Project Overview

In recent years devastating bushfires and other extreme weather events have seen communities across New South Wales (NSW) lose access to power from the electricity grid and, with it, a range of critical energy-dependent services. With new technologies being developed in the transition to renewable energy that enables households and communities to generate, store and use energy locally, there is an opportunity to ensure that people have alternative means of accessing power for essential activities when the grid is affected.

This project was funded by NSW Reconstruction Authority’s Bushfire Community Resilience and Recovery Fund (BCRRF) in the wake of the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020. The project’s primary aim is to explore the options for enhancing the resilience of households and communities during weather-related power outages and to share the learnings with communities affected (or likely to be affected in the future) by these disruptions, as well as with policymakers and other stakeholders. We have sought to develop an understanding of:

• how households and communities have been impacted by power outages
• how they have used Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and other resources available to them to manage during these outages, and
• how DER and other resources could be used to achieve greater energy resilience in future.

As a team of social science and engineering researchers in the Collaboration on Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), we have taken an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the potential and limitations of DER and other technologies within their social contexts of the home, the community and broader society.

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Research Leads

Sophie Adams Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow Deakin University

Mike Roberts Senior Research Fellow UNSW Sydney

Research Team

Shanil Samarakoon Research Associate UNSW Sydney	Ellie Kallmier Research Assistant UNSW Sydney
Michael Dillon Research Assistant UNSW Sydney	Alison Potter Communications and Outreach Officer UNSW Sydney
Rachel Szczepaniak Research Assistant UNSW Sydney	Rob Passey Senior Research Fellow UNSW Sydney
Anna Bruce Associate Professor UNSW Sydney	Declan Kuch Senior Research Fellow Western Sydney University
Iain MacGill Professor UNSW Sydney	Renate Egan Professor UNSW Sydney

Acknowledgements

Energy Sustainability through Knowledge and Information Exchange and Sharing (ESKIES) is a project of the Collaboration on Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM) at UNSW Sydney. The authors are grateful to the many organisations who supported the project, including (but not limited to) the Australian PV Institute, the NSW Office of Energy and Climate Change, Endeavour Energy and the Community Recovery Officers who helped us to connect with communities.

Most importantly, we would like to thank the many NSW residents and professionals who generously gave their time to participate in interviews and workshops share their experiences, insights and expertise.

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Disclaimer

While the authors have made every effort to ensure the information provided here is correct and useful, we accept no liability for any errors or inaccuracies. Readers are advised to obtain independent advice before investing in a solar, batteries, generators or other distributed energy resources.

Although funding for this project has been provided by both the Australian and New South Wales Governments, the material contained herein does not necessarily represent the views of either Government.

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