What often gets overlooked are the innovations underway where the power grid ends. It costs power utilities a lot to keep these towns connected to the grid. But the plunging costs of renewables and storage mean it’s increasingly possible to do things differently. It makes sense for towns, remote communities and mine sites to produce more of their own power – and eventually, cut the link to the grid entirely.
Western Australia – a state larger than Western Europe – is at the forefront of these changes. Because it’s not connected to the national power grid, it has long gone its own way on power. Now, utilities are rethinking whether the state’s huge grid is necessary. Over 15,000 km of overhead line have been decommissioned in recent years.
For the residents of small towns in outback Western Australia, remote First Nations communities in the Northern Territory or a mine site in the middle of the Western Australian Goldfields, power isn’t something to take for granted.
For decades, these places have had to make do with an often unreliable trickle of electricity transmitted along very long, ageing wires. These can be battered by storms, coated in salt and sand, and regularly knocked out .
For instance, the small outback Queensland town of Thargomindah had 20 unplanned blackouts in the three months to February 2024 – more than one a week.
This is a common problem for communities at the edge of the grid. Electricity is often less reliable and more expensive. Transmitting power thousands of kilometers from where it is produced means up to 35% is lost along the way.
Many remote communities rely on diesel generators, either as a backup or permanently. Because these rely on expensive fuel trucked in, residents can end up paying much more for electricity than people in cities.
Grid frontiers
For a long time, there was no real alternative to generators and unreliable power. Now there are several.
The three most advanced options are standalone power systems, renewable microgrids and community batteries. All represent a shift away from grid dependence, though they differ in the degree. Standalone systems operate without the grid, microgrids can work with or without it and community batteries remain connected to the network.
Western Australia has two electricity grids – one in the southwest, where most people live, and another in the northwest mining hub. It also has 38 microgrids . Authorities want to have 1,000 standalone power systems dotting the state by 2030 .
Here are some examples of what’s being tested at the edge of the grid.
The town of Kalbarri sits at the end of a notoriously unreliable 130km power line from Geraldton, regularly lashed by storms. This is why it was chosen to host the state’s standout example of what’s possible – a 5 MW microgrid .
It combines local wind, rooftop solar and batteries and detects faults in milliseconds, switching to island mode so smoothly that residents may not even notice. It’s expected to eliminate 80 per cent of the town’s previous outages.
In towns such as Esperance, Exmouth and Carnarvon, 10 community batteries are being installed, while the gold mining hub of Kalgoorlie will soon host a large 50 MW battery.
Mining companies are looking to these methods to lower operating costs and cut emissions. The Agnew Gold Mine now gets 50-60% of its electricity from wind, solar and batteries with 99.99% reliability, which is essential for a mining operation.
Remote First Nations communities such as Blackstone are also looking to microgrids combining solar, batteries and a diesel backup. Reliable electricity is vital for family homes and healthcare.
The innovation at the edge of the grid isn’t just vital for remote residents.
These real world trials of microgrids, batteries, smart software and standalone power systems will feed into how we manage bigger energy grids and make the best use of renewables and storage.
Authors: Asma Aziz, senior lecturer in power engineering, Edith Cowan University; Yasir Arafat, senior research engineer in electric vehicle batteries and battery storage, Edith Cowan University
This article was initially published in The Conversation and is republished here under a Creative Commons Licence.
From pv magazine Australia
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