Community energy can overcome the lack of social licence of large scale energy infrastructure

The whole world is moving towards carbon neutrality, we just need to go faster.  

Of the many challenges and barriers we need to overcome as we transition to renewable energies, government policy, regulation, network capacity and social licence loom large.

It is clear our current centralised electricity network is not fit for purpose when we consider the massive contribution Distributed Energy Resources (DER) can potentially play in the energy transition. Without DER, grid congestion and network failure will continue to seriously curtail our progress to zero emissions energy.

In particular, regional cities can play an important role in the evolution of DER. However, whilst the regions host the majority of the infrastructure that generates and delivers renewable energy, to date many regional and rural areas have not seen its benefits – at least not YET!

There are great examples of successful micro-grids, behind the meter projects and community energy hubs, but they haven’t yet been tested at scale. Nor is there a model that is easily replicable across the country.

In Ballarat, in central Victoria, business, industry, local government and the community have come together to test the feasibility and viability of a local distributed, community owned energy project – the Ballarat Energy Network (BEN).

BEN is a multi-stakeholder approach to our region’s renewable energy future with a vision to power the entire region with 100% locally generated renewable energy. Ballarat is a city of approximately 120,000 people, servicing a broader regional population of approximately 175,000.

The region’s 3 largest employment sectors are Health & Social Assistance, Education & Training and Retail Trade.  Almost 90% of the region’s workforce work in the Ballarat local government area.  

As a local distributed energy network, BEN will aggregate, optimise and manage local renewable generation through the many distributed assets available in the region.

These assets include existing industrial and rooftop solar, wind, bioenergy and battery energy storage systems (BESSs).  It will likely also include the future development of EV’s, scaled up bioenergy capability, thermal solar and all other viable technologies that will help power and ‘fuel’ the region.

BEN is not a micro-grid and Ballarat is not seeking to go ‘off-grid’. This is not how we will achieve energy resilience for a city of our size.  Rather, we see ourselves as a net-exporter of renewable energy.

In simple terms the BEN will orchestrate the generation, distribution, storage and sharing of local renewable energy, and then arbitrage and trade it on the National Energy Market. It will be a community energy project at scale, with an ownership and governance model that fully reflects the regional community.

Currently the reverse is the case. Regions such as ours are at the whims of the NEM and at times of peak demand, regional and rural areas are the first to be impacted by brownouts and load shedding. This is despite the fact we are generating the energy we are then starved of.

Here in lies the problem with Social Licence. It is no surprise that local objections and outrage have been the response to new transmission lines and energy projects.

Regions want to see a better system that delivers genuine social value and community wealth.  Regional and rural Australia must see some direct benefits of the generation and transmission projects they host as they are the communities that wear the negative impacts.

The lack of social licence and social value and the regional objection to utility scale renewable energy infrastructure, may be our greatest challenge as we transition away from our fossil fuel dependence.  

There is a better way and DER, with its potential for local benefits, may be the way to build and deliver long-term community wealth in regional and rural areas and overcome the challenges of poor social licence.  

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The Committee for Ballarat is leading the BEN project as it brings together every sector of the regional economy. The Committee’s members and its work focuses on the long-term big picture projects that have the capacity to transform and enhance the region’s sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous development.  

The success of the BEN project will be its multi-stakeholder, collaborative leadership approach, that sees all parties committed to an ambitious vision, with the courage to innovate and disrupt the status quo.

The committee plans to conduct a series of feasibility studies and develop business cases for a commercial and industrial precinct, residential areas including new housing, low income and rental markets, and a governance and commercial model that best fits the community ownership ambition.

Done well - for business, industry, government and the community - a model that maximises local generation and distribution of renewable energy, with local ownership and governance, could deliver the agency and autonomy the Ballarat region needs to overcome the challenges of social licence and social value.

In addition, it will deliver reduced energy costs, greater energy resilience, investment, innovation, new jobs and importantly reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

We are confident the success of BEN will attract ‘green’ business and industries, promote investment, stimulate the visitor economy and enhance further liveability of our region.  

We are also confident BEN will be a model for distributed energy, replicable in other regional cities around the country.