Ausgrid
Customer engagement to inform energy resilience investment
Client | Ausgrid
Service | Community and customer engagement, facilitation, deliberative process
Duration | 2023
Sectors | Energy strategy, regulatory reset, resilience
The independent Reset Customer Panel highlighted the value of the engagement, noting that without this local, in-depth process they would not have supported the proposed resilience solutions.
Project Overview
We supported Ausgrid to engage communities on energy resilience priorities as part of its 2024–2029 Regulatory Proposal. The program focused on helping customers understand and shape investment decisions in response to increasing extreme weather.
The core challenge was translating complex technical and financial information into accessible insights, so customers could make informed decisions about trade-offs between resilience and bill impacts.
Our approach
Working with Ausgrid and consumer advocates, we designed an engagement program that enabled communities to develop tailored packages of resilience responses.
We engaged representative groups of 30 participants in each location over a 6 month period through a series of 4 structured workshops. Combining deliberative methods with participatory budgeting, the workshops built understanding of resilience options, investment trade-offs and bill impacts, equipping participants to develop considered response packages.
What we delivered
We delivered a multi-phase engagement program across in-person and online formats, supported by an end-to-end engagement strategy, workshop materials and facilitation.
To support understanding, we developed practical tools and analogies, including a ‘supermarket’ model and ‘fast and slow money’ concepts, to make trade-offs and investment decisions tangible. We also designed how local insights would inform Ausgrid’s broader deliberative panel to test willingness to pay.
Impact
The program provided a strong, evidence-based foundation for Ausgrid’s resilience investment proposal. The independent Reset Customer Panel highlighted the value of the engagement, noting that without this local, in-depth process they would not have supported the proposed resilience solutions. The program strengthened confidence in the customer evidence underpinning Ausgrid’s submission.