Adelaide Hills - Mt. Barker Engagement Workshop
As part of our Regulatory Proposal Reset Engagement for 2025-2030, we engaged with our regional stakeholders across the State to discuss their access to, current needs, and future priorities for electricity.
To speak to our customers in Mt. Barker, we held an in-person workshop at The Auchendarroch House on 16 May 2022. The workshop was planned for an all-day engagement session, breaking for morning tea and lunch.
Mel Lambert from ThinkHuman facilitated the workshop with the Executive Leadership Team and Stakeholder Engagement Team members, representing SA Power Networks.
Who did we engage?
Twenty-four members of the greater Mt. Barker region attended the workshop, including twenty-one residential and three business customers. SA Power Networks’ depot staff from the region were also in attendance along with representatives from the local councils of Mt. Barker and Victor Harbour.
Kelvin Trimper, Davis Veremu and Georgie Morris from our Community Advisory Board (CAB) were also present at the workshop.
SA Power Networks was represented at the workshop by Mark Vincent, Matthew Nepolitano, Jess Vonthethoff, Brendon Hampton, Dan Popping, and Alex Lewis.
What did we engage on?
Participants at the workshop were provided with a background about the role SA Power Networks plays within the operations of the electricity network. To understand SA Power Networks’ role in the distribution of electricity, click here to download a copy of the presentation from our Mt Barker workshop.
This was followed by an in-depth presentation by the Executive Leadership Team on the four major themes of our Regulatory Proposal. The themes are:
- Affordable and equitable energy supply
- A reliable, resilient, and safe electricity network
- Customer experience, choice and empowerment
- Enabling clean energy and unlocking future value for our State
To learn more about our four themes, click here to download a copy of our presentation from our Mt. Barker workshop. A panel discussion with the members of the community and key stakeholders was held next, with the key speakers answering questions from the participants about the current issues affecting the region.
After lunch, the participants were broken into four smaller groups, brainstorming community-led ideas around the four themes, and discussing possible activities, projects, and investments for the future electricity grid in the region. Customers were also invited to prioritise their suggested levels of investment from each of the four themes, ranging from basic, compliant, and new value.
Some of the key learnings specific to this workshop and the region are that access to reliable supply during extreme or high bushfire weather was very important to the residents of the Southern Fleurieu. Participants were also keen to see an increase in undergrounding in bushfire areas.
Access to an affordable power supply and solar batteries was seen as important along with a general uplift in reliability, safety, and resilience into the future were also noted as topics of importance.
Participants sought clear communication, with a specific request for updates on upgrades or new projects for the growing Mt. Barker urban area.
Workshop Reports
Read a detailed report of our Adelaide Hills Engagement Workshop to find out our key learnings from the session.
To know what our participants thought about our engagement session, read our Participation Evaluation Report.
Click here to access our Engagement Infographic Summary for a quick overview of our session, documenting who we engaged with and what our key findings were.
