The work undertaken by advocates and other organisations through the Grants Program is having influence, improving outcomes for energy consumers. Great Grants showcase important work that has built new evidence or demonstrated impact.
The COTA Energy Advocacy National Workshop has been selected as one of our Great Grants.
Council on the Ageing (COTA) trains volunteers to provide energy advocacy on behalf of older consumers to improve outcomes for them in the National Energy Market (NEM).
The Energy Consumers Australia grants funding enabled COTA to host a 1.5-day face-to-face workshop for their volunteer energy advocates in October 2019. The purpose of this workshop was to enable COTA energy advocates from every NEM jurisdiction to collaboratively develop joint advocacy positions on a discrete set of key emerging issues which will impact significantly on older energy consumers.
Workshop discussions revealed two priority areas on which advocates agreed further research is required:
- Experiences of Older Consumers in Embedded Networks
- Hardship Programs for Older Consumers
Feedback was given to the Independent Advisory Panel on the Energy Charter proposal in the form of a submission. All recommendations were accepted in the final report.
Access to the full suite of grant resources can be found here.