Between October 2016 and June 2017, EAGA partnered with the Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (NAGA) to deliver a cross sector engagement project to build better collaboration between electricity networks and local government planners in Victoria.
Summary of future energy planning available here (PDF, 242 KB)
Under Victoria’s planning system local councils and the State Government develop planning schemes to control land use and development. Currently, electricity network planning and land-use planning occur in isolation, meaning long term, sustainable energy opportunities are missed. Whilst both land use planning schemes and the national energy market objectives intend to serve the long term interest of the community, they cannot do so whilst operating in isolation. Despite the implications land use planning has on local energy use and demand patterns, existing regulatory requirements do not require either sector to synchronise their respective planning processes. By contrast, considerations of water in the planning process is much more advanced, with good cross sectoral collaboration, early engagement on new developments and considerations of up and downstream impacts. Ongoing and effective collaboration is therefore required between the sectors to ensure that opportunities for well-planned integrated energy solutions are captured.
The cross alliance project was funded through a grant from Energy Consumers Australia (ECA). Download a the full report here (PDF, 2 MB).