West Australian utility pulls down power lines and installs cleaner micro-grids

Likely uptake of Distribution Network Service Provider Stand Alone Power Systems (Source AMEC via RenewEconomy)

“​Horizon Power is to become the first utility in Australia to remove parts of its overhead network and replace it with an off-grid renewable energy power solution.”

“The West Australia government announced on Thursday [October 3] that the state-owned Horizon, which serves the vast regional areas of the state, will now install 17 standalone power systems on fringe-of-grid properties east of Esperance, and cut down 64kms of network wiring that was prone to outages.”

…..”Other networks in W.A. and the eastern states are expected to follow suit, once a long awaited rule change is finalised by the Australian Energy Market Commission [AMEC] that will clear the regulatory hurdles that prevented networks from making what is an increasingly obvious decision on the basis of economics, reliability, and emissions.”

Continue reading at:
- Horizon first utility to pull down power lines and replace with renewable micro-grids. RenewEconomy October 3, 2019.
- See also in this blog: Off-grid trial gives West Australian farming community cheaper, more reliable power. October 9, 2017.

Renew helps Indigenous community in WA go solar

Part of the solar system at Kurrawang (Source: Renew)

A solar project jointly set up by Renew and an Indigenous community in Western Australia three years ago is benefiting households and cutting greenhouse emissions. The 139-panel solar system is set up on a workshop and machinery shed at the Kurrawang Aboriginal Christian Community near Kalgoorlie. Renew is a not-for-profit organisation which aids and inspires sustainable living.

Renew member, Robin Gardner, said “The savings are averaging, since start up, at 4550 kilowatt hours a month. The system generally supplies almost all the power needs of the community during the middle of the day for the 25 houses, school and workshop, and returns less than 5% to the grid.”

“To the 6th of December, the system had generated 145,584 kilowatt hours of electricity, which has resulted in the saving of 145 tonnes of carbon dioxide or the equivalent of removing 42 cars from the road for a year.”

Read more: Kurrawang: solar success. Renew, January 31, 2019.

Another big battery in Australia has changed our thinking about the grid

Source: RenewEconomy

We all know about the success of the big Tesla battery in South Australia. “But another big battery, the Newman battery storage project, installed just over a year ago in a private-only grid in the Pilbara serving mostly mining industry customers in Australia’s north-west is having just as profound an impact on the way people think about the grid…..

…..Like the Neoen/Tesla big battery, the Newman battery has shown that it is faster, smarter, cheaper, and more reliable than the fossil fuel generators around it…….In this instance, the battery has done what most experts thought it could not do – provide sufficient inertia to the local grid in the absence of thermal generators…..

…...And its speed of response has all but eliminated the supply interruptions that were relatively common in the small grid that relies on comparatively slow gas generators. And it has led to a significant saving on “back-up” gas generation.”

Read more: The “other” big battery that has quietly changed thinking about the grid. RenewEconomy, October 15, 2018.