Since the major outage in 2015, there have been six smaller outages on West Pittwater and Scotland Island. These were associated with storm events or vegetation coming into contact with overhead networks and were not related to the submarine power cables. Access to both locations and safety issues have presented challenges during these outages, and in turn have contributed to the time taken to restore electrical power.
Ausgrid has been progressing feasibility and design studies and working with industry experts to determine the best solution for each community. We have assessed a number of options and are now moving forward. These solutions aim to minimise the impact of electrical outages to the residents and businesses of West Pittwater and Scotland Island.
Ausgrid has concluded that two different approaches are required for West Pittwater and Scotland Island due to the layout and design of the existing electricity network in each of these areas;
- West Pittwater’s arrangement = a linear network
- Scotland Island’s arrangement = a circular network
A number of project scenarios were assessed for each location, including the original cable loop to arrive at the currently proposed solutions.
Current solution
The linear nature of the network at West Pittwater means there are no traditional solutions (poles and wires) that can address all the types of outages faced in the area. As such, Ausgrid is proposing to install a hybrid solution to address the types of network outages being experienced.
Details of the solution will be shared with the community once they are finalised. However, based on preliminary consultation, the hybrid solution will most likely be a community HV MicroGrid that is a combination of solar, battery and a community generator. We are also continuing to investigate options for additional reliability for households that experience outages on the LV network.
Home Energy Audits
Ausgrid commissioned local company, Your Energy Friend to undertake home energy audits for those person[s] interested in participating at West Pittwater. The purpose of those audits was to understand local conditions and household energy use to assist in assessing alternative options. These options included demand management, energy efficiencies, generation and storage options.
The summary findings from these audits were:
- based on the opinion of the auditor and home occupier (approximately 80% of the surveyed properties have some level of solar access or generation potential with less than 10% of properties with solar PV currently installed). This opportunity assumes generation greater than 2-3 hours per day as a minimum. Areas assessed include the building, but also yards, jetties, and infrastructure spaces;
- almost all households audited indicated a support for or an interest in installing household battery storage systems;
- small appliance ownership was high overall, with an unusually high ownership of heated towel racks and bathroom floor heating, with some systems set to operate 24 hours year-round leading to considerable electricity consumption;
- an opportunity exists to reduce power usage with remote controlled power eliminators to switch off small appliances that are using high levels of stand-by power;
- water heater replacement/thermal set point tuning appears to be a prospective opportunity in the supply area, with such large number of inefficient electric hot water systems, many of which were observed to have inappropriately high temperature thermal set points; and
- the dominant driver of electricity consumption appears to be water heating, with a significant number of electric hot water systems in use.
To view the full summary report, click on the PDF link at the bottom of this page.
Households that participated in the Home Energy Audits should have received their individual audit reports. If you haven’t received a copy of your report, please contact us at majorprojects@ausgrid.com.au
