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  • The Project

  • - What is the Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Energy Storage project?

    The Oven Mountain project is an 'off river' pumped hydro energy development located near the Macleay River between Armidale and Kempsey.   Situated within the New England Renewable Energy Zone, the project will provide clean energy generation and storage capabilities, ensuring a reliable, resilient, and renewable future energy supply for NSW.

  • + Where is the project located?

    The Oven Mountain project is located on private land in the Armidale Regional Local Government Area, approximately 60km southeast of Armidale and 70km northwest of Kempsey, via the Kempsey-Armidale Road.   The project is bordered by the Macleay River to the west and Carrai Tablelands to the east. Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, Carrai National Parks and Carrai Conservation Area surround the property, with the New England National Park approximately 1 km to the north-west.   The project site possesses excellent characteristics for pumped hydro energy storage development, namely a significant 'head' height and natural rock formations which are ideally shaped to work as reservoirs.

  • + What are the key features of the project?

    The Oven Mountain project will include the construction of upper and lower reservoirs; an underground hydroelectric power station; spillways; power waterway and access tunnels.   The project will also include the construction of a new electricity transmission line (approximately 12kms in length), which will connect the generation site to the existing Armidale - Kempsey 132 kV line 965.   Additionally, the project will also include upgrades to telecommunication services and existing local and regional roads, allowing for safe construction and operation access.

  • + What is the anticipated operational lifespan of the project?

    The Oven Mountain project will have a full operating life span of over 100 years.   The turbines that will be used are designed to continuously operate with regular routine maintenance checks.

  • + How does Pumped Hydro Energy Storage work?

    Pumped hydro energy storage is a mature technology that has been widely deployed across the world.   The Oven Mountain project can be thought of as a giant water battery. Water will be pumped up-hill when electricity prices are low, and energy is plentiful. Stockpiled water will then be released down-hill to the lower reservoir when both prices and demand are high.   Energy will be generated by passing the stored water through underground hydroelectric turbines. This energy can then be transported into the grid to meet increasing demand and help lower energy prices.   The reservoirs will be able to store water for up to 12 hours of dispatchable reliable energy to be produced.

  • + What is the role of Pumped Hydro Energy Storage?

    Considered the workhorse of renewable energy, Pumped Hydro Energy Storage uses tried and tested technology to provide much needed stability to our electricity network.   Pumped Hydro Energy Storage provides a range of critical network support services including inertia, frequency control, voltage control, system restart services and system strength support to the network. This means a more reliable energy network for all users.   Pumped Hydro Energy Storage also plays an important role in supporting the growth of renewable energy on the grid. This is particularly important considering the continued retirement of traditional coal and gas-powered generation across Australia.   The NSW Government has committed to delivering a 'clean energy future'. This includes a target to build at least 2GW of new long-duration storage (more than 8 hours) by 2030.   The Oven Mountain project - which will provide dispatchable energy for up to 12 hours - will be integral in helping meet future energy needs.

  • + What does 'off river' and 'closed loop' mean?

    The Oven Mountain project is located off the Macleay River and as such will be an 'off river' (or 'closed loop') scheme. This means that once filled, the project will have little additional need for water over its operational life.   Water from the Macleay River will be used for the initial fill - a one-off event during the construction period. This fill will only take place under high river flow conditions and is expected to utilise a small percentage of total river flow.   Small amounts of top-up water may be required periodically to make up for any seepage and evaporation from the reservoirs.
  • Planning and Environmental Process

  • + What is an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)?

    An EIS is a robust and comprehensive document that incorporates a diverse range of analysis and input from independent technical and scientific experts. The EIS demonstrates a holistic and rigorous approach to a broad range of social, economic, and environmental matters.  It includes an assessment of all the potential impacts from a project and approaches to manage and mitigate those potential impacts. It includes assessing:  • Flora and fauna – on land and water
    • Aboriginal and European cultural heritage
    • Water – above and below ground
    • Land use
    • Transport – including traffic and roads
    • Visual amenity
    • Noise and vibration
    • Air quality including dust
    • Hazards like bush fire, flooding and EMF
    • Social and economic
    • Waste
    • Cumulative impacts

  • + What does Critical State Significant Infrastructure mean?

    In October 2020, the Oven Mountain project was declared Critical State Significant Infrastructure (CSSI). This means the NSW Government – under Section 5.13 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 – deemed it as a high-priority infrastructure project, considered essential for economic, environmental, or social reasons.   Importantly, the CSSI declaration does not change the approval pathway that the Oven Mountain project must follow.

  • + When will I be able to have my say about the project?

    The Oven Mountain project team has been talking with the community and other stakeholders about the project since 2017 and incorporating feedback into the project design and environmental investigations.   In addition to the informal opportunities that have been held in the past few years, the community is invited to provide formal feedback about the project during exhibition of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).   Exhibition of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is an important part of NSW’s environmental and planning approval process. It is central in ensuring that a project delivers the best outcome for the community and region.   The EIS was placed on exhibition for community feedback from 19 September 2023 until 20 October 2023 on the Major Projects Portal.   Development of the EIS was based on the project’s Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs), which were issued by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (now the Department of Planning and Environment) in February 2021 and are available on the Department’s Major Projects Portal.

  • + What happens now exhibition of the EIS has ended?

    Following the exhibition period, the Department of Planning and Environment will provide the project team with all the submissions received as well as publish them online. We will then respond to the submissions through a report to the Department. This report will also be made publicly available.   The department will then assess the project and make a recommendation to approve or refuse the application, along with conditions of consent or reasons for refusal.   The recommendation is referred to the NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, or a delegate, for determination.   Construction of the project cannot commence without receiving formal approval.

  • + Has the project considered historic antimony and arsenic contamination in the region?

    The Oven Mountain project has completed extensive site and field investigations as part of ongoing planning works. This includes geotechnical and hydrogeological work in the lower and upper reservoir areas, as well as nearby rivers and catchments.  Testing for antimony and arsenic was included as part of these investigations, and findings have been included in the EIS.

  • + What is the role of engagement on the project?

    Community engagement is an important part of the planning approval process and is critical to the success of the Oven Mountain project.  We enjoy getting out and about and talking about the project. Over the years, we have met with landowners, community groups (including recreational users), government agencies, Thunggutti Local Aboriginal Land Council, Dunghutti Elders Council, regional councils, education providers, and local businesses.  We believe strongly in the need for genuine and meaningful engagement that is inclusive, responsive, and ongoing. Our aim is to ensure that we prepare and deliver the best outcome for the project and region.
  • The New England Renewable Energy Zone

  • + What is a Renewable Energy Zone?

    A Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) can be considered as a modern-day power station. They combine renewable energy generation such as wind and solar, storage such as pumped hydro energy storage, and high-voltage poles and wires to deliver energy to the homes, businesses and industries that need it.   The NSW Government expects that REZs will deliver multiple benefits to NSW, including more reliable energy from significant amounts of new energy supply; energy bill savings from reduced wholesale electricity costs; emissions reduction from a cleaner energy sector; and community partnership.

  • + What is the New England Renewable Energy Zone?

    The NSW Government is developing five REZ’s across NSW, which will help deliver large amounts of new energy to regions and cities as ageing coal-fired power stations retire.   In December 2021, the NSW Government formally declared a REZ in the New England region. This REZ will deliver new network capacity to host up to 8 gigawatts of new generation.   To find out more information about the New England REZ, please visit the Energy NSW website at www.energy.nsw.gov.au/renewables/renewable- energy-zones.
  • Delivering the Project

  • + Who is delivering the Oven Mountain project?

    Alinta Energy is one of Australia’s largest energy retailers, generators, investors, and developers. In the last decade we’ve grown from being the largest residential gas retailer in Western Australia to the preferred electricity and gas provider for more than 1.1 million homes and businesses Australia-wide.   We have an owned and contracted generation portfolio of 3,000 MW across Australia and New Zealand – including gas, wind, solar, and coal. Our determination to make energy better has put us at the forefront of the transition to renewables. We built Western Australia’s highest producer of renewable energy (the Yandin Wind Farm), the first grid-forming big battery in Australia, and the biggest remote solar installation at the Chichester solar-gas hybrid project. And we’re developing over $10 billion of renewables and storage projects including offshore wind and pumped hydro projects.   We’re proud of our local customer service centres and agents in Perth, Western Australia, and Morwell in Victoria, and employ around 1000 people across the country.

  • + When will construction of the project commence?

    Construction on the Oven Mountain project is anticipated to commence in late 2024 and take about five years to complete.   Construction on the project cannot commence until formal planning approval has been received.

  • + How can local and regional suppliers get involved in the project?

    The Oven Mountain project is a major initiative that will serve as a catalyst for positive social and economic changes in regional NSW.   In February 2023, the Oven Mountain team and ICN (Industry Capability Network) NSW invited local and regional suppliers to the first round of industry briefing sessions in Armidale and Kempsey.   The project has identified more than 80 works packages ranging from transport and logistics, administration, and communications, to major civil, underground construction, and utilities works.   To register your interest in the project, visit the ICN Gateway portal at https://gateway.icn.org.au and search ‘Oven Mountain’.
  • Staying Connected

  • + How can I contact the project team?

    Our team welcomes all feedback we receive, which we use to inform the environmental and design process. You can reach our team in several ways:  
    1. Call us toll-free on 1800 518 194.
    2. Email us at info@ompshydro.com.
    3. Visit our Community Information Hub in Kempsey on Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30am to 3:30pm. We are located at 2/28 Clyde Street, Kempsey – opposite the community car park, and next to the medical practice.
    4. Follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

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Privacy Policy

1                ABOUT THIS POLICY

1.1. This is the Privacy Policy of Alinta Energy Pty Limited (ABN 64 614 975 629) and the Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage Project (the Project).

1.2. Protecting your privacy is crucial to the way Alinta Energy conducts our business. This Privacy Policy describes how we carefully manage and safeguard your Personal Information (including sensitive information), how we collect and use all of this information to provide our products and services to you and how we comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

1.3. We take privacy seriously at Alinta Energy and we are committed to protecting your privacy — not just because it is the law, but because handling Personal Information transparently and responsibly is a key part of creating a great stakeholder, employee and business partner experience. Alinta Energy does not sell, rent or trade your Personal Information.

1.4. The Privacy Act defines Personal Information as:
       Information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:
           a. whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
           b. whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

Why Alinta Energy’s Privacy Policy is important

1.5. Alinta Energy collects, holds, uses and discloses Personal Information to carry out Project functions or activities and to comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

1.6. This Privacy Policy guides Alinta Energy and regulates how we manage and protect your Personal Information.

Who is responsible for your Personal Information?

1.7. Alinta Energy is responsible for the safekeeping of Personal Information that is provided to us.

2 TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

If you are a stakeholder of the Project, we may collect information about you in order to keep you updated about the Project and manage our communication with you.

2.1. The main way Alinta Energy collects Personal Information about you is when you provide it to us.

2.2. The information Alinta Energy collects may include:

·        your contact information, such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, mobile phone number, properties you own, the organisation you work for or are associated with and your role

·        information you provide to us in correspondence such as letters and emails, notes we take after phone calls with you, and notes we take after meetings or other face-to-face discussions with you.

3. HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

Directly from you

3.1. In many instances, Alinta Energy collects Personal Information directly from you. For example, if you are a stakeholder, we may collect your information during a meeting, when you contact us by phone, email, through our website or via social media sites.

3.2. Some other examples of how Alinta Energy collects Personal Information include:

·        If you register for email updates via our website

·        If you engage with us via social media, phone, email or in person

·        When you or your organisation offer to provide, or provide, products and or services to us.

·        When you participate in an engagement activity or consultation.

Through other means

3.3. In the course of the Project’s development and planning, we may collect Personal Information about you indirectly from publicly available sources or from third parties such as:

·        through land title searches to determine land ownership

·        from websites such as local Councillor or community group information.

Alinta Energy will only store this information for as long as it is needed to perform the function or activity for which it was collected. Alinta Energy will destroy or de-identify information when it is no longer required for that purpose.

3.4. Alinta Energy may collect Personal Information via our website - see Part 5 Using our Website and Cookies below.

3.5. Alinta Energy may also collect Personal Information that you provide to us when signing up to mailing lists and registering for our events.

Anonymity

3.6. Whenever it is lawful and practicable, Alinta Energy will allow you to interact with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym.

3.7. However, for some of our Project functions and activities Alinta Energy usually requires your name, contact information and enough information about the particular matter to enable us to fairly and efficiently handle your inquiry, request, complaint or application, or to respond to you, the relevant authorities or to another effected individual/organisations.

4. WHY WE COLLECT, USE AND DISCLOSE PERSONAL INFORMATION

4.1. Alinta Energy collects, holds, uses and shares your Personal Information for our Project functions and activities, which includes managing the Project and complying with the law. We handle your information so we can:

·        confirm and/or validate your identity

·        communicate with you and to keep you updated regarding Project activities

·        respond to your enquiries and resolve complaints

·        comply with our regulatory obligations, report to regulators and authorities and assess our legal compliance (including through internal and external audits).

4.2. If Alinta Energy does not have your Personal Information, we may not be able to respond to your questions or comply with the law.

Who we disclose Personal Information to?

4.3. Alinta Energy may disclose your Personal Information for the purposes described in this Policy to:

·        our employees, consultants and sub-contractors responsible for stakeholder engagement

·        Regulatory bodies and Law Enforcement Agencies (e.g., the NSW Environmental Protection Authority, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the NSW Ombudsman, and the Police)

·        other persons as required or permitted by law.

4.4. Alinta Energy takes reasonable measures to ensure that the parties we share your information with are bound by confidentiality and the Privacy Act.

What we will not do with your Personal Information

4.5. Alinta Energy will not use or disclose your Personal Information for another purpose (a secondary purpose) unless:

·        we first obtain your consent

·        you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose your Personal Information for a secondary purpose that is related to the primary purpose

·        it is set out in this Policy

·        we are required to by Law

·        a permitted general purpose exists

·        we believe it is reasonably necessary for one or more enforcement related activities conducted by, or on behalf of, an enforcement body.

4.6. If Alinta Energy collects Sensitive Information about you, you consent to us collecting, using and disclosing the Sensitive Information for the purpose for which it was collected as disclosed and as permitted by the Privacy Act or other relevant legislation.

Direct marketing

4.7. Alinta Energy and/or our consultants and sub-contractors may send you direct communications and information about the Project. This may take the form of emails, SMS, mail or other forms of communication.

4.8. These communications may also be sent to you even if you are not, or no longer, a Project stakeholder.

4.9. You may opt-out of receiving these communications by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the electronic communication or by contacting us on 1800 518 194.

5 USING OUR WEBSITE AND COOKIES

5.1. The Project’s website, www.ompshydro.com, is hosted in Australia and there are two ways in which we collect information through our website.

5.2. Alinta Energy may collect Personal Information about you when you submit an online enquiry or sign up to our mailing list.

5.3. The Project’s website includes pages that use cookies which are small amounts of data sent by our website and other third parties and stored on your computer’s hard drive. This allows our servers to recognise your computer when you visit our website in the future. Although cookies are used to collect data about your browser type, the operating system you are using, the web page you visited, your internet service provider and your State location, Alinta Energy does not use this data to identify you personally.

5.5. You can configure your internet browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is sent. If you refuse the use of cookies in this way you may not be able to access the full functionality of Alinta Energy’s website. Please refer to your internet browser’s instructions or help screens to learn more about these functions.

5.6. To assess the effectiveness of Alinta Energy’s website design and layout, as well as monitor traffic to the website, we may contract with third parties to collect statistical data. However no Personal Information is collected during this process.

5.7. The Project’s website may contain links to websites operated by third parties. Those links are provided for convenience and may not remain current or be maintained. Unless expressly stated otherwise, Alinta Energy is not responsible for the privacy practices of, or any content on, those linked websites, and we have no control over or rights in those linked websites. The privacy policies that apply to those other websites may differ substantially from this Privacy Policy, so we encourage individuals to read them before using those websites.

6 SECURITY

6.1. Alinta Energy generally hold Personal Information in our electronic databases and in various third party databases and platforms.

6.2. Alinta Energy is committed to the security of your Personal Information and takes reasonable steps to protect your Personal Information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

6.3. Alinta Energy uses a number of physical, administrative, personnel and technical measures to protect your Personal Information, which include, but are not limited to:

·        implementing internal processes and policies in relation to the collection, use and secure storage of Personal Information and educating our personnel in relation to these obligations

·        storing Personal Information in secure, encrypted data centres

·        using secure networks or encryption when transmitting electronic customer data and Personal Information

·        requiring the third parties we engage to take adequate security measures and handle your Personal Information in a manner consistent with the Privacy Act

·        regularly assessing the risk of misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure of that information

·        taking measures to address those risks

·        having mandatory annual training for all our staff on our privacy obligations, with a focus on how to keep your information safe and secure.

7 REQUEST TO ACCESS PERSONAL INFORMATION

7.1. You can request access to the Personal Information that Alinta Energy holds about you at any time by contacting us using the details at the end of this Policy. We will ask you to verify your identity before we provide access to your information and we will try to make the process as simple as possible.

7.2. Alinta Energy will endeavour to respond within a reasonable period of receiving your request. Where reasonable, we will provide you with a copy or details of your Personal Information in the manner requested.

7.3. Sometimes Alinta Energy may be unable to provide you with access to some or all of your personal information (for example we reasonably believe that providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals, would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual/to public health/public safety or would be unlawful/prejudicial). Where this is the case, we will tell you why.

8 REQUEST TO CORRECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

8.1. Alinta Energy takes reasonable steps to ensure that the Personal Information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete, up to date and relevant.

8.2. If you believe the Personal Information that we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or outdated, please contact us using the details at the end of this Policy. We will endeavour to respond within a reasonable period of receiving your request.

8.3. We will ask you to verify your identity before we make any corrections.

8.4. If we do not think that the information needs to be corrected, we will tell you why. If we do not correct your Personal Information, you can ask us to include a statement (that will be attached to that information) that you believe the information is incorrect and why.

9 DESTRUCTION/DE-IDENTIFYING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

9.1. When Alinta Energy no longer needs the Personal Information collected for any purpose for which the Personal Information may be used or disclosed, Alinta Energy will destroy/de-identify the Personal Information in accordance with the Privacy Act requirements.

10 PRIVACY COMPLAINTS

10.1. If you believe that we have breached the Privacy Act, or you wish to make a complaint about the way we have handled your Personal Information, we encourage you to contact us using the details at the end of this Policy.

10.2. Please include your name, email address and/or telephone number and clearly describe your complaint. We will respond within a reasonable period of receiving your complaint.

10.3. If we receive a complaint from you about how we have handled your Personal Information we will determine what (if any) action we should take to resolve the complaint.

10.4. If we decide that a complaint should be investigated further, the complaint will usually be handled by a more senior officer than the officer whose actions you are complaining about.

10.5. If you are not satisfied with Alinta Energy’s handling of your complaint, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). For further information regarding how to make a complaint to the OAIC, you can visit oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints.

11 HOW TO CONTACT US

11.1. Alinta Energy welcomes your views about our Privacy Policy.

11.2. To ask us a question, access your Personal Information, request a correction to your Personal Information, make a complaint, or get a copy of this Policy, you can contact Alinta Energy as set out below:

Postal Address:       Alinta Energy
                                  PO Box 16196
                                  Collins Street West VIC 8007

Phone:                    1300 193 986  

·        For Privacy Matters mark your correspondence Attention: Privacy Officer. The Privacy Officer’s email is privacy@alintaenergy.com.au.

12 REVIEW OF POLICY

12.1. Alinta Energy’s Privacy Policy will be reviewed by our Privacy Officer at least every two years or more frequently if changes are required, including when there are legislative changes or changes to our information handling practices. The next scheduled review will be July 2025.

12.2. When we change our Privacy Policy, we update it on our website. This Policy was last reviewed in July 2023.

 

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Terms of Use

Welcome to the Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage Project site https://www.ompshydro.com (which we call our Site).

It’s important you read these terms of use (the Terms) carefully because they govern the use of our Site.

That is, by using our Site, you are entering into a legally binding agreement between us and you.


Disclaimer

The information and content contained on our Site is for information only. This information doesn’t constitute legal, financial, or other professional advice. You must not rely on the information or content on our Site without first obtaining independent advice.

While we try to keep our Site as up to date as possible, things may change after content is published which may impact its accuracy.

Despite our best efforts, parts of our Site may be temporarily unavailable.


Your responsibility

You are responsible for ensuring the security of the devices that you use to access our Site, including by using security software.

You must not do (or permit anyone else to do) anything that interferes with or otherwise affects the normal operation of our Site, such as:

transmitting any virus or other harmful code or material to our Site

preventing others from using our Site

tampering with or making unauthorised modifications to our Site

uploading any offensive, illicit, defamatory, or threatening material that could offend any person or give rise to legal proceedings.

We may suspend or terminate your access to all or part of our Site if we find that you have failed to comply with these Terms.

Intellectual Property

Unless otherwise indicated, we either own the copyright in the content of our Site or are licensed to use it. You may download this information for your own personal use.

You may not use any of the trademarks or logos from our Site without our prior written permission.

All intellectual property rights are reserved, although unless otherwise stated, the content of our Site or any linked websites will not infringe any the intellectual property rights of any person anywhere in the world.

External Links

Sometimes we’ll include links to other websites (like Facebook, LinkedIn and the Major Projects Portal) from our Site for your convenience. However, this doesn’t represent any endorsement of that website, approval of the products or services offered via that website, nor the accuracy of the information on those websites.

We don’t control, and aren’t responsible for, the information or content of any website accessed, or linked to, from our Site. We aren’t liable for the content on those websites or for any virus transmitted from them.

Privacy and Cookies

We take our stakeholders’ privacy very seriously and only collect and manage your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy here and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Our Site includes pages and plug-ins that use cookies, which are small amounts of data sent by our Site and other third parties and stored on your computer’s hard drive. This allows our servers to recognise your computer when you visit our Site in the future.

Although cookies are used to collect data such as your browser type, the operating system you are using, the web page you visited, your internet service provider, your screen resolution, your device manufacturer, and your general geolocation, we don’t use this data to identify you personally. We only use this information to tailor how certain pages on our Site appear to you so you can receive content that is relevant to you.

Our Site also uses Google Analytics, which in turn uses cookies. Although these cookies do not identify you personally, they allow information about your use of our Site (including your IP address and device ID) to be transmitted to Google. For more information, please see Google's site "How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps", located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. By using our Site, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above. [AN1]  

You can configure your internet browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is sent. If you refuse the use of cookies in this way you may not be able to access the full functionality of our Site.

Other Legal Information

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we aren’t liable (whether in contract, negligence or otherwise) for any loss or damage (including special, indirect, or consequential loss) relating to your access or use of our Site including the use or misuse of the information provided on our Site.

We may make changes to these Terms from time to time. Your ongoing use of our Site after any changes are made will be deemed as consent to these changes to the Terms.

Any reference to us or we in these Terms means the Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage Project owned by Alinta Energy Pty Limited (ABN 64 614 975 629).

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Social media guidelines

The Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage Project uses various social media channels, including Facebook and LinkedIn, to publish information about the project and engage with our stakeholders and the community.

We encourage you to use the project’s social media channels to provide us with feedback and engage in discussion with other users on matters that relate to the project.

We have developed these house rules to explain how we manage our social media channels. By using our social media channels you agree to comply with these rules.

 

Rules for using our social media channels

When you post or comment, you must:

·        be honest and genuine about any opinions you express

·        represent your own views - in particular, you must not:

o   impersonate or falsely represent any other person, organization or group that you are not authorised to represent

o   misrepresent or misleadingly conceal any relevant affiliation that you have with any group or organisation

·        be polite and respectful in your interactions with other users; and

·        comply with applicable laws in Australia and any other relevant country, including by ensuring that you have all necessary rights and permissions to any content or information that you choose to post.

We do not permit any comments or posts (or any other uses of our social media channels) that:

·        are factually inaccurate or misleading (whether deliberately or unintentionally)

·        deliberately spread misinformation that is unproven or unsupported

·        involve trolling or other deliberately disruptive or inflammatory behaviour (including the use of insulting, provocative or hateful language)

·        constitute spam or are otherwise repetitive in nature (including where a user makes repeated posts expressing the same view or opinion)

·        are not relevant to our business

·        are discriminatory in any way (including on the grounds of race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation or age)

·        constitute bullying or are likely to harass, upset, alarm, disrupt, or cause distress

·        are insulting, offensive, abusive, violent, defamatory, slanderous or threatening to any individual, organisation or group of people

·        make unproven or unsupported allegations against an individual, organization or group of people

·        contain or link to spam, viruses or harmful code or to sexually explicit, obscene, indecent or otherwise objectionable content

·        reveals private information about an individual without their consent

·        infringes the rights (including intellectual property rights or privacy rights) of any other person or entity

·        breaches any applicable laws, rules and regulations, or the terms of use and policies of the relevant social media platform

·        contain promotional, sales, marketing, fundraising or advertising material for any other business that we have not approved

·        promote political campaigns or involve overtly political content.

We also do not permit the use of bots to engage with our social media channels and we reserve the right to block bot accounts and delete any comments or posts from bot accounts.

Our social media channels are public forums. If you are concerned about the visibility of any of your posts or comments we encourage you to use the privacy settings available to you on the relevant social media platform. We reserve the right to:

·        treat any comments or posts on our social media channels as non-proprietary and non-confidential

·        collect, use, disclose and reproduce such comments and posts for for our general business purposes, commercial or otherwise, without any requirement to provide attribution or compensation to you.

 

Our content moderation policy

While we welcome your opinions and encourage you to engage in robust discussion, we reserve the right to review and moderate any content that is posted to our social media channels, including comments and replies.

We may (with or without prior notice to you):

·        temporarily or permanently hide, remove or delete your comment or post if it breaches these rules, is factually inaccurate or is otherwise unlawful or objectionable

·        refuse to approve your post or comment (if the post or comment is subject to a pre-approval requirement)

·        restrict or block you (or otherwise suspend or terminate access) if you repeatedly or seriously breach these rules or infringe the rights of others.

We also reserve the right to investigate any reported or suspected breach of these rules (or any other use of our social media channels that is objectionable or unlawful) and take such actions as we consider appropriate following the investigation, including(but not limited to):

·        providing your identity and/or contact details to another user who has made credible allegations that you have defamed them or otherwise infringed their rights

·        reporting any unlawful conduct to the appropriate authorities and otherwise taking appropriate legal action.

If we consider that a particular conversation or topic is not relevant or appropriate for our social media channel (or has become repetitive), we reserve the right to remove the relevant posts and comments and ask the relevant users to move their conversation to a different forum. We are not responsible for resolving disputes between you and other users.

Please contact our social media team (using the details below) if you wish to complain about a post or comment, or if you think we've made a mistake about a particular content moderation decision. However, we reserve the right to make the final decision on all content moderation issues.

Our social media team checks our social media channels periodically, as we consider necessary and appropriate. However, we do not guarantee that our social media pages will be monitored or moderated continuously or during any particular hours.

 

How to contact us

If you have any questions, concerns or complaints you can contact our social media team at info@ompshydro.com

If you are making a complaint about a particular post or comment, we ask that you identify the relevant post or comment and explain the reason for you complaint. We may ask you to provide further details to help us with assessing your complaint.

Our social media team aims to respond to all complaints and queries in a timely manner.

 

Other matters

When using our social media channels, please be aware of the following:

·        Social media platform terms. The social media platforms that we use have their own terms and conditions, content moderation policies and privacy policies. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with these terms and policies, as they will apply in addition to our social media house rules. We are not responsible for any content moderation decisions or other actions taken by the platform provider.

·        Content posted by other users. The views expressed by other users in their posts and comments are the views of those users, and should not be assumed to reflect our views or have our endorsement. We do not guarantee that any information posted by other users is accurate, complete, reliable or up-to-date.

·        Following and sharing. If our social media account responds to your post, comment or account on the platform (e.g. a "like", share, follow, re-tweet etc), this should not be assumed to constitute our endorsement.

·        Third party content and links. Our social media channels may display content from third parties or contain links to websites operated by other organisations and individuals which have been posted by us or other users. This does not constitute our endorsement, approval or recommendation of the third party content or website.

·        Privacy Policy. Your use of our social media channels is also subject to our Privacy Policy, which is available on our website (https://www.ompshydro.com.au).

 

Changes to these rules

We may revise these rules at any time by publishing the amended version on our website (https://www.ompshydro.com.au).

We encourage you to periodically check back for changes and, if you do not agree with any of the changes, cease using or accessing our social media channels. By continuing to use our social media channels after such changes are published, you agree to comply with the updated rules.

Version Date: November 2023