Helping communities build energy resilience and be ready for climate-related disasters
Energy Consumers Australia had been receiving frequent calls from communities wanting to become more energy resilient, but unsure where to start.
This inspired a partnership between Energy Consumers Australia, the Institute of Sustainable Futures (at University of Technology Sydney) and Community Power Agency, to develop a Toolkit to empower ‘energy ready communities’ in the context of disaster preparedness.
Community Power Agency was engaged to work with six diverse communities who had experienced (or were at risk of experiencing) natural disasters to inform the development of the approach and resources used in the Toolkit. Designer Chris Gaul from Parallel Lines designed the attractive and practical resources, which received a Good Design Australia Award in 2024.
The resulting Toolkit combines expert insights with firsthand community knowledge of disaster preparation and response, to provide comprehensive support for energy resilience.
Funder: Energy Consumers Australia
We began by conducting research and stakeholder mapping, before working with community representatives to design and coordinate a series of community engagement workshops
Community Power Agency’s previous engagement coordinator, Dr Elianor Gerard, and Director Kristy Walters, travelled the east coast of Australia, from the Mornington Peninsula to Magnetic Island, consulting with the six communities of Bonang, Gympie, Mullumbimby, Mornington Peninsula, Lake Macquarie, and Magnetic Island.
This series of community engagement workshops formed the basis of a co-design approach to create customisable resources for a range of different communities and their geographic and social contexts.
The basis of our approach was to make decisions with communities, not for them, and together, to build an energy future where communities are not just surviving, but thriving.
Communities with lived experience of natural disasters and extended power outages have a wealth of knowledge and expertise to share on what to do (and what not to do) in crisis situations. They also know how to build local resilience by utilising their communities’ assets and local knowledge.
Being energy ready is everyone’s business. A resilient community is one with plans in place to enable a safe and dependable energy supply, even in a disaster. The importance of social connection, and the intersection between communication and energy, cannot be overstated in the context of disaster preparedness.
Common attributes of a resilient community are:
