New Grants Awarded

Energy Consumers Australia is excited to announce that we have funded nine new ambitious projects through our Grants Program. 

Following a competitive round, these grants were selected due to their commitment to solve persistent issues in the energy system and advance the needs of Australian energy consumers.

The projects address some of the big shifts reshaping how households and small businesses use, pay for, and participate in the energy system. Together, they will help ensure consumers are not responding to change on the back foot, but have the information, protections and opportunities they need to shape a more affordable, inclusive and accountable energy system that benefits them.

About the nine new grant projects we're funding

Who benefits from household participation in VPPs?

Recipient: University of New South Wales

Funding Amount: $248,083

Households are increasingly being encouraged to join Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), but there is limited comparable information to help them make good decisions about whether to join, and what offers might best suit their circumstances.

To address this challenge, the project will model how household batteries perform under different VPP contracts and analyse impacts for different customer types and the broader electricity system. 

Using this information, the team will produce a publicly available analysis tool and evidence base to improve consumer understanding on VPPs, support advocacy, and inform policy and market design.

Techno-economic assessment of data centre growth and impact on consumer bills

Recipient: University of Melbourne

Funding Amount: $98,073

Data centres are expected to use a lot more electricity in the coming years, but we don’t yet properly understand how this rapid growth will affect the energy system or consumer bills. 

If not managed well, data centres could drive up costs and place pressure on networks and reliability, with those costs ultimately passed on to households and small businesses. 

This project will explore how better planning, flexibility, and policy settings could reduce these impacts. This will provide stronger evidence to advocate for any data centre growth to be managed in a way that protects consumers.

Unlocking Electrification Upgrades in Apartment Buildings

Recipient: Owners Corporation Network

Funding Amount: $285,000

Apartment residents are being left behind in the energy transition due to the complexities of electrifying shared buildings. Some of the challenges include navigating Strata, limited tailored support, and gaps in policy and financing. This disproportionately affects renters and lower-income households, making it a critical equity and justice issue. 

Owners Corporation Network will work with three Victorian apartment communities over 18 months to test how electrification upgrades can happen in practice, then use those insights to create practical resources, supplier information and a community of practice. It will also develop policy recommendations, so apartment residents are better supported to take part in the energy transition. 

By combining practical delivery with national knowledge-sharing, the project aims to enable and scale electrification in apartment buildings across Australia.

Open rebidding project: Understanding strategic and algorithmic behaviour in the NEM

Recipient: University of NSW

Funding Amount: $185,000

The National Electricity Market (NEM) relies on generators and other market participants bidding electricity into the wholesale market, which helps determine when power is dispatched and what prices consumers ultimately pay. 

As bidding becomes more complex and automated, there is a risk that some rebidding behaviour could push prices higher than they need to be, or make it harder for regulators and consumer advocates to see what is happening.

This project will analyse NEM rebidding data to identify potentially problematic patterns, including behaviour linked to automated or algorithmic bidding. It will create public tools, datasets and research that make wholesale market behaviour easier to scrutinise, thus helping regulators and advocates assess whether further market reforms are needed to protect households and small businesses from unnecessary costs.

Small business and EVs: Supporting small business owners in fleet electrification

Recipient: Institute for Sustainable Futures

Funding amount: $275,000

Small and micro businesses could save money and reduce emissions by switching to electric vehicles, but many face practical barriers that larger organisations are better equipped to manage. These include finding the right vehicle and charging set-up, understanding costs and finance options, dealing with landlords, checking warranties and servicing, and knowing which suppliers to trust. 

This project will research what small businesses need to make confident decisions about fleet electrification, using surveys, interviews and focus groups with businesses, service providers and industry groups. The findings will be turned into a practical guide and evidence base to help small businesses avoid common pitfalls, reduce costs and make informed EV choices.  

Tariff-Tracking, energy price and market analysis post price resets in July 2026, 2027, and 2028

Recipient: St Vincent de Paul

Funding amount: $335,969  

Energy bills are changing as the energy system changes, with new tariffs, solar pricing, dynamic offers and tariff reassignments making it harder for households to understand whether they are getting a fair deal. There is a lack of independent, consistent information showing how these changes affect different consumers across states and territories. 

This project will continue and expand the Vinnies Tariff-Tracking project, collecting and analysing electricity and gas offers after the annual price resets in 2026, 2027 and 2028. It will produce public reports and workbooks that show how prices, tariffs and bill impacts are changing, helping consumer advocates, regulators and policymakers identify emerging issues and push for fairer outcomes.

Supporting Small Businesses through the Business of Electrification

Recipient: Curtin University

Funding Amount: $193,085

Many small businesses want to cut energy costs, but electrification can be hard to act on. This is especially true for businesses that use a lot of energy or cannot easily change how they operate. 

This project will look at why interest in electrification often does not result in action, including barriers like unsuitable tariffs, limited access to finance, embedded network issues, fragmented incentives and a lack of trusted advice. It will build on ECA and COSBOA’s Fixed-Swift-Agile framework to identify what different types of small businesses need, then turn that evidence into practical policy briefings, case studies and an electrification playbook for business organisations, chambers of commerce and other trusted intermediaries.

The goal is to help governments and business networks design support that fits how small businesses actually operate, so more of them can lower bills, manage risk and benefit from the energy transition.

The Queensland People & Power Project

Recipient: Queensland Community Alliance

Funding Amount: $150,000

Many Queenslanders are dealing with high energy costs, confusing energy choices, and uneven access to the benefits of the transition, but the people most affected are often missing from the decisions that shape the system. This is especially true for migrant communities and regional Queenslanders, whose experiences are not always heard by governments, regulators or industry. 

This project will bring these communities together through local listening events, workshops and community organising to identify the energy issues that matter most to them and develop practical solutions. It will then support community leaders to share those solutions through a public report, media engagement and meetings with State and Federal decision-makers, helping build a stronger, more organised consumer voice in Queensland’s energy transition.

Improving data availability and visualisation for consumer advocates and community energy planning

Recipient: Coalition for Community Energy

Funding Amount: $60,000

Decisions made at the local level are becoming more important as households, small businesses and communities invest in Consumer Energy Resources, change how they use energy, and become more energy efficient. However, the data needed to plan these changes is often hard to access or understand. 

Consumer advocates, councils and community energy groups need better information about how energy is used at the local level so they can make stronger decisions and advocate for fairer outcomes. 

This project will work with CSIRO’s National Energy Analysis Centre to turn complex energy datasets into practical visualisations and downloadable data that protect privacy while making local energy patterns easier to understand. The tools will help advocates and local planners test ideas, shape reforms like distribution planning and tariff design, and support smarter community energy investments that reflect what households and small businesses need.

These grants are approved in principle, following the formal completion of the funding agreement.