FAQs

Microgrids, or stand-alone power systems, overseen by IES (Indigenous Essential Services) have a target of 70% by 2030.

IES is a subsidiary of Power and Water Corporation. It services 72 remote communities and 66 outstations across the NT. In total there are 430 homelands and outstations in the NT. 130 renewable energy systems were installed by Bushlight, with many more funded through other programs. This means there will be renewable energy generated which is not counted in the target, but the amount is fairly limited.

Many people in the Northern Territory rely upon off-grid power systems, especially in very remote settlements such as outstations and ranger stations. The Alice Springs grid provides interesting challenges because it is isolated, unlike the National Electricity Market which connects jurisdictions from Queensland to South Australia, including Tasmania. The more customers and generators that are connected to a grid, the fewer challenges are faced in maintaining grid stability. Therefore, removing yourself from the grid when you have the choice to be connected is not of any benefit to the community.

With solar PV and batteries it is technically possible to go off-grid, but Alice Springs residents would need a very big battery or backup diesel generator to cover occasions where there is limited sun for consecutive days. The most common option is to install PV and BESS in proportion to household needs, and let the grid come to the rescue when its needed. In the future, plentiful PV and BESS will create a very resilient system, because it’s highly unlikely that they could all fail at once. For most people it is not financially viable to go off-grid, but as centralised energy generation incorporates a growing proportion of renewables, it means everyone will eventually be provided with cleaner energy.

Knowledge sharing is a key focus for (funding agency) ARENA, and the Future Grid project has a prominent knowledge sharing plan, delivery of which is led by CSIRO. Reports generated through the project are hosted on the ARENA Project Page for Future Grid. It is recognised that lessons learnt in Alice Springs can be scaled-up and applied to other grids, such as the Darwin-Katherine Interconnected System (DKIS) and the National Electricity Market on Australia’s East Coast. The project’s main target audience is industry and government, so it is expected these entities will be the primary conduit through which lessons learnt in Alice Springs are applied elsewhere.

The Future Grid project (and the Roadmap to 2030) has significant value nationally because some of the research and findings demonstrated in the Roadmap, set out ways different parts of the power system will need to work together in the future. A key characteristic of Alice Springs is that it is small enough that the opportunity exists to test and validate interventions, but big enough that the results have direct applicability across a range of different systems and grids in Australia. To this end, Alice Springs is sometimes said to be “small enough to manage but big enough to matter”.