Neoen: Large-Scale Renewable Projects Supported By Intuitive Stakeholder Software

Neoen’s engagement team decided on Simply Stakeholders when they were searching for a platform that could better support their community-facing teams in Australia. It assisted in their engagement approach and information management on projects with long lifespans.

Project highlights

“The Simply Stakeholders platform design is great. It’s intuitive and flexible, which means it’s been able to evolve with us and continually meet the needs of our business.”

Hannah Willson, Engagement Manager at Neoen Australia

Organization Background

Neoen is one of the Australia’s leading renewable energy companies, with over 4 GW of capacity across 19 assets currently under construction and in operation. They develop, construct and operate onshore wind farms, solar farms and battery storage assets.

Neoen is working across QLD, NSW, ACT, VIC, SA and WA. Its portfolio includes some of the country’s most powerful renewable energy and battery assets such as:

• The 460 MWp solar farm at Western Downs Green Power Hub in QLD
• The 560 MW / 2.2 GWh Collie Battery in Western Australia
• The 412 MW Goyder South Wind Farm in South Australia.

You may even be familiar with their work in launching the world’s first big battery in 2017 — the Hornsdale Power Reserve or the ‘SA Big Battery’ in SA.

Hannah Willson is Neoen’s Engagement Manager. She works across the organization’s Australian portfolio. “My original role was as a Community Liaison Officer (CLO) for Neoen’s Goyder Renewable Zone in South Australia, embedding myself in the local community and forging vital stakeholder relationships to assist with the development and construction of Neoen’s flagship hybrid renewable energy project in the region.”

As an Engagement Manager, Hannah now oversees multiple CLOs across Neoen’s portfolio and works alongside project managers, ensuring stakeholder connections and communications meet the organization’s high-standards and are in line with regulatory obligations.

The Challenge: Spreadsheet Replacement, Active Projects, Futureproofing Stakeholder Management

Neoen started using Simply Stakeholders in 2023 by first undertaking a ‘pilot’ to test its useability and relevance on one of its projects. “We first used Simply Stakeholders for logging and mapping our community relationships and interactions during the construction of our wind farm within the Goyder Renewables Zone. Given our project was already under way when we started looking for stakeholder relationship management (SRM) software, we started by migrating data from our existing spreadsheet system,” said Hannah.

Neoen recognised that maintaining the breadth of stakeholder engagement using only spreadsheets was close to impossible for its large-scale projects. “I had a lot of information across multiple documents, as well as stored in my head,” admitted Hannah. The company’s engagement team knew that this way of working wasn’t sustainable — for this project or its other developments.

The Engagement team worked together to find an SRM software that would meet the organization’s needs, and that they could start using almost immediately for its Goyder South Wind Farm. And although there was a priority on present needs, Hannah and the team were able to keep an eye on the future.

“As an Engagement team, the future-vision we had for Neoen was creating a central source of truth. A resource that stands up for the life of the asset (sometimes around 30 years), that’s useful to asset managers if they need access to information relating to a challenge or change in circumstance,” said Hannah. Switching to SRM software was about more than this one project. It was about futureproofing all stakeholder management methods for a renewable energy project within the organization.

When looking for a solution, the engagement team knew the right option would:

1. Offer a framework or platform to house data accurately
2. Be a trusted reference source for project teams managing an asset as it progresses through its lifecycle (development, construction, and operations)
3. Help the organization fulfil legal stakeholder management obligations
4. Provide staff with an intuitive, user-friendly interface.

The Solution: SRM Centralization and Supported Platform Adoption During an Active Project

Once the engagement team settled on Simply Stakeholders (“It ticked all the boxes we needed and was fit for purpose”), implementation was rapid.

Hannah, along with the help of a dedicated data entry assistant, migrated the existing spreadsheet data for her project into Simply Stakeholders. And with the support of Joana Zaper from the Simply Stakeholders customer success team, the platform was up and running within days. It may not have been perfect, but it was capable of supporting basic stakeholder management, such as stakeholder register management and task tracking.

“It was a massive relief to pour out all of the information into ready-to-go frameworks, saved on a platform that’s designed exactly for the purpose of SRM,” said Hannah. And removing spreadsheets led to truer data collection. “I no longer felt boxed in by spreadsheet cells, which sometimes made it impossible to accurately capture the nuances of stakeholder interactions,” she said.

A pilot with the Goyder South Wind Farm project allowed Neoen’s engagement team to test Simply Stakeholders’ effectiveness for managing basic SRM requirements and gave them a taste of how it could simplify internal tasks.

“Not only did the Goyder South Project involve a large volume of data, but it included quite a complex web of stakeholders,” said Hannah.

The project involved many landowners hosting wind farm infrastructure. Hannah explained that “successful relationship management involved getting to know them, their families, neighbours, and so on. All of those details are an important part of the story when sitting around someone’s kitchen table, having a cup of tea, and talking about what we hope to accomplish with the use of their land.”

Dynamic stakeholder mapping created a visualisation of complex stakeholder relationships, which ensured the right stakeholders were consulted at the right points in the project, and given information relevant to them.

As the project progressed through its development lifecycle, the engagement team noted how much smoother it was to handover stakeholder information to the next line of project team members. “Now when we roll Simply Stakeholders out to new projects or employees, we (I, CLOs, and Project Managers) start by saying, ‘Hey, let’s think about what the Construction and Operations team may need in the future.’”

Outcomes: A Flexible, Intuitive Platform That Evolves With the Organization

All our CLOs have adopted Simply Stakeholders as part of their daily workflow, with Project Managers embracing the platform for relationship-specific needs that support development and construction. Currently, Neoen uses Simply Stakeholders for:

• Stakeholder register and interactions management
• Engagement task management
• Customized internal reporting
• Surveys and group updates
• Data management
• Workflow automation.

Simply Stakeholders has been rolled out for use on other Neoen projects in Australia since then. Each time, the platform is adapted to deliver project specific stakeholder management features. By working collaboratively with Joana and the Simply Stakeholders team, Neoen creates environments that evolve with the needs of the organization. “I have an idea of how we want to use it in the business and Joana has knowledge of the technical side and how we’re able to do it,” explains Hannah.

The result of ongoing monthly-meetings with Joana and fast turnaround troubleshooting support has led to:

• Tailored feature creation to meet Neoen’s requirements regarding stakeholder communications
• Increased use of relationship mapping and reporting.

“What we’ve created using reports so far has been amazing, and it’s something we’re looking to utilize more,” said Hannah.

The Wrap Up

So, if another company were to ask Hannah about using Simply Stakeholders, what would she say to them?

“I highly recommend the platform. It allows us to complete vital stakeholder management work, which makes it easier for Neoen’s CLOs and Project Managers to embed themselves in the local community. Through this work vital relationships are maintained, which ultimately aid the successful development, construction, and completion of projects.”

And what about the experience of working with Simply Stakeholders?

“The support is amazing. Whether it’s using the chatbot to get a refresher on how things work or reaching out to the customer success team directly, we’ve never felt stranded. However, special mention to Joana — the consistency and continuity of her assistance is very valuable.”