An ambitious new project aimed at encouraging central Victorians to ‘electrify’ their homes was officially launched at Castlemaine Community House on Wednesday.
The ‘Electrify Loddon Mallee Project’, backed with $110,000 from the state government, will support Mount Alexander Sustainability Group and Bendigo Sustainability Group to work with councils and groups across the region to accelerate the uptake of electrification.
In particular, the groups hope to encourage those who have rooftop solar to take the next step and add a battery.
The community focused approach aims to ensure even more households and businesses make the switch to cleaner, cheaper, safer energy.
Sustainability Victoria director of customers and partnerships Gwyneth Elsum said the Community Electrification Engagement Program was put forward by Sustainability Victoria and the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group.
“In collaboration with the Bendigo Sustainability Group and the Sustainability Network Loddon Mallee, we were successful in securing funding for our project: Electrify Loddon Mallee – Power Together,” she said.
Mount Alexander Sustainability Group project and engagement coordinator Kerrily Jennings said when they designed this project, they had a clear vision.
“This is for all households across our region to feel confident and equipped to plan and implement their transition to full home electrification. With a focus on reducing energy use, reducing costs, and cutting emissions,” she said.
“But we also recognise that ‘cost’ means different things to different people: for sustainability groups, cost is about emissions — the cost of fossil fuel energy on our planet and systems.
“For households, it’s often about the cost of living and day-to-day bills.
“And there’s another layer: the cost on health and mental health. Not being able to afford heating in winter or cooling in summer can be devastating. And the stress of feeling powerless, without the energy literacy to even start planning, is a heavy burden.
“So, we wanted to design a project that works with equity across the whole region — meeting people where they’re at, in many different ways, and for many different reasons.”
The Electrify Loddon Mallee – Power Together project has three main parts:
Small Grants Program
Grants of $1000–$2000 for local events that connect communities with home electrification. Events will be spread across all LGAs they’re working with. Focus on engaging with diverse groups: households still on gas, First Nations communities, people with low energy literacy, and more.
Resource Creation
Development of a video and supporting resources. These will back up the events and the wider project.
Bright Sparks Program
A program to upskill local volunteers. They’ll be trained in the tools and resources available for Victorians such as SEC Home Planner; Solar Victoria rebates; Victorian Energy Upgrades; and reading and understanding energy bills.
“Our Bright Sparks will be embedded in communities, ready to help people to understand their bills, find options for making changes and plan their transition to home electrification. In short: they’ll be our go-to local champions,” Kerrily said.
Bendigo Federal MP Lisa Chesters said Wednesday’s launch coincided with a renewed commitment by the federal government to act on climate change.
“Federal Labor has set our 2035 target at a range of 62-70 per cent on 2005 emissions as per the Paris Agreement. To some it will be ambitious and to others it’s not enough. But our government has got a pathway for how we can achieve it by working together,” Ms Chesters said.
“It is one-in-all-in. There will be more funding to help industries decarbonise and scale up renewable energy, particularly in manufacturing. We have a big footprint in central Victoria.
“There is more funding for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to drive down pressure on electricity prices.
“But the big one for our part of the world is more funding for kerbside and fast EV charging stations across our regions, and to complement what we are doing here with $85 million for frameworks and tools to help households and businesses understand and improve their energy performance.
“This project is a great first step and recognises where communities are at. Across Mount Alexander there is a high awareness and a high engagement on the need to tackle climate change and the benefits of solar and electrification but we have work to do around the north of the Bendigo electorate and working with our local councils to help engage people at grassroots, debunk myths around solar and batteries, renewable energy and encourage people to consider electrification. It complements what we are doing at the federal level,” Ms Chesters said.
