Victoria Sets 43 Community Engagement Expectations for Wind, Solar and Battery Developers
The Victorian Labor government has released Community Engagement and Social Value Guidelines that set out 43 expectations wind, solar and battery storage developers must meet to connect to the grid.
The guidelines will come into force from July 2027 as part of the Victorian Access Regime.
Around half of the 43 minimum expectations are dedicated to standards of engagement with surrounding communities, host landholders and neighbouring landholders, according to reneweconomy.
Developers are also expected to prevent contractual clauses such as non-disclosure agreements from unreasonably restricting community discussion of project details.
The package targets a recurring friction point in Australia's renewables build-out, where landholder confidentiality terms and uneven consultation practices have drawn criticism from farming groups and rural communities hosting transmission and generation projects.
By tying engagement standards to grid access under the Victorian Access Regime, the state is using connection approval as the enforcement lever rather than relying on planning conditions alone. Developers seeking to plug new wind, solar or battery capacity into the Victorian grid will need to demonstrate they meet the engagement and social value expectations before they can secure access.
The July 2027 start date gives developers and the regulator time to align project pipelines with the new requirements, though projects already advancing through approvals will need to track how the access regime treats their connection timelines.
Source: reneweconomy.com.au (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink