Network resilience - how can energy providers support their communities in adapting to a changing climate?

TasNetworks has again joined forces with fellow electricity distribution network service providers (DNSPs), Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy, Essential Energy, Evoenergy and NT Power and Water to jointly engage on network resilience.

What is network resilience?
The above DNSPs have developed the following draft definition of resilience:

"The ability to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard."

Why engage?
Genuine and meaningful engagement is critical to balancing the needs of our customers and stakeholders as we develop our Proposals for the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) for the 2024-29 regulatory period. TasNetworks has joined up with other DNSPs in the same regulatory cycle to engage on common issues in order to minimise the engagement effort for our customers and stakeholders.

How are we engaging?
This engagement has been built around a collaboration paper (available here), followed by an online forum on 8 February 2022. The purpose of the paper and the forum is to answer the overarching question,

"Over the next 10 years, how can DNSPs best support the communities they serve in adapting to a changing climate?"

The collaboration paper also seeks to understand:

• The relationship between resilience and reliability, and gathering stakeholder views on the proposed definitions
• Stakeholder views on whether regulatory frameworks and objectives consider resilience
• Stakeholder views of the role of networks in community resilience and response.

How can I provide my feedback?
Start by downloading the collaboration paper (here). You can then attend the online forum on 8th February (register here), as well as lodge a written submission in response to the issues discussed in the collaboration paper.

Written submissions close on 28 February 2022 and should be emailed to Brent McKillop (brent.mckillop@tasnetworks.com.au). Page 1 of the collaboration paper has more information on how to submit your written submission if this is of interest to you.

Feedback from the forum and written submissions will then be considered for inclusion in TasNetworks’ Proposals for the 2024-2029 regulatory period to the AER.

** Click here to REGISTER for the forum **
When: Tuesday 8 February, 2-4pm
Where: online only
Pre-reading: collaboration paper