By Callum Ludwig
The Millgrove Resident’s Action Group (MRAG) is set to deliver another project aiming to bolster resilience in the community, courtesy of a grant from Ausnet’s Energy Resilience Community Fund.
MRAG received $277,115 for solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, battery storage and an inverter to be installed at Millwarra Primary School’s Millgrove campus and the Millwarra Community Hall.
MRAG Associate Member Sam Rye said the hall is used by the school, the River Valley Church and for a number of community activities.
“It’s got a gymnasium, an event space, it’s got a commercial kitchen in there and it’s got bathrooms and this energy and battery install will make a significant difference to the school and to the community,” he said.
“We know that it’s going to reduce the energy costs for running that facility day to day for the school and for the church and we know that it’s going to increase resilience to power outages and the like because in the event of those outages, the hall can keep running,”
“Whether that’s keeping the cooling on, keeping the kitchen going, whatever it might be so we’re delighted by those different benefits that we’ll see for that space.”
Millwarra Primary School and Yarra Ranges Council were also involved in the grant application process, providing letters of support for the project particularly given it’s potential to reduce energy costs for the school and work towards providing a resilience hub for the Millgrove community.
MRAG’s Acting Secretary Phil Pomaroff said it’s been a goal of MRAg to set up what they’ll be calling a ‘Community Resilience Emergency Hub’.
“It’s certainly one of the foundations for putting a community facility in place, so that in the future, if we do have an emergency response, we’ve got somewhere which will have ongoing power,” he said.
“Through those batteries and solar, we’ll have a resilient supply for the community, which will certainly go towards our goals and aims of becoming a more resilient community.”
Turning the Millwarra Community Hall into a hub for the community to rely on during emergencies and outages is a long-term goal of MRAG as part of their Millgrove Resilience Plan.
“It was the best Christmas present I received, we heard just before Christmas, and it certainly buoyed all of us around MRAG and a number of other people, family and in the community, who heard directly from me in those couple of days as well and I’d love to thank Ausnet for this grant,” Mr Rye said.
“We think it’s such a good starting point with the hub and also resilience for the school, so it’s really a great outcome, it’s been a great achievement and we’re really pleased to be able to get it,” Mr Pomaroff said.
MRAG also received $22,000 previously from Ausnet for their Millgrove Community & Energy Resilience Training Program in November last year.
MRAG is one of 13 recipients from the fund across Victoria, totalling close to $2.4 million, to support community energy resilience projects.
Executive General Manager Distribution at Ausnet Andrew Linnie said the Energy Resilience Community Fund was created by AusNet to fund projects that will build long-term community energy resilience and provide support to communities during the recovery phase of severe weather events.
“These major grant projects will build community energy resilience, delivering important and impactful change to communities across these regions, helping them to stay connected and safe during prolonged outages and emergencies,” he said.
