The head of WA’s State-owned electricity distributor has described as “mental” traditional poles-and-wires services to remote areas with almost no customers when more efficient standalone options are available.
He cited a 60km line owned by Western Power that serviced just three customers — a situation that he suggested may be economically inefficient compared with other options such as batteries and solar panels.
“You’ve got to say ‘can you work with the customer to give them a solution that’s just as safe, just as reliable, just as affordable but it doesn’t have to be a 60km line’?
“Those decisions you’ve got to reach soon because you’re going to be at a decision point where you’ve got to put the 60km back in again.”
Off-grid trial gives WA farming community cheaper, more reliable power
WA's energy utility Western Power offered the systems for free in the search for alternatives to the massive cost of replacing ageing poles and wires.
The utility builds and maintains transmission lines in remote areas, but landowners wear the cost of the lines on their properties.
The Giles family spent tens of thousands of dollars connecting their farm in the 1980s.
When the region experienced major flooding in January, receiving 310 millimetres of rain in four days, the solar units kept the lights on while many grid-connected customers lost power for days.
"It's good, clean, reliable power and that's the big advantage," Bernie Giles said.
"Cleaner meaning frequency and voltage consistencies ... and that means less damage to things ... like electric fence units with voltage spikes and fluctuations.
"We haven't come across anything we can't do that we could before as far as welding and using large amounts of power or starting electric motors, not a problem." Read the comments for information from more "off-grid" power users.
For example, WA's South West network spans more than 250,000 square kilometres — an area the size of the United Kingdom — yet it only services one 50th of the population.
Getting power to those communities is costly, unreliable and unsustainable, prompting utilities to look for alternatives. Embed: West River power outages
"There's the potential for 3,000 sites that have similar types of reliability on those edge of grid type communities that we could put that similar technology in," Western Power CEO Guy Chalkley said.
Everyone within the grid pays the same energy tariff, meaning people in Perth subsidise the cost of supplying power to the bush.
It is a problem Western Power believes the Ravensthorpe trial has solved, potentially allowing it to save hundreds of millions of dollars.
"You'd be talking about a saving of about $300 million in terms of current cost of investment and cost of ongoing maintenance of distribution line against the cost of the stand-alone power system," Mr Chalkley said. Regulations 'need to catch up'
This has meant the utility has had to extend the trial for a further three years to allow the households to keep their systems.
Consultants are warning the government against dragging its feet.
"I think the regulations need to catch up, the fact technology has moved on and that the opportunity to provide a better outcome for consumers is being facilitated by that technology," energy consultant David Martin said.
"If it makes sense to put in a stand-alone power system, put it in, but let's not waste time rebuilding networks we don't need."
Energy Minister Ben Wyatt said while he was supportive of Western Power's efforts, he needed to consider if it was appropriate for the utility to enter the power generation market.
The utility would require both legislative and regulatory changes to roll out the systems more broadly.
It seems the families of Ravensthorpe could be waiting a while longer before they officially cut their ties to the grid.
Photo: Western Power has provided the standalone power systems for free under the trial. (Supplied: Western Power)
