Project: Horizon Power

Lessons learnt

A lesson the team learnt early was that each community is different in how they engage and react to government compliance. It is dependent upon the community management, level of employment and makeup of community residents, and their family groups.

Part of the planning and execution of the project involved risk assessments, lessons learnt processes and many visits to each community to build relationships and understand their needs. Through explaining the project and seeking community feedback we were able to find the middle ground that suits the community’s needs and government’s compliance and regulatory requirements.

The team identified that project success is not only meeting government objectives of integrating isolated communities to ‘mainstream’ requirements, such as uniform tariffs and equitable power payment systems, but also to obtain a meaningful relationship with Horizon Power’s new customers by using the Caskel model of integration through shared understanding.

This model achieved self efficiency in communities by integrating corporate obligations and Indigenous community culture together. A program was put into practice that consisted of education, training and engagement.

During the project we realised that a position was required to facilitate direct engagement with the community and a District Liaison Officer (DLO) position was created to provide a conduit between Horizon Power and the communities. The Horizon Power employee selected for this position speaks several Aboriginal languages and has a good understanding of the relationships in each community. Finding the right people is critical to a successful engagement process.

This DLO position was a key to ensuring a rapport and trust with the community was established and to introduce the project team and various contractors to the community, allowing for a better understanding of the work required and the cultural implications of working within the communities.

Developing ownership

To ensure the new power infrastructure was sustainable, the community had to ‘own’ it. The need to engage communities directly and develop a strong working relationship between Horizon Power and each community was paramount. A key issue identified was that in isolated communities, subjected to floods and other severe weather conditions, emergency response times could be extensive and regularised communities could still be left without power for long periods. A new training program, to train Indigenous community members in basic electrical supply faults, was devised by Horizon Power to address this issue.

The Caskel model included education and training, having an Essential Service Office (ESO) as one point of contact in the larger communities. The model enabled the community to be empowered and direct the project to meet their needs; it also allowed the project team to deliver a quality outcome above the project objectives.

It was identified that integration between the project team, Horizon Power and the community was vital to the successful implementation of the projects. This consisted of engagement, education, training and establishing a meaningful relationship with community leaders and support agencies to gain a shared understanding of each others culture and expectations.

Another key focus was on educating children within the community to help older members of the community make the transition to the new system, including using the pre-payment meters. Presentations were made to school children to ensure they were aware of how to operate pre-payment meters and safety issues relating to electrical work.

Communities have different demographics in some cases a community with a population of 400 can have 64% under the age of 25 years. As a result the engagement such as the education package is reviewed with each community and modified accordingly.

Through research of the community’s make up such as demographics, culture and lessons learnt, we identified the best method of engagement. The education package and information session can be delivered through a variety of methods and can involve community barbecues or breakfast or door-to-door engagement.

Happy stakeholders

For Horizon Power the best advice we give our project managers is to know your stakeholders, the end users and understand their needs when planning a project, particularly government and community projects.

Building meaningful relationships that allow the sharing of knowledge takes a lot of face-to-face engagement and it takes a lot of time. The longest civil works that these projects require has been eight weeks. For those eight weeks, it has taken 12 months in planning and consultation with the community to balance the needs of the project and the needs of the communities.

The results of integration with communities and effective consultation have created added benefits including:

• Enhanced corporate reputation through quality of work resulting in flow on of works in more regularisation projects;
• More energy efficient communities and an overall reduction in diesel use and greenhouse gases.
• A reduction in disconnection of residents as community residents are now ‘informed customers’ of electricity usage, improving debt management.
• Improved stakeholder relationships by enabling project funders to meet their government targets through a regularised power system run by the state utility.

Co-authored with Maurice Castelli, project manager at Horizon Power.