set this up to ensure it is done well.
  • Bring others along on the journey: validating problems and solutions along the way. As Amy explained, “it’s about doing the right thing, but it is also about designing a more efficient and sustainable process and experience for people that can solve the problem.”

Helpful resources 

Watch the ‘Lived Experience Voices’ session

If you would like to watch the Know Your Customers + Communities – Lived Experience Voices session that looked at a case study that involved the energy sector co-designing a lived experience advocacy program with Tasmanian Council of Social Service (TasCOSS) for customers who experience low-income, 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  bec.jolly@theenergycharter.com.au. 

Renewables in Ag – Where to from here?

On 22 June, the Energy Charter teamed up with the Ag Energy Taskforce and the 2023 National Renewables in Agriculture Conference and Expo to host a special Ag + Energy Roundtable.

The Roundtable event invited conference speakers and participants to reflect on the conference and ask the critical question; where to from here?

Together, we unpacked opportunities for farmers to play a greater role in decarbonising the grid and explored how key challenges could be addressed through collaboration between the ag and energy sectors.

What we heard 

With over 300 delegates at the Conference and 60 at the Roundtable – the events provided an important opportunity for insight sharing between the Ag and Energy sectors, laying the foundations for future collaborations. Here’s a snapshot of some of the key themes.

#1 Collaboration is King (and Queen too!)
 

Farmers, developers, energy transmission and distribution businesses alike are exceptionally keen to create meaningful collaborations to optimise benefits for host landholders and communities. 

There were lots of ideas on how long-term positive impacts could be designed into projects by involving community stakeholders right from day one. These included:

  • Impact-aware and community-governed benefit sharing programs
  • On-farm energy audits and support to negotiate affordable energy contracts
  • Legal and tax advice to support confident negotiation with renewable energy developers and transmission businesses
  • Prioritising activities that provide long-term rural employment and enterprise creation.
#2 Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle (and Regenerate!)
 

Adopting circular economy principles at the design stage of new infrastructure projects was a key theme at the Roundtable. Participants asked how we might collaborate to:

  • Ensure solar panels are recycled locally
  • Re-use or re-purpose wind turbines from top to bottom
  • Ensure farmers and communities’ benefit from the scrap steel when transmission towers are decommissioned.

Opportunities to enable regenerative farming practices and sustainable energy production through argi-voltaics were also a recurring theme, with many keen to see more research and development in this area.

#3 Land-use planning from top down to bottom up

Farmers and ag sector representatives emphasised the need for the farming community to be a meaningful part of the conversation about where new high-voltage transmission lines and other renewable energy infrastructure is planned, particularly where locations cross prime farmland. This includes engagement at all levels, from strategic system planning around the location of Renewable Energy Zones to the placement of infrastructure on individual properties.

Conversations echoed commitments made in the Energy Charter’s Better Practice Social Licence Guideline, which confirmed early engagement with landholders and community in route planning is essential to ensuring that wherever possible, transmission routes and methods are designed to minimise impacts.

With much enthusiasm to work together, both sectors also recongised the need to work productively with a range of other stakeholders, who also play a critical in ensuring an energy transition that benefits regional communities. Critical stakeholders included Local Government, energy regulators, new-tech developers, researchers and clean energy financers.

Showcasing Better Practice

The Ag + Energy Social Licence Roundtable is committed to showcasing Better Practice examples across the Ag and Energy sectors to inspire others. Take a look at what we shared at the June meeting.

In late 2020 Transgrid created the Office of the Landowner & Community Advocate to assist the organisation to implement best possible landowner and community engagement practices on all its major transmission projects. Rod Stowe presented on how the Office is supporting Landowner and Community Advocacy in NSW.

Access the presentation

Dana Boxall, Powerlink Queensland provided an overview of the SuperGrid Landholder Payment Framework for landholders hosting new transmission lines. Significantly, it is the first payment framework in Australia to offer payments to landholders with properties adjacent to newly constructed transmission lines.

Access the presentation
Wind energy

About the Ag + Energy Social Licence Roundtable

The Energy Charter hosts a bi-annual strategic roundtable with leaders from the energy and agriculture sectors to discuss strategic emerging issues in the energy transition, identify what’s working and areas for continuous improvement. 

The purpose of the Roundtable is to deliver better landholder and community social licence outcomes through the energy transition, under the themes – ‘Ag as Energy Generators’, ‘Ag as Energy Users’ and ‘Ag as Energy Hosts’.  

The Roundtable is independently chaired by Joy Thomas (formerly National Irrigators Association and convener of the Ag Energy Taskforce).

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 Ag + Energy Social Licence Rountable is just one example of what can be achieved when businesses come together and work across sectors to unlock better practice.