Mondo Power, an independent subsidiary of AusNet Services, has deployed 17 separate power systems with solar power and battery energy storage as part of the rollout of offgrid technology.
Residents of remote parts of East Gippsland in the state of Victoria are taking part in Australia’s first state of the art Autonomous Power Systems (SAPS) trial. Ausnet is exploring the use of the technology as part of its ongoing effort to strengthen the network’s efficiency and resilience.
According to the decentralized grid service provider, SAPS, which includes a combination of solar energy, batteries and a back-up generator, provides an independent, reliable and renewable power source solution for energy users in remote locations without a grid connection.
Mondo, AusNet’s commercial unit, said the trial units will include ground-mounted solar panels, a battery energy storage system and a back-up diesel generator. The self-sufficient units also have control equipment that can be used to monitor the use of electricity.
“We now have 17 systems successfully installed and operating across Victoria and we look forward to seeing more homes and businesses benefit from reliable, renewable energy,” Mr Mondo said.
In the experiment, priority has been given to residents of remote areas with a single-wire network connection. Target areas are also typically in zones prone to wildfires and extreme weather conditions, where poles and lines are often damaged, resulting in outages.
Mondo, which is responsible for the operation and maintenance of each separate power system, said the SAPS aim to use solar energy as the primary source of electricity and that they are designed to include a large amount of battery storage to minimize the use of generators and improve user performance. ‘ energy tolerance.
Following the installation and deployment of the first 17 SAPS, Mondo and AusNet will monitor and evaluate the performance of the systems as part of an open trial.
While the main benefit of SAPS is improved resilience and reliability of supply for customers in hard-to-reach areas, AusNet believes all customers can enjoy cost savings as it does not have to repair and maintain remote parts of the equipment. distribution network.
Mondo said SAPS systems are already providing customers with benefits such as increased use of renewable energy sources and increased resilience during severe weather events.
“As the trial continues, we are excited to observe and learn from each system and look forward to using our knowledge to deploy more autonomous power systems across Australia,” the company said.
Although the AusNet trial is a first for Victoria, the technology has been widely adopted in Western Australia.
Previous regulations made it extremely difficult to deploy SAPS in the National Electricity Market (NEM), but these regulations have now been amended to allow for wider deployment of the technology in the NEM jurisdictions of Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory. , Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
