Regional communities wishing for cheaper electricity – rather than a new footy jersey – in return for hosting huge wind, solar and battery projects could be in luck, if the plans of a new Australian startup take hold.
Reswitch, an EnergyLab alumnus, is seeking to simplify the delivery of power bill credits to neighbours of renewable energy projects, an increasingly popular community benefit option as the shift to 82 per cent renewable by 2030 ramps up.
The problem is, it’s complicated.
Global renewables developer Engie blazed a trail on this front with its proposed 1.9 gigawatt (GW) wind and solar project The Plains in 2024.
That project was sent back to the drawing board when it didn’t win access rights to the Southeast renewable energy zone (REZ), but before that Engie was proposing to give neighbours within 20km $1000 off their energy bills every year.
The catch was they had to sign up as an Engie retail customer.
This kind of tied benefit is a problem because people don’t want to have to switch retailers, says Reswitch cofounder and CEO Kate Osaze.
“Although there are projects that are using that model of partnering with retailers, we could see that the uptake was not there and we needed a way that removes the friction of getting the benefit and being retail agnostic,” Osaze told Renew Economy.
“Given my background in the sector, I can tell that this is something that the industry has been asking for and communities have been asking for… The demand is there.”
But for developers, delivering bill credits is no easy task.
They would need to keep an updated list of neighbours eligible for a rebate over the 30-40 year life of the project, maintain a long-term phone or email contact for those people, and hire people to handle this, says Reswitch cofounder Adrian Falvey.
“It may end up costing them more to run the program than the actual benefit they give out to the community in the first place, which is a waste of time,” he told Renew Economy from his EnergyLab stand at the All Energy conference in Melbourne last week.
“We really want to chop that down and keep it as small as possible.”
To remedy this, Reswitch handles the neighbour mapping, initial invitations, and ongoing payments to whichever retailer the recipients use, for a startup fee and an ongoing percentage of the total fund.
Reswitch launched its first pilot project in August with Squadron Energy, which will put an annual $1000 onto neighbour’s bills from the 450 megawatt (MW) stage one of the Clark Creek wind farm.
Other publicly-announced projects are with Central Queensland Power on its 372 MW Moah Creek wind project, and Virya Energy’s 1.5 GW Meering West project which is one of a cluster around Kerang in the north of Victoria.
Others have also signed on but Osaze says they’re not ready to go public yet and cover transmission, battery and solar projects. New Zealand is also on the company’s imminent radar.
What Osaze and Falvey are not proposing is a bandaid to fix existing distrust in communities.
The introduction of renewable energy infrastructure has caused major ruptures within some communities in Australia, an issue canvassed by the federal Senate inquiry into climate and energy mis- and dis-information.
Offering $50 a month off a power bill won’t work “if you’ve already stuffed up your community engagement and the community’s dead set against it” Falvey says, adding that it works well when set against a pre-existing community program.
It all comes down to listening to what a community is actually asking for, Osaze says, repeating a line that is now a mantra for community organisations.
“If a community is asking for full time psychologist because there’s a high suicide rate, or the you know they want other benefits, then that is what the developer should be doing.” she says.
“If a reduction in power bills or addressing energy affordability is something the community has asked for, then it obviously makes sense. But again, the key is that we listen to communities and make sure we are delivering on what they want, and it’s not the other way around.”
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.