The Northern Territory’s Power and Water Corporation has released a suite of detailed documents relating to learnings from its Solar Energy Transformation Program (SETuP), the largest isolated off-grid solar program in remote Australian communities.

Completed in April 2019, SETuP saw the rollout of 10 megawatts (MW) of solar in 25 remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities, integrating utility solar and battery storage into existing diesel power stations.

“These documents, published in partnership with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), will be useful to other utilities and organisations thinking about implementing solar and battery off-grid solutions as we move towards a renewable energy future,” Power and Water program manager Sam Latz said.

“These knowledge-sharing resources will complement presentations we will be delivering at industry conferences, as well as through hosting utility peers and government stakeholders for site visits.”

The new, publicly-available resources include detailed case studies, technical and engineering lessons learned, project management approaches and community engagement strategies from the program.

Among the documents is an updated solar/diesel mini-grid handbook, which is a general guide to power supply in remote isolated grids with existing diesel generation.

A comprehensive technical document about the Daly River diesel-off solar and battery project also forms part of the online resources.

These are available to download from the Power and Water website at www.powerwater.com.au/setup

SETuP is a $59 million program co-funded by the Australian Government through ARENA including $27.5 million financed through the Northern Territory Government.

Through the project, 94 million litres of diesel is expected to be saved over a 25-year period.

“To date, we have recorded a saving of 4.4 million litres of diesel,” Mr Latz said.

“Analysis of performance at our Daly River project showed we achieved 50 per cent diesel savings and our medium contribution sites are on track for 15 per cent annual diesel savings.”

Power and Water hosted interstate remote utility peers and government representatives at a remote power forum this week in Darwin.

Power and Water’s Manager Energy Strategy Dow Airen will also be presenting at the upcoming Isolated Power Systems (IPS) Connect conference in November in Hobart.

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