Can You Rate Trust? The Developer Rating Scheme Explained

Across regional Australia, communities are increasingly asking a simple question: how do we know which energy developers we can trust?

As renewable energy and transmission projects accelerate, trust between industry and regional communities has become one of the defining issues of the energy transition.

One of the most significant responses to that challenge is the Developer Rating Scheme (DRS) — a new initiative designed to lift standards, improve transparency, and help communities understand how developers are performing.

In this episode of emPOWER, host Wendy Agar speaks with three people closely involved in shaping the scheme:

• Tony Maher, Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner
  • Charlie Prell, retired farmer and Chair of the Landholder Lived Experience Panel
  • Tracy Lefroy, grain grower and former Shire President from Western Australia

Together they unpack the purpose, opportunities and real-world challenges of the Developer Rating Scheme, including:

• Why trust has become such a defining issue in the energy transition
  • What landholders and communities are experiencing on the ground
  • How the Developer Rating Scheme will actually work
  • Why transparency matters for landholders, neighbours and regional communities
  • The opportunities — and challenges — as the scheme prepares to launch
  • What developers should be doing now to build trust and position themselves well

At its heart, this conversation comes back to three things: trust, transparency and accountability.

It also raises an important idea — that communities themselves may play a powerful role in demanding and driving the success of the Developer Rating Scheme.

This episode of emPOWER is supported by The Energy Charter, a national collaboration working with communities, industry and government to deliver better outcomes through the energy transition.

If you work in renewables, transmission, land access, stakeholder engagement or regional development, this conversation will help you understand one of the most important new initiatives shaping how energy projects are developed in regional Australia.

Because the success of the energy transition won’t just depend on infrastructure.

It will depend on trust.

 

Produced by The Podcast Boss