Horizon Power have recently announced a raft of changes to the Technical Requirements regarding renewable energy systems on their networks. The changes mean an easier pathway to renewable energy for WA businesses, across regional and remote Western Australia.
Renewable energy system
Horizon Power provide energy to households and business in the North West, Pilbara and remote Western Australia outside of the South West Interconnected System (SWIS). Previously, renewable energy systems over 5kVA required a complicated Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to be installed to manage ‘smoothing’ of the generated electricity. The BESS injects stored electricity back into the network during cloud events allowing network generators enough time to ramp up. This ‘smooths’ the electricity generation for the area and prevents blackouts occurring. To date, systems over 50kVA have generally required Feed-in Management (FiM) which is a type of Generation Control where embedded generation can be curtailed to prevent system instability.
Horizon Power changes’ overview
In April this year, Horizon Power released revised Technical Requirements for Micro Embedded Generator connections (up to 30 kVA) and Low Voltage embedded generator connections (up to 1 MW) which will take effect from July 1st. The biggest changes are to the North West Interconnected System (NWIS) which encompasses the communities of Karratha, Port Headland, Dampier and Cape Lambert. The NWIS can now have up to 200kVA of generation installed without the need for BESS or FiM.
This significant change reduces the cost and time involved in approving the installation of a solar system for businesses in the area. Systems above the 200kVA limit are still subject to the previous requirements and have not changed.
A positive impact
This is great news for most businesses and residents on the Horizon networks. Broome for instance has had their renewable hosting capacity increased which will allow more solar systems onto the local network. This change will reduce the previous requirement for a 2 hour ‘smoothing’ ramp rate down to the standard 12 minutes which will translate to significant solar project costs savings.
Due the changes Horizon Power have recently introduced, the costs of installing solar generation will reduce for many business’ and residential systems around the state on the Horizon Power networks.
Find out more here at Horizon Power
Have you been wanting but unable to install solar on your business in the Horizon Power networks? Time to look again. Contact us today to find out what is now possible
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