While First Nations groups are trying to push through small-scale projects to support remote communities, the first movers have had to do considerable extra work to convince utilities that it would be possible.
An article published by Renew Economy asks the question, why aren’t more microgrids being rolled out in remote First Nations communities?
The author notes medium-sized renewable microgrids are being held back by a lack of policy clarity and standardised connection procedures, which are making it more difficult for remote First Nations communities to enjoy the kind of energy security as other Australians.
A 100 kilowatt (kW) solar system and 136 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery microgrid installed by Marlinja community in the Northern Territory with partner Original Power took five years to get done.
It took three years to figure out how to hack pre-paid meters to allow two-way revenue flows — meaning returns from the solar generated are making energy bills lower, and a lack of processes for grid connection assessments meant uncertain timelines and problems around locking in financing.
In partnership with the community, Original Power is now building on what it, and Northern Territory utilities, have learned in Marlinja for the next project at Borroloola in the Northern Territory, the Ngardara 2.1 megawatt (MW) solar and 1.8 MW, 6.6 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery project.
Ekistica engineer Josiah Fajardo says remote power providers don’t want to manage hundreds of small power systems across their vast networks.
"They have a desire for standardisation."
He says there’s an opportunity in creating standardised processes for smaller projects, much as has been done for the 100 MW-plus ones, to get smaller projects online.
Funding is a symptom of the problem, rather than the cause, says cleantech specialist Madison Sturgess, from Original Power.
“I don’t actually think the problem is that it’s too expensive to do community energy,” she said at the First Nations Clean Energy Symposium.
“We haven’t enabled the regulatory commercial conditions to allow that to succeed in the way that we’ve done it for other segments of the energy market, and technology and commercial settings as well.
“We’re leaving a lot of community value on the table by not doing that.”
Under the current systems and connection processes, a 5 MW project quickly becomes complex and expensive, even though it’s not that big. But it’s still worthwhile as a community-building piece of infrastructure, says Madie.
“There’s a community wealth building piece there as well, and a revitalisation piece there as well that I think gets missed.”
This is an excerpt from an article published by Renew Economy.