Twenty-eight councils and community groups across Victoria will receive close to $1 million from the second round of AusNet’s Energy Resilience Community Fund.
Executive general manager distribution, Andrew Linnie, said the Energy Resilience Community Fund, which provides Energy Resilience and Education and Literacy Grants, supports projects that will help build long-term community energy resilience and provide support to communities during severe weather events.
“We know how important energy is to our communities’ and customers’ lives. When severe weather or other emergencies happen, this becomes even more important,” Mr Linnie said.
“We are actively investing in our network to improve reliability and resilience. Through these grants, we’re pleased to contribute further to help build community energy resilience and assist people to stay connected and safe during prolonged outages and emergencies,” he said.
Grants for the next round open on Monday, May 26.
AusNet established the $12 million Energy Resilience Community Fund following the storms in February last year, to support projects across AusNet’s electricity distribution network in eastern and north-eastern Victoria, and Melbourne’s north and east.
Round two recipients include:
– Benambra Neighbourhood House received $40,000 for a fully equipped, self-powered mobile kitchen and food trailers to service remote and vulnerable community members during extended power outages and emergencies.
– Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Corporation received $50,000 for a generator to create an emergency response centre. This will help maintain critical services such as cooking facilities and medical equipment, as well as heating, cooling and lighting. The centre will also serve as a base of operations for emergency response teams, enabling them to coordinate and deliver aid more effectively.
– Wellington Shire Council received $17,000 for targeted training across multiple locations for the community to learn the skills needed to maintain energy resilience equipment such as generators and solar and battery systems.
