EnergyCo Community Strategic Investment Framework

Polis Partners worked with EnergyCo NSW to design a comprehensive investment strategy to reinvest access scheme fees paid by energy proponents into initiatives that enable regional communities to benefit from the energy transition.

With no direct precedent, we worked with EnergyCo to develop a transparent and credible investment strategy that balanced financial accountability, statutory obligations, and diverse community expectations, while also demonstrating how investment decisions would deliver measurable local benefits.

Our Framework was co-designed with EnergyCo and NSW Government stakeholders to ensure alignment with Treasury requirements and broader regional development objectives. It established clear investment principles and assessment criteria, defining project or initiative eligibility and governance arrangements, and developed staged delivery options such as pilots and rolling funding rounds.

EnergoCo now has a roadmap for investing access scheme fees in a way that is fair, transparent and responsive to regional priorities. Our Framework has strengthened EnergyCo’s ability to engage confidently and consistently with communities and government, informed briefings, and established a foundation for piloting investment programs that deliver enduring community benefit as part of NSW’s renewable energy transition.