Microgrid powering community
At a glace
Mircrogrids are emerging as decentralised sources of energy, offering significant benefit to rural and remote communities.
The challenge
The Onslow Distributed Energy Resource (DER) project delivered by Horizon Power, Western Australia’s regional power provider, is one of the world’s first fully automated, integrated microgrid power systems. Delivered in two stages, over three years, the project included a mix of distributed customer-owned rooftop solar, a new modular gas power station, transmission line, substation, solar farm and battery storage.
The project aimed to supply more than 50 percent of the town’s annual energy consumption by centralised and decentralised (customer owned) renewable energy sources, while achieving a lower ongoing cost to supply electricity compared to a conventional system without renewable.
Our response
A CLEAR VISION
Through a clear vision and unity of purpose, the project successfully delivered an advanced microgrid and is well on its way to achieving its objectives, transforming energy supply for Onslow. Customer take up of solar PV systems also exceeded targets by 20 percent.
Delivery of the project has been systematically staged to de-risk the overall deployment of the contemporary power system. The main power station and backbone infrastructure (stage 1) were completed in July 2018, the solar farm and centralised battery were completed in July 2019 and 2.4 MW of decentralised solar PV has subsequently been delivered by Horizon Power in 2020
The impact
CLEAN AND COST EFFECTIVE ELECTRICITY
With the goal to provide clean and cost effective electricity to the community, the project is helping Horizon Power plan for future energy systems, where customer-owned renewables will be an integral part of the energy mix.
“The benefit to the community is more reliable, cleaner, greener power through the incorporation of utility-grade solar and battery assets in to the power infrastructure,”