Questionnaire

Part 1: Your Community

Decision Support Tool

Answer some key questions about your community to find out what the next step might be on your energy journey.

This tool can help you to:

  1. Know if a project you’re thinking of doing is a good fit for your community.
  2. Get a clearer idea of which energy projects can deliver the most value for your community.
  3. Decide the next steps to take on your community energy journey.

How does it work?

The first part is a questionnaire with around 25 questions divided into six parts:

  1. Your Community
  2. Projects You Have in Mind
  3. Your Priorities
  4. Your Team
  5. Your Electricity Network
  6. Your Energy Resources

It usually takes around 10-15 minutes to answer. If you want to take a break, you can copy a link to return later.

When you’re done, we’ll give you a customised summary that shows projects that could be a good fit for you and activities you could do next.

Data and Privacy

Your answers to these questions are used to provide you with tailored suggestions, but we don’t have access to this information or store it. For more information, you can read the Privacy Statement and Terms of Use.

Part 1: Your Community

Let’s get started with some basic questions about your community, so we can learn how your community gets and uses electricity.

Before you begin, it’s important to think about what you mean exactly when you think of your community.

Consider your community as a group of people who live near each other and are connected to the same part of the electricity network. Think of a name that best defines the boundaries of your community because you can share the results and other people need to know who you were thinking of including. Your name might describe your street, your town or your suburb. If you go too much larger and include your whole region, you will struggle to answer some of the questions. You can always start small and return to try again with a larger community scope later.

What is the name of your community?

Where is ?

This tool is designed for communities in Australia. While we hope you gain some useful insights from the tool, you will likely find that some of the information and suggestions that we provide are not suited to your situation.

Which best describes ?

How many people live in ?

If you don’t know the exact number, use your best guess.

A little about , .

Based on what you’ve told us, uses roughly

---

kilowatt hours (kWh) each year

Which translates to about

---

How we worked this out

appears to be part of

---

How we worked this out.
What is ---?

Next, let’s look at any projects you might be thinking of doing...

Part 2: Projects You Have in Mind

When it comes to energy projects, it’s often difficult to see past the hype and spin. A lot of communities have found they’ve wasted time, effort and money on community energy projects that ultimately weren’t a great fit for them.

If you have a project in mind, we’d like to quickly assess if it appears to be a good fit.

Do you already have a project in mind?

Great!

This means you can begin by choosing projects that are well suited to your community’s priorities, resources and ambition.

What type of project are you already considering?

.

On first impressions, it seems that could be a good fit for .

But there’s a lot more you need to consider before you decide to go ahead, such as your community’s priorities, resources and ambition.

Getting Involved in Electricity Retailing

On first impressions, it seems that getting involved in electricity retailing could be a good fit for .

But there’s a lot more you need to consider before you decide to go ahead, such as your community’s priorities, resources and ambition.

Getting Involved in Electricity Retailing

This could be a good fit for , but you’ll need to approach retailing thoughtfully because you are not in a fully competitive market. You may find yourself limited in what you can offer and working with the main retailer for your community will be essential.

There’s also a lot more you’ll need to consider before you decide to go ahead, such as your community’s priorities, resources and ambition.

Which type of generation are you considering?

Setting up a Community Generator

A community generator that’s powered by renewables could be a good fit for . But it may be difficult to find renewable resources that match suitable sites.

’s best option for a renewable generator will likely be solar. If space is limited, you may need to put the solar panels on a large roof.

There’s still a lot to consider to work out which type of project is best for .

Setting up a Community Generator

Like most places in Australia, is very likely to have good solar resources.

Other options, such as wind, hydro and biomass, are only possible with the right conditions. If you’re interested in these kinds of generators, you’ll need to assess the renewable resources in your area. (We’ll take a look at this later).

Microgrid

To work out whether a microgrid is the right option for , we need to know a little about your local electrical network.

Are you at the end of a long electrical connection to the grid?

Are there high network costs?

Is there poor network performance?

Setting up a Microgrid

Setting up a microgrid doesn’t sound like a good fit for because microgrids work best when you’re at the end of a long electrical connection to the grid and when there are high network costs and poor network performance.

Do you still want to consider setting up a microgrid?

Although setting up a microgrid doesn’t seem to be your best option, there are many other projects that could be a better fit for your situation. Let’s take a look at your community’s priorities, resources and ambition to understand more about your options.

Setting up a Microgrid

On first impressions, it seems that setting up a microgrid might be a good fit for .

But there’s a lot more you need to consider before you decide to go ahead, such as your community’s priorities, resources and ambition.

Setting up an Urban Microgrid

Setting up a microgrid doesn’t sound like a good fit for because you are in an urban setting and likely to already have a number of alternative electricity supplies.

Do you still want to consider setting up a microgrid?

Although setting up a microgrid doesn’t seem to be your best option, there are many other projects that could be a better fit for your situation. Let’s take a look at your community’s priorities, resources and ambition to understand more about your options.

Setting up an Remote Microgrid

It looks like is already part of a microgrid.

You’ve identified as a remote community that is not connected to either of the big systems - the NEM or the SWIS. Setting up your own microgrid will have an outsize impact on the system that already serves you, even if you are part of a large microgrid, such as the one that serves Darwin.

Do you still want to consider setting up a microgrid?

Although setting up a microgrid doesn’t seem to be your best option, there are many other projects that could be a better fit for your situation. Let’s take a look at your community’s priorities, resources and ambition to understand more about your options.

What other type of project are you considering?

Project: ---.

Well, you’ve got us stumped!

It seems this is a type of community energy project that we haven’t considered. This means that we won’t be able to give you advice or compare it to other projects.

Do you still want to consider this project?

Part 3: Your Priorities

Now let’s consider what matters to you and the types of projects you’d like to work on.

It’s up to you how you choose to answer these questions: you can answer them from your own perspective, on behalf of your community energy team, or in ways that you think best represent the community.

The way you choose to answer will affect the suggestions we give you. You can take this questionnaire more than once to see how different answers affect the suggestions you get.

What do you want out of a project?

Knowing what’s important to you is essential when you’re working out which community energy projects are a good fit for your community.

How important are these outcomes?

Energy bills become lower in .

Our electricity is more reliable with fewer power outages.

uses more renewable power.

is more energy self sufficient, relying mainly on local sources.

Everyone in is benefitting from the energy transition.

We adopt leading-edge technology and great ideas to speed up the transition.

has more say in energy decisions that affect us.

What type of projects are you interested in doing next?

What type of projects are you interested in funding-wise?

How long do you want to spend on your next community energy project?

When it comes to the energy transition process, where would you like your project(s) to fit?

Who would you be open to partnering with?

’s Priorities and Ambitions

You’ve told us that your top priorities are:

Your priorities are one of the key things to consider when you’re deciding on what type of community energy project to do.

The projects that can deliver the most against your priorities are also the most ambitious projects. If you are not ready for these now, we will recommend you work up to them.

Based on what you’ve told us, it seems that you’re looking to work on projects that are complex. Now that we’ve considered your priorities, let’s take a look at where you are now.

Part 4: Your Team

Now let’s look at your community energy team. These are the people who will drive your community’s energy journey and bring your projects to life.

We’ll take a look at the skills and knowledge you currently have. This will help you reflect on areas where you might need to build more capacity or access additional expertise. We’ll use your answers to make some recommendations to help with your knowledge gaps and to assess your team capacity in more detail.

How would you describe your community energy team?

Next we’d like to ask you a bit about your skills and knowledge.

Don’t worry if you don’t know all the answers to these questions; we can provide links to explainers and activities to help you build your knowledge.

Next we’d like to ask you a bit about your skills and knowledge.

You can answer these questions from your own perspective or from the perspective of the whole team.

There’s no right or wrong approach, but keep in mind that the answers you give may affect the advice we give you.

How well would you say you understand the reasons you would get support for energy projects from the community?

How well do you know your local electricity network infrastructure?

For example, your community might be at the end of a long connection to the grid, or you may be part of a mesh.

How well do you understand the limitations of your local electricity network?

For example, knowing the voltage limitations of different parts of the network, or understanding your local network’s ability to cope with solar.

How well do you understand how electricity is bought and sold?

For example, knowing how retailers buy, sell and hedge in electricity markets, how they pass through network costs and how they construct different tariffs.

How well do you understand how electricity projects are regulated?

For example, knowing who the Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Commission are and some of the rules that apply to community energy projects.

How well do you understand how electricity projects are financed?

For example, some sources of investment are only available with particular risk profiles and rates of return. Crowdfunding and donations come with their own rules and governance requirements. The grants that are available continue to change and can require matching funding.

Generally speaking, how do you feel about the technical side of things?

You don’t need to be an engineer to enjoy understanding the technical details and to be able to ask the right questions about technology choices. Understanding electricity systems and energy technology helps you think about how to achieve the vision you might have for our future energy systems.

When it comes to governance, which of the following are true? (it’s okay to not check any boxes)

Part 5: Your Electricity Network (ACT)

Just one question in this part:

Who owns the electricity poles and wires in your community?

Essential Energy owns the poles and wires almost everywhere in the ACT. Essential Energy is the network provider for some places on the border with NSW

Part 5: Your Electricity Network (QLD)

Just one question in this part:

Who owns the electricity poles and wires in your community?

Part 5: Your Electricity Network (NSW)

Just one question in this part:

Who owns the electricity poles and wires in your community?

Part 5: Your Electricity Network (VIC)

Just one question in this part:

Who owns the electricity poles and wires in your community?

Part 5: Your Electricity Network

Good news, we’ve already figured out everything we need to know about your electricity network, so we don’t need to ask you any more questions about this.

Let’s move on to the final part of the questionnaire, looking at your local energy resources...

Part 6: Your Energy Resources

Finally, let’s look at the renewable energy resources that your community can take advantage of.

is not likely to be able to take advantage of renewable resources in the same way as regional or remote communities.

But, might be one of those rare urban locations with suitable resources at a suitable site so let’s check.

Part 6: Your Energy Resources

Finally, let’s look at the renewable energy resources that your community can take advantage of.

Is there a suitable site in for a large windmill?

Apart from the obvious need to be in a windy area, a windmill typically needs to be at the top of a rise and near the main electricity network. There are other requirements as well.

Is there a suitable site in for a hydro generator?

A hydro generator needs adequate flow, adequate height or both. It also needs to be located at a place where the water flow can be channelled into the turbine. Most hydro generators have some impact on the local river environment so you will need to be confident you can get the appropriate permissions or reuse existing dams that are already in place.

Is there a suitable site in for a pumped hydro generator?

Pumped hydro relies on a store of water at both the top and bottom of a hill. The amount of power you can generate will be proportional to the volume you can store and the height difference.

Is there a suitable site in for a biomass generator?

Biomass includes wood, wood waste, straw and other plant waste. It is generally burned so your site should be suitable for collecting and storing the biomass with space for a generator and high chimney.

Is there a suitable site in for a biogas generator?

Manure, sewage and other forms of compost can be turned into biogas in a digester which breaks down the waste in the absence of oxygen to create methane (the same gas as natural gas). The methane is then burnt in an engine. Your site to be the obvious place for concentrating sources of waste in an underground or on-ground digester which is the size of a large tank.

Important things to know...

This summary and advice reflects information about that was supplied through our decision support tool questionnaire. You can re-take the questionnaire to see how different answers might change the results. We hope this summary helps you, but remember, this is general advice only.

Key information about , .

People

Households*

Businesses*

Kilowatt hours used each year*

Spent on electricity each year*

Energy Market:

Network Provider:

natural resources:

* approximately

1. Next steps you could take

Projects you’re thinking of doing

Projects you could consider:

Next Later No-go

We suggest you start with these projects because they best match your location, priorities and current level of ambition.

You might like to work up to the more ambitious of these projects as you build your capacity, or start to include the smaller projects as you broaden your program.

These projects don't appear to work for your location. Each summary will explain why. You can always go back to key questions and change your answer if you disagree.