June 2023 - The Energy Charter

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.

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.

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.

#BT

First Nations Engagement Community of Practice: Sherrie Anderson learn by coming with me

Our First Nations Enagement Community of Practice was launched by Transgrid’s Yura Ngura Indigenous Advisory Team. The team drive reconciliation through inclusive and respectful engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the communities Transgrid operates in.

Sherrie Anderson, a proud Biripi/ Worimi woman and Manager of the Yura Ngura Indigenous Advisory Team, spoke about the journey and growth of her organisation in First Nations Engagement.

As Sherrie explains, “Think transformational, not transactional when it comes to First Nations Engagement”.

So how do you ensure your engagement with First Nations communities is transformational?

It is important to acknowledge that engagement with First Nations people is completely different from other forms of customer and community engagement.

“Organisations need to build trust and relationships before they earn the right for conversations” Sherrie advises.

“There is no rule book or cookie cutter approach. Every community and every engagement is different.”

The values of your organisation are crucial, not only for successful engagement but also in how it impacts the wellbeing of Aboriginal employees. This includes engagement for the purpose of developing a relationship which will make the difference for your Aboriginal employees feeling culturally safe and not taking on an excessive cultural load.

Sharing economic benefits with the community means looking beyond the ‘tick a box’ exercise, to see what else can be done to bring the community into the project. Sherrie gave an example of bringing members of the community into the project team to be Aboriginal mentors.

Insights for Better Practice First Nations engagement

Lessons shared…

Shift your mindset to move away from ‘solutions listening’ (listening to find a solution). Instead listen to understand and build a relationship.
Abide by the Principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent, for more information check out this resource from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies AIATSIS here.
Set realistic expectations within your organisation particularly around funding and timelines. This also includes discussions around what success looks like both for your organisation and Aboriginal community or Traditional Owners. Be sure to set and monitor these measures.
Celebrate the wins. Sherrie used a ‘win notebook’ to jot down all the little successes. Looking back at these not only restores morale of the team but is also a way to reflect with community on what has been achieved together.
Non-Aboriginal employees have a role to play. Mentoring and guidance provided by Aboriginal employees, helps to remove barriers, and advocates for the values and protection of Aboriginal culture and communities. This is crucial to the success of First Nations engagement along with employee wellbeing.

Session resources

Have a look at Transgrid’s Yura Ngura Indigenous Advisory Team and their journey towards reconciliation through inclusive and respectful engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Learning to develop each individual relationship with First Nations communities means understanding that all experiences are different. As Sherrie explained, as ‘a saltwater woman’ heading into ‘muddy waters’, she was new person to that community and had to earn their trust.

About this Community of Practice

The First Nations Engagement Community of Practice is led by First Nations thought leaders across the energy and water sectors. It is an initiative that works to improve engagement practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customers and communities in collaboration with the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA)

Every second month, the Energy Charter together with WSAA host the community of practice, learning from First Nations-led discussions that builds on the three stages of the Better Practice First Nations Community Engagement Toolkit.

The Foundations stage prioritises cultural training and awareness as the first step of the better practice journey.
The Building Blocks stage develops practice recognising that engagement with First Nations communities is different to other engagement.
The Ongoing Steps stage helps organisations move away from opportunistic engagement towards long-term trusting relationships.

Learn more on our dedicated First Nations Better Practice Community Engagement page here.

#BT Resilience

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