Nipapanha Community Aboriginal Corporation is in talks to build a community-owned microgrid on Adnyamathanha Country in South Australia.

The problem

Nipapanha Community sits at the end of a 62km single power line from Copley which is prone to outages, particularly due to weather.

Between 2020 and 2024,, Nipapanha averaged 27 hours of power outages a year, against a state median closer to four hours. 

In October 2024, a severe storm knocked out 19 transmission towers, plunging the community into darkness and leaving the community without power for seven days.

Community members and energy providers affected by that outage met at a workshop in Hawker (May 2025), where residents — many living "at the end of the line" — described the impact of prolonged outages: spoiled fridges and freezers, medicines going bad, lost telecommunications, uncertainty about restoration timelines, and the cost of running back-up generators as an interim measure.

Today, the community reports ongoing flickering supply and audible buzzing/hissing from powerlines even outside major outage events.

The priorities

Nipapanha Community Aboriginal Corporation's Board has set out clear priorities for any solution:

• Reliable power that holds up during grid outages
• Lower electricity costs for residents
• No community debt — the project must be grant- and partner-funded
• Training and local jobs in construction and ongoing operation
• Full community involvement at every stage
• Genuine partnerships, not a solo build.

The research

Nipapanha Community Aboriginal Corporation commissioned engineering firm Arup Australia to run a pre-feasibility study, completed March 2026.

The Board has resolved to progress two options into a full feasibility study:

• A 180kWp ground-mount solar PV system with a 300kWh battery energy storage system (BESS), no diesel backup — estimated capital cost $623,000
• The same system plus a 25kW diesel backup generator — estimated capital cost $637,000

Both options would create a grid-connected microgrid (a "T-SAPS" — Temporary Stand Alone Power System) with islanding capability, projected to significantly improve reliability and cut operating electricity costs by around 64%.

It would be a first-of-its-kind project in South Australia, with few precedents nationally.

There is also an option to scale the system up to allow energy export for commercial return and regional back-up capacity.

Arup is delivering roughly half of the feasibility work pro bono.

The ask

Nipapanha Community Aboriginal Corporation is formally requesting collaboration and partnership, which could include:

• a seat on the project steering committee
• access to outage, load, and power-quality data and modelling assumptions to support the Corporation's independent feasibility study
• a connections study to identify the optimum regulatory approval pathway for a grid-connected microgrid
• sharing that connections study to support joint planning for potential co-investment; and,
• further down the track, funding, co-ownership, and shared operation of the microgrid.

Representatives from Nipapanha Community Aboriginal Corporation, the First Nations Clean Energy Network and Arup travelled to Adelaide 20–23 July 2026 to meet with SA Power Networks, ElectraNet, and the SA Department for Energy and Mining to discuss developing a microgrid in Nipapunha.

The project

The proposed project is for a 180kWp solar and 300kWb battery system with an additional 25kW diesel backup generator.

The desire

Nipapanha Community Aboriginal Corporation Board member Jumeka Saunders says:

"We want to make a better future for our Elders as well as the young generation."

"It'll take five years at the most (to get up and running) once we get all the funding partnerships, and people that want to be involved in it."

This includes an excerpt of an article published in The Advertiser and Townsville Bulletin on 27 July 2026.