Off-grid battery to shift NT Titjikala community to solar only, by day

The Northern Territory government is set to take a second remote Indigenous community almost entirely off its diesel power supply, by adding a battery storage system to a recently installed 400kW solar array.

The Territory Labor government said on Thursday that a 970kWh battery energy storage system would be installed at the Titjikala community, around 130km south of Alice Springs, and allow it to run on solar only during the day, and slash diesel consumption by more than 150,000 litres a year.

Crucially, the BESS will also deliver significant environmental and health benefits for the Titjikala community, through cleaner air, cleaner power, less traffic on the roads from heavy vehicle diesel delivery trucks, and reduced noise from diesel engines.

The battery installation, which will cost an estimated $950,000, is being delivered as part of the $59 million SETuP program, run by the NT Power and Water Corporation and co-funded by the Territory government and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

That scheme has so far installed solar systems at 25 off-grid remote indigenous communities throughout the Territory, and in 2018 trialed a 2MWh lithium-ion battery system at the Daly River community, south of Darwin.

As One Step Off The Grid reported at the time, that system – designed and built by Conergy and BMD Constructions, and the battery provided by German company Qinous – successfully allowed the community’s diesel power generators to be switched off completely during the day.

The scheme has been such a success that the NT government is now embarking on SETuP 2.0, which will assess the feasibility of transitioning another 20 remote indigenous communities from either off-grid diesel generation or a fringe-of-grid connection to more reliable microgrid technologies that support higher levels of renewables.

Just last week, SETuP 2.0, or the Microgrids Futures Project, was announced as one of 17 first-round winners of federal government grant funding as part of the $50.4 million Regional and Remote Communities Reliability Fund.

In the case of the Titjikala BESS project, the government – which has committed to a Territory-wide target of 50 per cent renewables by 2030 – expects the investment to be repaid through savings within an impressive five years after it is completed, by early 2021.

“The Territory Labor government is delivering more renewables because we know it means cheaper, cleaner power and more jobs,” said energy minister Dale Wakefield in a statement on Thursday.

“We are not just investing in our major centres, but we are also investing in our remote communities and ensuring that we are delivering cheaper and cleaner power for ALL Territorians.

“We have made significant progress towards our target …with renewables projected to reach 16% by the end of 2020 – up from 2% in 2016,” he said.

Earlier this week, the NT government outlined a list of key electricity market reforms, in a long-awaited first step towards smoothing the way to 50 per cent renewables.

The priority reforms, outlined in consultation papers published late last week, aim to address core issues of system security and reliability, boosting private investment, and maximising the amount of renewable power in the network.