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Announcements

Grants announcement – June 2016

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Energy Consumers Australia

 

Grant round – calendar changes

Energy Consumers Australias Board considers advocacy and research grant applications on a quarterly basis.

Applications for the current round closed on 9 July 2016 and will be considered by the Board at its next meeting on 18 August 2016.

ECA has advanced the application deadline for the next round to 8 September 2016, recognising there are a number of grant recipients with projects expiring
at the end of the year. The Board will consider applications from the September 2016 round at its meeting on 21 October 2016.

In this context a critical element of the ECA Grants Program announced on 30 March 2016 was the decision that grants could extend beyond a financial year,
allowing advocacy organisations to apply for grants on a funding horizon that better matches their strategic objectives, providing certain governance
requirements are met.

The dates for the next three funding rounds in the 2016-17 financial year are available on our website.

Results of June Grants Round 2016

The Board met on 2 June, and considered 29 applications for advocacy and research grants.

This was a very competitive round. The total amount of funding sought was over $2 million, the largest round in the history of ECA (or its predecessor,
the Consumer Advocacy Panel).

The Board approved 18 grants, with a total value of just over $1.5 million. Those decisions mean ECA fully expended its 2015/16 grants program budget.

Of the approved grants, 10 projects will be funded out of the 2016/17 grants budget, as that work begins in the 2016/17 financial year.

ECA welcomed the significant co-contributions made in this round. Of approved grants, applicants leveraged that funding by 30%, providing an additional
$570,000 to support consumer advocacy and research.

The grants approved had a strong focus on national projects, operating across jurisdictions, and/or working to developing national solutions to consumer
issues.

Applications focused heavily on residential consumers which may include low-income households, but the projects offer the potential to benefit a wide
range of households.

There was also welcome interest from small business advocates, although they remain under-represented.

Also worthy of note was the interest shown by advocates and researchers in gathering and sharing information. Two projects will develop platforms to make
National Electricity Market and pricing data more available to advocates (and other stakeholders), providing useful foundations for consumers.