Ann: Kalbarri Microgrid Contract Award, page-52

Western Power's 100% Renewable Energy Powered Kalbarri Microgrid
Published on Published on February 8, 2018

Guy Chalkley

Early in my tenure as CEO at Western Power, I visited Kalbarri to speak to customers and understand how their poor power supply impacts their community.

Not surprisingly, frequent and extended outages don’t go down too well in a tourist town that depends so much on providing visitors with a positive experience. Kalbarri has long suffered from frequent and extended outages due to its proximity from its closest substation – some 140km away in Geraldton. The single feeder line is susceptible to the elements which interrupts the power supply all too regularly.
Following that visit, we committed to developing a renewable energy microgrid which would provide greater power stability and reliability. We brought experts in their field – both within Western Power and commercial partners – to explore the most effective solutions to Kalbarri’s energy woes. We stayed in contact with local residents and stakeholders throughout the process to ensure their needs were being considered.

After an extensive market review in 2017, Kalbarri is one step closer to improved power reliability with today’s appointment of EMC (a subsidiary of WA-based Carnegie Clean Energy) and Lend Lease to build our new 5MW microgrid in Kalbarri.
The microgrid will not only create its own power from the region’s wind farm and rooftop solar panels, but also store it in a utility-scale battery to extend the time electricity will be available to the community.

It can be automatically “islanded” from the rest of the electricity network, which means that even when there is a fault on the main line feeding Kalbarri, most of the outages will be eliminated for customers.

Computers, televisions, EFTPOS machines, fridges, lights and even digital clocks will continue to work as needed in this tourism community. This solution will dramatically improve the reliability and quality of electricity for residents, businesses and visitors in what is one of Western Australia’s tourism meccas.

To find out more about the Kalbarri microgrid and our partnership with EMC and Lend Lease, please see the media statement released by Energy Minister Ben Wyatt earlier today: https://goo.gl/vdmneu