What is community electrification?
Community electrification projects hold the potential to unlock renewable energy demand across the residential sector, reducing bills and giving households a stake in the clean energy transition.
How are we supporting community electrification projects?
We are committed to supporting innovative electrification projects that will help accelerate the transition to electrification and emissions reduction. Since 2018, ARENA has invested $144.5 million into 49 projects that achieve this purpose.
In 2024 ARENA began exploring ways to expand funding to support more community electrification demonstration projects across Australia under the “Optimise the Transition to Renewable Electricity” Strategic Priority.
We sought projects that aimed to empower household and community participation in the clean energy transition.
Early and leading examples of these projects funded by ARENA include Brighte’s “Electrify 2515” in North Wollongong, NSW, SA Power Networks’ “Energy Masters” in SA and Project Jupiter in WA.
In early 2025 we announced our intention to support additional projects of this kind, continuing our engagement with industry and other key stakeholders to understand the opportunities available and consistent with our strategic priorities and funding model.
We are aiming to provide at least $4 million each in grant funding to support at least one high impact project in every Australian state and territory where similar projects have not yet been delivered. This includes Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, to complement existing initiatives in New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia.
What do we look for in community electrification projects?
Under the Advancing Renewables Program (ARP), we look for demonstration projects across different contexts and jurisdictions, to uncover opportunities, challenges and other insights that will accelerate the uptake of consumer energy resources (CERs) and flexible demand technologies.
Projects with varied geographic, demographic and technical characteristics provide valuable regulatory, technical, commercial and community transition learnings, and help identify the opportunities and challenges of community electrification, inform future policy, investment and market reforms to enable future deployment at scale.
We aim to support projects that contribute to one or more of the following objectives:
- Integrate CER into the distribution network and wholesale market
- Improve aggregator business models and capabilities
- Support IT infrastructure and governance
Projects should cover address one or more of the following:
- Deployment at scale ideally involving around 1,000 homes
- A mix of private and multi-dwelling residences including medium and high-density dwellings
- Low-income households
- First Nations communities
- Innovative technologies such as vehicle-to-home (V2H), vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and shared or community energy storage
- Overcoming barriers to adoption of CER integration
- Infrastructure to orchestrate and optimise energy use at the household and grid level
- Products and technologies that empower households to actively participate in, and benefit from, the clean energy transition
Community Electrification proposals will be assessed under the ARP Program Guidelines, not as a Funding Round or Funding Initiative as described under Part 4 of the ARP Guidelines.
How to apply for funding:
Step 1 – Read the program guidelines
How it works:
Funding for community electrification projects is available under ARENA’s existing Advancing Renewables Program (ARP). Applicants will need to meet ARP eligibility requirements and will be assessed against the merit criteria set out in the ARP Guidelines. Applications will also need to demonstrate alignment to the outcomes of the ARP, including:
- reduction in the cost of renewable energy;
- increase in the value delivered by renewable energy;
- improvement in technology readiness and commercial readiness of Renewable Energy Technologies;
- reduction in or removal of barriers to renewable energy uptake; or
- increased skills, capacity and knowledge relevant to Renewable Energy Technologies.
ARENA assesses proposals on merit with a focus on innovation, community impact, scalability and alignment with strategic priorities.
Who should apply:
ARENA encourages EOIs from:
- Project developers and technology providers
- Utilities, retailers and network service providers
- Consortia bringing together multiple delivery partners
Strong applications will demonstrate proven delivery capability, access to finance and meaningful community engagement.
Interested Community Groups are strongly encouraged to align with organisations with demonstrable experience, capability and capacity to deliver the proposed project.
Guidelines:
Before proceeding, read the following documents:
- Advancing Renewables Program Guidelines (PDF 327KB)
- The ARP Guidelines outline specific information relating to the application and assessment process including Eligibility Criteria (Part 2) and Merit Criteria (Part 3) that must be adhered to.
- General Funding Strategy and Investment Plan
- The Investment Plan sets out ARENA’s investment approach and the Strategic Priorities that applications are assessed against.
Step 2 – Engage with ARENA
You are strongly encouraged to contact ARENA to discuss your proposal prior to submitting an application online. For further information or to initiate discussions regarding potential projects, please complete the Funding Advice form and select the DER/CER technology area.
Following initial review, selected applications will be invited to submit a Full Application as part of a two-stage assessment process. Dates regarding the Full Application will be issued to applicants that are successful at EOI.
Step 3 – Prepare your response
Step 3.1: Navigate to and create an account with ARENANet
Step 3.2: Select ‘Advancing Renewables Program – Expression of Interest’ to commence an expression of interest application.
Item 4.6 of the ARP Guidelines outlines the requirements that must be met to submit an EOI.
Please review the following documents to support your EOI submission:
