Proposed Changes to Electricity Pricing Structures

I was chatting to some of my friends last night and the topic of rising electricity prices came up (I know I know … not your usual dinner conversation). My feeling is because the ongoing rise of electricity prices is a highly topical issue at the moment, with many West Australians feeling the pinch. Even if we can afford the price rises, no one likes to pay more for something if it is not justified.

But before I go on … I just want to remind bloggers that this blog post represents my musings around the current state of electricity pricing and use in general …….

So why is the government increasing prices? It is based on the premise that we should be paying the full cost of the energy that we consume (but with concessions where necessary). Currently the State Government estimates a shortfall of $294.1 million (as stated by the Office of Energy). Before prices started rising two years ago, there had been no price rise for residential customers for ten years, even though the cost of generating and providing that electricity had risen.

Like it or not, there is no question that electricity prices will continue to rise, and the way in which the rise is managed will make a difference to everyone depending on circumstances. My feeling is that It is unlikely we will end up with a flat rate for electricity as different pricing structures can help deliver many benefits. Some of the most important potential benefits that we could take advantage of with different pricing structures, in my opinion, are:

Reduction of demand at peak usage times (the ‘peak’ is a large part of what determines Western Power’s need to upgrade or build new infrastructure) and;

Delivering equity objectives such as charging more for usage over and above essential needs;

Embedding concessions to keep the system simpler

Helping transition consumers to the level of participation they will have with the network with the implementation of a Smart Grid

That's just my observation. The Office of Energy in conjunction with WACOSS (WA Council of Social Services) is currently in a period of public consultation on the issue, called the Tariff and Concession Framework Review. You can view the paper under consideration at www.energy.wa.gov.au and you have until July 15^th to respond. So if you have an opinion about how this should be managed, it is important that you take the time to get your voice heard. The Government will not be able to fully understand how different options will affect people unless citizens take the opportunity to engage in the consultation period.

They are also considering energy concessions – the objectives of concessions, to what groups they should apply to, and what the most effective way to deliver concessions is.

The group of citizens that I was involved with to submit a response to the Strategic Energy Initiative, were highly supportive of time-of-use tariffs as a way to manage demand – but in conjunction with provision of education and skills training to enable people to change behaviour.

That was our primary opinion – what grabs you the most about the proposed changes? Would be great to start a conversation on this ….

Have Your Say on the Future of Energy in WA

Did you know that the Office of Energy has just released the Strategic Energy Initiative, Energy 2031, Directions Paper and it is open for public submission until the 6th of May?

You can find the paper at www.energy.wa.gov.au

I could be wrong, but I believe that this is the time where the community has most potential to influence the long term energy strategy taken by the State.

 Given the context of increasing threat from climate change and international pressure for action, political instability in oil-producing nations, resource scarcity and the list goes on …, what we decide now will have significant impact on our economy, environment, security and way of life. This relates to what we in sustainability call, ‘intergenerational equity’. Importantly, it is also a crucial moment in determining the approach taken to governance over this issue - for example I personally believe there needs to be a greater acknowledgement of the need for community engagement on these issues and public participation in decision making.

I attended the Beyond Zero Emissions launch of their zero-emissions plan for stationary energy earlier this week. One of the take-away messages was that in order to make progress in reducing carbon emissions, community action and leadership is more essential than ever; our political system is proving inadequate to drive significant changes on such a complex issue. I mentioned before that I am a firm believer in the link between sustainability and community engagement and this issue certainly highlights the point. The community can not only ‘push’ policy-makers away from potentially bad decisions by alerting them to the seriousness of pitfalls, but can also ‘pull’ policy in a positive direction also by suggesting alternate options.

In relation to the Strategic Energy Initiative, Western Power will be providing a response, including input from our internal sustainability professionals , however I’d rather you made your own mind up and had your opinion heard. If you have suggestions as to how to improve the strategies mentioned, ideas for alternate strategies (for example what sort of support would you find useful in helping your community become energy-self-sufficient) or think there are priorities which are not given sufficient attention, I urge you to consider making a submission. A useful point of contact might be your local government sustainability officer or equivalent position.

Have your say about the future of energy in WA through a range of means:

Written submissions on the Directions Paper will be accepted until 6 May 2011. Post your written submission to:

Energy2031 Directions Paper

Office of Energy

Level 9, 197 St Georges Terrace

PERTH WA 6000

Alternatively, you can email your submission or comments to energy2031@energy.wa.gov.au,

If you don’t feel that you understand enough about what structure the submission should be in, I strongly recommend calling the Office of Energy and asking for guidance – facilitating community input is essential.

Or let’s start a conversation on this blog?  

And of course, pass this information onto anyone else you feel may be interested.

There is also a public consultation forum on the SEI Directions Paper run by the Office of Energy on the Monday the 4^th of April. See their website for more details.

Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) directly relates to sustainable business relations and aims to encourage businesses to make positive impacts on the environment, employees, consumers and all other stakeholders. In order to honour a triple bottom line of people, planet, profit, organisations need to include the community and public in corporate decision making. CSR is holding businesses accountable for their behaviours and although has been called a clever PR exercise, can also make an organisation an employer of choice.

On the 27^th of January Murdoch University aimed to broach the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21^st Century through a panel of four presenters. The main focus was discussing what CSR meant in today’s working world and also how it related to ethical business practises. The panel covered CSR in multinationals relating to profit, government regulations of CSR and explored how it is becoming more influential in promoting a workplace to employees.

In my opinion the most interesting element of the discussion was the direct link between community engagement and CSR. It is the organisations responsibility to find out what the community expects of them and to try and deliver, therefore not simply acting in isolation. Moving forward, the shift away from directing and delegating business practises towards a collaboration of sustainable practises that give back to the community, will strengthen relationships and improve the quality of life.

As I left the evening, I thought of my role within Western Power and how it will contribute towards ethical business practises. It is the responsibility of organisations to make sure they represent the community accurately and ensure their actions and behaviours meet the future generations needs. I aim to be part of this within Western Power through my work in Edge of Grid communities.

Place Making

Who understands place making?

An important theme we consider in the Sustainability Assessment & Community Engagement team at Western Power is social impact, which encompasses how we affect sense of place. Sense of place refers to the entire group of cognitions and affective sentiments held regarding a particular geographic locale[1][2] and the meanings one attributes to such areas[3][4]. But it is not just about how our works negatively impact sense of place, but also how we positively add to it when much of our work do necessitate altering the qualities of a place.  

I wanted to share with my thoughts and experiences about sense of place. I am a committed Fremantle resident. I love the sense of community that exists there, as well as the fact that people actively try to contribute to it. One recent grass-roots initiative is the Cappuccino Strip Street Club. This is a group of local residents volunteering to create opportunities for the local community to enhance and reconnect with Fremantle’s heart. This week I attended an event in (and I mean in) the café strip in Fremantle. People were playing music, hula-hooping, playing ping pong, reading on sofas, eating their dinner and painting a mural in a space which is normally reserved for cars (40% of which are just looking for parking). It was a hive of activity and observers could not help but be struck by the thought “why can’t it be like this all the time?” Acts like this are a form of social art which induces reconsideration of the use of space that normally goes unquestioned. Ultimately the art of place making builds the social capital of a community.

Thus place making can be community-driven, but urban design alterations and infrastructure also change the way space is used and can alter sense of place. Substations and transmission lines can take up large amounts of valuable space in an urban setting. NIMBYism is frequently cited as a cause of public opposition to developments like electricity infrastructure; but it is more useful to think of it as place-protective action. Utilities, Western Power included, seek to discover solutions to implementing infrastructure works which can lead to the change being perceived as place-enhancing rather than as a threat to place. And that’s not easy when we’re talking about big and some say ‘unsightly’ pieces of infrastructure!

Strategies which electricity utilities have implemented in the past include building bike paths underneath transmission lines, using community design workshops to come up with the design of substation surrounds, visual mitigation measures such as landscaping and use of public art including using local youths in creating urban art murals. In rare instances (rare because of the extremely high cost) substations have been undergrounded in areas of high urban density in order to avoid negative impacts. Using community engagement techniques which enhances people sense of political efficacy (they feel they can contribute to changing policy) has the added benefit of leaving behind a community with greater capacity to actively contribute to their community in the future.

In the current legislative context, it is a challenge to justify extra expenditure on place-making enhancements. This is partly because measuring social impact is difficult, it means quantifying the value it provides to society in order to be able to compare it to the relative costs of the works, and partly because social capital is not as highly valued as financial capital by the regulators.

So, given what I have just shared does anyone out there have any brilliant ideas on how to solve this conundrum? I would also be really appreciative of new ideas which focus on enhancement of place. If electricity demand continues to rise, Western Power will continue to need to build new infrastructure, so how can we add to a sense of place instead of detracting from it?

If you would like to become a place-maker, The Cappuccino Strip Street Club can be found on Facebook, or visit www.creative-communities.com for inspiration, information and practical activities you can start trying in your street. 

---

[1] Altman, I.A.; Low, S.M., eds. 1992. Place attachment. New York: Plenum. 314 p.

[2] Jorgensen, B.S.; Stedman, R. 2001. Sense of place as an attitude: lakeshore

owners’ attitudes toward their properties. Journal of Environmental Psychology.

21: 233–248.

[3] Fishwick, L.; Vining, J. 1992. Toward a phenomenology of recreation place.

Journal of Environmental Psychology. 12: 57–63.

[4] Stedman, R. 2003. Is it really just a social construction? The contribution of

the physical environment to sense of place. Society and Natural Resources.

16: 671–685.

Voodoo Engagement

I came across this brief article on energy efficiency and human behaviour. I find it intriguing as it highlighted that many different viewpoints on an issue that can exist and be widely communicated through a variety of forums.

The argument presented in the article becomes more intriguing as I venture down the path of community engagement which will no doubt result in engaging persons of like and differing viewpoints on energy efficiency.

I am sure the 'rebound effect' exists to a degree in many areas of life, but I would hope that people are wiser than to equate an increase in energy efficient appliances and methods with an increase in their right to consume energy. Will "energy efficient technology actually negate any environmental gain"? Or is this idea presented by an overzealous author looking for a controversial topic?

Whichever side of the argument taken, the bigger point here for me is that; no matter what, it is part of my role in Western Power to try and engage both voices and to listen to both voices.

I leave it up to you to read and form your own opinion.

http://www.next100.com/2011/01/voodoo-energy-economics.php

The only certainty is the uncertainty

Happy new year to all.

I know its been a while since I last posted, and there have been some changes happening over the last few months. I’ve recently been embedded in the Network Planning and Development branch to be more involved in Western Power’s strategic future infrastructure planning – often looking at 10-15 year windows of time.

The reason I’ve chosen the title of this blog post is because I feel it describes the nature of the industry/environment that we work in.

Here at Western Power, we manage the grid (www.westernpower.com.au). We are responsible for transporting power from generators to homes and businesses. The work we do is responsive to needs that arise.

We respond to community and commercial needs and power demands. We respond to consumer behaviour and changing power use habits, increased use of airconditioners…. Multiple plasma televisions in homes…..new hospitals……. New schools….. housing developments…… mining operations…… industry…….other infrastructure such as desalination plants…….. We respond to power generation in whatever form it comes and in whatever location it is developed (wind farms, coal fired, geothermal etc) – by connecting it to our network and then transporting it through the grid and eventually out to homes and businesses. We respond to new technologies, as they arise, and accommodate them in our network.

All of these things change. We constantly review our forecasts, our network and our strategies for how to provide power for the community into the future. Now, more than ever, things are changing.

Because of this change, we plan for the future requirements of our network based on the information we have available at the time. This is no exact science. We share this information with our community, stakeholders, with the best of intentions, and with the clear message that things change. With the long lead times associated with strategic planning, we work with a great deal of uncertainty….. this is a message that we are always reinforcing, and which often creates a certain level of anxiety with the local communities in which infrastructure might be located in the future. And I can completely understand why.

A recent example is a strategic land purchase which we undertook in Banjup/Wandi area. A beautiful semi rural community, lifestyle blocks, still close to the city. An area that, in the direct vicinity of the site we purchased, will probably not grow too much for quite a number of years….. but in the future it might. And the areas around it are growing. And the areas around the substations which currently supply the local area are growing, which will mean they will eventually reach capacity……it is complex, and constantly changing, dependent on many external factors. And it is a difficult story to tell.

I would love comment from others about how they feel about lack of certainly in infrastructure planning. About how they may confront this in their lives/jobs. And what the community would like Western Power to do to involve them in this journey, and perhaps better communicate the ‘uncertainty’ that we deal with in projects…

To spark some ideas/thoughts – take a look at this article on the Peter Sandman website about uncertainty and public outrage

http://www.psandman.com/col/uncertin.htm

The Experience of Being Future-Minded

In moments of reflection I look to the future and I am profoundly worried. I try it again on other days, hoping in a different time, in a different frame of mind, my assessment of where our current trajectory is taking us will be different. But to be honest, if I try to paint a rosy picture I know I am fooling myself. Deep down, I believe that we are in serious trouble if we don't make massive changes. Speaking to my sustainability-minded friends I know this is something they are faced with as well. I don’t know how everyone out there feels, but these are the extremes my thinking swings between:

On a Bad Day

I am extremely frustrated at the potential of human beings (myself included) to put the blinkers on, cacoon themselves in the never-before-seen-in-human-history level of comfort that we have been blessed with for the last few decades, and enjoy blissful, self-imposed, ignorance to the reality of the future of our planet and all the living things on it. I am extremely frustrated by people complaining about the state of politics but not doing anything to change it (it is a democracy after all). I am extremely frustrated by the time wasted on things that simply don't matter. I am extremely frustrated by the short-sightedness of the current debate around energy prices - no kidding renewables are not as cost-efficient as fossil fuels! In the short term, that is. GET EDUCATED. Denial and other non-productive psychological coping strategies are NOT appropriate responses to climate change. Normally I’m quite forgiving of the human condition, but this frustration has built up over a long period of time and frankly, I’m not overly appreciative of my future being put in jeopardy because of other people’s willing ignorance, selfishness and apathy.

On a Good Day

Here’s another jumble of thoughts:

What people decide should be done looks quite when their decisions are given power of influence (i.e. participatory decision making). Cultural norms strongly influence our actions and hope lies in the fact that culture is constantly changing, constantly being created by interactions between you and me and every other human being. Hard times bring out the best in human beings when a dash of hope is added to the mix. Most of the technology we need to transition to a sustainable way of living already exists; the real challenge lies in the implementation of policy and more specifically, citizens eliciting political will from their elected leaders to drive that policy.

Why I’m working at Western Power

Because of the second set of thoughts. The first set doesn’t lead to anything constructive.

I’m working at Western Power because I firmly believe in the link between community engagement and sustainability, which will be the topic of a series of upcoming blogs. I wanted to work in community engagement in the electricity sector because it is a key battleground in sustainability; if we can’t change the electricity sector we are up the proverbial creek. I’m excited to be stationed at these battlelines.

Does anyone else out there go through this kind of emotional rollercoaster? How do you go with maintaining hope and constructive thinking versus processing harsh realities?

Maximising community engagement - case study: Melville and Fremantle

In March of this year, myself and my colleagues facilitated a community comments session for a project focused on reinforcing the supply and security of power within the Melville and Fremantle regions.

The session focused only on listening to and capturing community thoughts, questions and ideas.   It was an opportunity for the community to vent, without interuption, on the project at large.

The output from the session was then put into a report and fed back to Western Power's technical experts and decision makers for consideration, and more importantly, for response.

Our experts and decision makers then busily set about responding to the community questions captured in the above session.   After an initial go at responding, my team and myself put ourselves in your shoes and went through the responses and called out; what was too technical and what didn't make sense.

In fact, we put the respondents through this process three times to ensure that we were providing the community with accurate, thorough and truly thoughtful responses.  

Then finally, last night, we held a follow up session and provided these responses back to the community.

I wonder if as community members, you see the benefit to this two pronged engagement approach - that is, to hold one listening session and then follow it up with a response session.   In our belief, this not only maximises how much information we can gather from the community but it also ensures that we can get the right people to provide the right responses to the questions being asked.  

Do you see the value of this engagement approach?   Do you believe there is a better way, and if so, what do you think that is?    Have you been involved in this type of engagement process before and do you think it was successful?    Or lastly, have you been involved in a different type of process that you'd care to share with us? 

Powering Perth's Communities

On Wednesday 28 April we held a community session to provide an update on the Powering Perth's Communities project. We had our Planning Projects Manager Marc on hand to share with the group the reasons why the project has been deferred and also to outline the plans for the South West Transmission Reinforcement project.

One of the messages Marc shared with us was the level of uncertainty around planning projects so far the future given the number of external influences on our network, for example the location of proposed new generators and where the demand for electricity is located.

You can read the project update here and feel free to submit any questions you may have on the blog and we will source the answers for you from our subject matter experts.

Many questions raised on the evening by the community were around what the future will look like for the energy industry. If you are interested in this I recommend you read Western Power's submission to the Strategic Energy Initiative. We would love to hear what your thoughts are on the Strategic Energy Initiative and whether you made a submission.

Days of Change

It has been a while between postings but what better reason to get back into the conversation by promoting a great initiative.

Days of Change is an initiative that was launched in WA last Friday and its aim is to help the community live more sustainably.

I encourage you to visit the Days of Change website and make the pledge!

Community trust

One of the biggest challenges I'm finding of late is when I deliver project information to community members and am met with responses such as, 'you're lying to us' or 'that's not true'.  

On 2 March, 2010 at the Melville Recreation Centre, Western Power held a community comments session geared towards the current Melville & Fremantle power options project.

The focus was to build upon previous community information gathering activities, so that a community output report could be provided to Western Power's technical experts and decision makers for consideration - here's a copy of the session output:  community comments session output and questions.

During my time with this project, one of the things that has constantly stood out to me is the great sense of distrust that I perceive some members of the community hold for Western Power.   Listening to the crowd during the March 2 session, along with reading materials such as the community comments session output and questions, various media articles or even a website created by one of the local residents has really got me thinking about how much project misinformation there is out there and on how a lot of this misinformation seems to stem from a place of distrust towards Western Power.

It makes me wonder how we can improve the relationship between Western Power and the community so that we can better work together towards providing sustainable power solutions for the entire community - both today and for future generations.

What do you think that Western Power should do?   Do you think that the community mistrust is really warranted or is it possibly misplaced anger and frustration driven by a dislike of major infrastructure within our local communities?

Do any of you have similar issues in your jobs and if so, what do you do to improve your customer relationships?

Bayswater needs more power

As with a lot of our suburbs, more sub-divisions and electronic devices (such as air conditioners and plasma televisions) are driving the need for new community zone substations. In this instance it is Bayswater but the likelihood is that most suburbs will need power reinforcement in the not too distant future by way of a community substation.

We have invited 7500 residents to come along to a community session, being held on Thursday 18 March at the Galleria Shopping Centre, to share with us their key consideration and concerns. They can also submit their thoughts online via our quick survey. The key concern so far is to keep the substation away from the residential areas.

What happens if, after extensive site option and technical design analysis with input from the community, it isn’t possible to stay away from the residential areas? What do you think we should do?

Distance Cuts down the Options

A very interesting special report on Climate Change in The Australian today. One article that particularly caught my attention was a piece on Queensland’s challenge balancing  energy supply and demand. South East Queensland is referred to as the ‘canary in the coal mine’ for Australians facing up to the implications of a large increase in population in the coming years while trying to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

This is a scenario that should resonate with West Australians. The growing population and corresponding energy use will require increased investment in energy infrastructure. Looking more closely at the situation is South East Queensland, the population grew by a third over 12 years but peak electricity demand, driven by extensive use of air conditioners , has gone up by 99 per cent. More than 30 per cent of the regions homes have three or more air-conditioners. The average household power use is 70% higher than in 1998. Sound familiar?

This is a good conversation to have with the community so feel free to use this blog to share your thoughts, views and opinions.

Have your say about the Powering Perth’s Communities project

I’ve been working on a project for the past few months that will focus on ‘engaging on the engagement model’. So what does engaging on the engagement model mean? It means that we are reaching out to the community to understand how and at what level they want to be involved in our decision making processes. We are drawing on recognised good practice such as that offered by the International Association for Public Participation engagement spectrum. 

This is a particularly unique experience for us because this project is different from many of the others we are working at the moment because it has an extensive history. You can read more about it by clicking on the link: Powering Perth’s Communities

We have identified two major objectives of the PPC project – to ensure sufficient power is made available in the network and that the security of the network isn’t compromised.

It is really important to us to give residents the opportunity to feed their knowledge directly into us and help us learn from our past mistakes when communicating with the community.  We would like for community members to know that their concerns and frustrations have been genuinely listened to and acknowledged.

The activities taking place around the community engagement include:

• One on one interviews with community members and senior Western Power managers
• An online interview which can be submitted from the Western Power website
• Facilitated community session to actively listen to the communities’ thoughts/concerns
• A report that includes an unedited transcription of the interviews to be posted on the Western Power website

Can you think of any other way we can encourage you and other local people to offer their ideas and feedback please?  We value your input and this will form a critical part of how we proceed with this project.

Cities of Melville & Fremantle power options

Hi everyone, I’m Sandi.  This is my first post here at You Have the Power and I’m really looking forward to hearing what you’ve all got to say about Western Power and how you think we’re going.  

I’d like to share with you the details of a project based in the Cities of Melville and Fremantle, where Western Power is currently in the preliminary stages of investigating options to ensure our network’s reliability and power security – click here to read more about the project and the options being investigated.  

In November last year, in support of this project, we sent out letters to 4,000 local homes and businesses, placed ads in all of the local newspapers and held a community session at Booragoon’s Garden City Shopping Centre, and all with the aim of informing residents of the options being investigated by Western Power.   Through these communications we encouraged residents to complete a survey based on project options.

We’ve finally finished compiling the results of that survey and whilst I’m really happy with the diversity of the findings, I’d love to hear your views on the overall report and how best to support and incorporate such diversity of opinions within the community?

If you filled in a survey, then I’d also be keen to get your impressions on what others had to say – for example, were you surprised or even shocked by what others had to say and has reading the report now moderated or exacerbated your own views?

Click here for a copy of the survey findings.

If you’d like to comment in person as well as online, about this report or the project in general, then please head along to our Community Comments Session being held

Date:        Tuesday 2^nd March, 2010

Time:        5.00 – 8.00 pm

Address:   Melville Recreation Centre – Arts & Craft Room
                 Corner Canning & Stock Road, Melville

Note:        Coffee and tea will be made available
                 Session hosted by professional facilitator, Helen Hardcastle

Lastly, I want to take this opportunity to really thank everyone who took the time to fill in our options analysis survey for this project.   I'm so pleased with the insights that you all provided that Western Power may not have otherwise been privy to and I look forward to hearing more from all of you – on this and many more topics!   Thank you.

Dieback Consultative Council (WA) and Western Power

On January 12th I posted about our involvement with the Dieback Consultative Council. Craig Morgan, Senior Environment Officer at Western Power represents Western Power on the council. I asked Craig to share with us his work and he prepared the following post for our blog (Thanks Craig!):

When Western Power undertakes to build new power lines or substations and we cannot avoid affecting native vegetation so we undertake investigations into the flora and fauna. We also do what is known as Hygiene surveys. These concentrate on known weeds and diseases.

The most threatening organism to Australia's only Global Biodiversity Hotspot - the south west of WA - is Phytophthora cinnamomi. It has the potential to wipe out 40% of the native plants here. This means complete extinction for many and localised extinctions for most. For example, our iconic Banksias are completely susceptible.

We then implement Dieback Management plans/Hygiene Plans where appropriate to stop the spread of this organism through our activities. It spreads easily through soil and plant movement. We undertake our maintenance work under dry soil conditions to limit its spread. All this is expensive ($15,000 to $3.5m+ per new projects) and onerous but it is essential to protect what is left and buy time to discover how to fight this introduced pathogen.

The only way in which we can hope to halt its spread and myabe even start to eradicate it is by learning more about it and what affects it. I sit on the Dieback Consultative Council and the council works to coordinate the fight against dieback through policy development, taking a strategic approach and fostering critical levels of investment by key stakeholders. It also promotes the development and maintenance of a Centre for Phytophthora Science and Management (CPSM). The other major players on the Council are the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Dieback Working Group and the Dieback Response Group. 

The CPSM sought Australian Research Council support for research as any money that is raised in industry for that research is matched by up to five times by the ARC. The research is concentrating on phosphite, the only known fungicide that currently works on Phytophthora Dieback. The aim is to learn more about how it works and its links to phosphate sensitivity in native plants so as to potentially develop new and better fungicides specifically for this disease.

There is a strong link to our rare and unique wildlife (such as pygmy and honey possums) as they need the flowering plants, such as Banksias, as a primary food source. The Dieback Consultative Council worked with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) to have this highlighted. For more information visit the following site:

wwf.org.au/publications/dieback_report/

Protecting our unique biodiversity

Did you know that Western Power is an active member of the Dieback Consultative Council? We recognise that Phytophthora (Dieback) is potentially one of the greatest threats to WAs unique biodiversity.

We apply strict dieback management plans to all of our works but we recognise that the threat of Dieback remains. We are therefore working with academic institutions; Government departments and industry to identify solutions to halt the spread of Dieback.

Visit www.dieback.org.au for more information about dieback and what you can do to help stop the spread of dieback.

In the coming weeks we will be sharing with you details of our efforts to stop the spread of dieback. 

Strategic Energy Initiative - public submissions open

The WA Office of Energy has commenced it's public consultation process on the development of the Strategic Energy Initiative (SEI) . Comments on key drivers and issues impacting energy demand and supply over the next 20 years are sought by the end of February.

This is an excellent opporunity for members of the community to share their views and concerns regarding power supply and potentially influence power policy. There are specific references to demand side management; renewable energy; the future construction of electricity infrastructure and the development of a smartgrid.

Click here to be directed to the Office of Energy site

Dealing with history

You will have read Lisa's post late last year on the Banjup/Wandi community contact session. This contact session like Baldivis and Furnissdale highlight some of our more challenging projects.

These projects are challenging because they represent decisions made many years ago and certainly well before our efforts to be more transparent with the community in our decision making processes.

I often say to my team that we are operating in two worlds - a world of the future and a world from the past. Operating in a world of the past means we have to deal with the issues in the present. When dealing with issues in the present it means we are very limited in how we can engage the community in our decision making processes.

Dealing with decisions made in the past also means we attract our fair share of criticism. One of the more high profile action groups is the Stop Eastern Terminal (SETS) Group. This is a very active action group that opposed the construction of the Eastern Terminal substation on a site in Hacketts Gully.

Another project that has generated some community concern is the reinforcement of the Fremantle/Melville Network - formerly the Myaree substation expansion project. A small group of concerned residents have created the following website http://www.myareesubstation.net/

In respect to the reinforcement project, we hosted a community session at the Booragoon shopping centre which outlined the various options to reinforce the network. The session was very well attended. Overall, we had a very positive response which was in contrast to the efforts of a small number of vocal oponents who resist our efforts to find solutions to future power needs.

For me, these projects represent the very difficult transition organisations such as Western power are making towards improving transparency and strengthening relationships with communities. It may seem that progress is slow and this is understandable given that so many projects represent decisions made in the past. In our case, the lessons learned are helping us to implement a course of action now that will positively influence projects in the future.

Finally, it is worth noting that our engagement with the community will only be as good as the constructive input from the community at large. Community engagement, in my view is a shared responsibility.

Welcome to 2010!

welcome to 2010! I trust everyone had an enjoyable festive season. I was on holidays over the Christmas period and while I spent the majority of my time catching up with friends and enjoying the festivities with family, I did manage to squeeze in some reading time.

One of the better books I read was 'The Impact of Electricity' By Tanja Winther. Winther is an anthropologist (she also has a degree in power engineering) and the book represents her thesis on the introduction of electricity into a rural community in Africa. It's a fascinating read!

Winther details her observations about how everyday life changes when electricity becomes available to a community and why some groups embrace development while other groups actively fight against it. There are many correlations to how communities respond to electricity and its infrastructure between developed and developing communities.

I read Winther's book after reviewing research emerging from Europe that relates to public opposition to large infrastructure developments. These unwanted developments range from landfill projects to wind farm developments. My interest in this research is prompted by resistance from local communities to the construction of power infrastructure such as Transmission lines and Substations, required by Western Power to serve the needs of Western Australians.

Reading Winther's book and the research it is clear that large scale infrastructure projects generate public opposition beyond the conventional 'not in my backyard' thinking. Many people within communities struggle with the disruption caused by large scale developments. It interrupts their attachment to their 'sense of place and identity'.

What the research does offer to address these social anxieties and what is also supported by our own efforts in engaging with the community - is the need to be transparent and authentic. Engaging with communities and stakeholders as early as possible goes a long way towards minimising the fears and threats communities feel when large scale projects are being constructed in their area. It is acceoted that there will always be a level of distress at an initial announcement however when communities feel they have truthful and accurate information and are part of the process there is a greater possibility of acceptance.

It was fascinating reading and I'm heartened that our efforts to be more authentic and transparent in our engagement with the community is supported by the research and public interaction.

We of course still have a long way to go to build a sound level of trust with our community but I believe we are on the right track.