The guidelines give priority to projects within government-defined renewable energy zones, REZs.
VicGrid chief executive Alistair Parker acknowledged some developers had fallen short of community expectations for consultation and transparency.
“The guidelines will allow us, both inside and outside REZs, to really make sure all developers meet the standards of the best developers, make sure we can co-ordinate how these projects go ahead, and make sure we allocate access to the grid and its capacity in the most efficient way,” he said.
“We’ve heard a lot of feedback over the past four or five years from people about some of the areas where developers haven’t lived up to community expectations.
“There’s some really good developers out there, but this is about making sure that everybody’s coming up to that standard.”
Mr Parker said under the new guidelines, developers would be unable to force landowners to sign non-disclosure agreements.
“What we’re seeing in some places is developers signing up landholders but doing that under non-disclosure agreements and stopping the landholder or the farmer from talking to their neighbours,” he said.
“One of the requirements is that you just can’t have non-disclosure agreements of that type. We want to see a transparent, open process that engages meaningfully with the community.”
Mr Parker said the guidelines also mandated developers to provide as much community benefit as possible.
“We’ve set out our expectations that there should be meaningful – and people use the term ‘legacy’ – benefits,” he said.
“When we grant access, the competition that we will be running is assessing how much the community benefits,” he said.
“We’re really encouraging the market to compete on the basis of what they can do for the community, not just individual landholders.”
Mr Parker said the guidelines would not enable communities to band together to stop developments outright, but would give them scope to ensure they were as beneficial as possible.
He said no landowner could be compelled to host an energy project against their will.
“It will certainly give communities much greater power to examine developments and to understand the impacts, and to make sure the balance of change and benefits is actually fair,” he said.
“It’s a really key point. If you do not want a renewable project on
your land, there’s no obligation to have it.”
Victorian Farmers Federation president Ryan Milgate welcomed some of the changes set out in the guidelines, but said he was concerned at a lack of avenues to enforce them.
“We obviously welcome any move that strengthens the position of farmers dealing with renewable-energy developers at their gate and this is a small step in the right direction,” he said.
“However, the guidelines are long on expectations and short on obligations.
“At this stage there is no clear enforcement mechanism, no compliance framework and no meaningful consequences for developers who fail to meet these expectations.
“We’re told those teeth will be added at some point in the future, but that doesn’t fill us with confidence.”
Mr Milgate said little trust remained between many farming communities and developers.
“The horse has already bolted on many of these issues,” he said.
“Farmers and regional communities have spent years raising concerns about transparency, consultation and fairness. Releasing non-binding guidelines now will do little to rebuild confidence and it’s a long road back.”
Farmers for Climate Action chief executive Verity Morgan-Schmidt said she supported the guidelines in principle, but was also concerned about enforcement.
“On the guidelines alone, Victoria now leads the nation on best-practice approaches for developers to interact with the community,” she said.
“The Victorian government and renewable-energy industry need to rebuild trust in many regional communities.
“Broader benefits are so important for bringing the wider community on board and we are pleased to see the guidelines address this, as well as ways to improve what is often a current hodge-podge approach.
“The community needs to be included as co-designers of benefits, rather than accepting whatever the developers decide to offer.
“These remain unbinding expectations, and the devil remains in the detail as to how developers follow the guidelines.”
Mr Parker said while the guidelines would not become official until the middle of next year, VicGrid would encourage developers to begin meeting them immediately.
“We have a number of projects that are live at the minute and are going through the existing connection process,” he said.
“We’re going to impose an obligation on those proponents to meet the guidelines in their connection agreements.”
People can find more information on VicGrid’s community engagement and social value guidelines online at www.vicgrid.com.au/community/community-engagement-and-social- value-guidelines.
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