Medium-sized renewable microgrids are being held back by a lack of policy clarity and standardised connection procedures, which are making it more difficult for remote First Nations communities to enjoy the kind of energy security as other Australians.
The market operator and utilities have invested heavily in standardisation to ramp up the number of connections they can let onto the grid each year.
But these rules are still considered to be too onerous for 5-40 megawatt (MW) projects that might provide secure power to small remote communities, says Ekistica engineer Josiah Fajardo.
“That creates a very particular problem for community-based projects that are on the smaller scale,” Fajardo said at the First Nations Clean Energy Symposium last week.
“There’s just that barrier of getting through all those hurdles that we’ve put in place for good reason to ensure that new systems won’t negatively impact the network.
