The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety has issued a report showing the major milestones achieved in the first year of the Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Roadmap.
The DER, which includes small-scale rooftop solar panel systems, batteries and electric vehicles, has been taken up by households and businesses at unprecedented rates.
Minister for Energy, Bill Johnston said Western Australians added a record 300 megawatts (MW) of small-scale solar in 2020 — nearly the equivalent of the State’s largest coal-fired generator.
“The rapid uptake of these technologies is transforming our electricity system, presenting challenges and opportunities for how we produce, manage and consume energy,” Mr Johnston said.
He said the roadmap, developed under the Energy Transformation Strategy, outlined the actions to be taken over the next five years.
The Minister said implementation was on track.
He said highlights over the past year included installing a further 10 PowerBanks to enable more customers to take part in community battery storage while supporting Western Power’s network.
“We also progressed Project Symphony, which will test the coordination of large quantities of customer solar panels, batteries and large appliances so that they act as a virtual power plant and provide services to the power system,” Mr Johnston said.
“In addition to the roadmap, we are committing $218 million to provide more than 1,000 stand-alone power systems in regional WA and a $57.4 million investment into renewable technology as part of the WA Recovery Plan.”
The Department’s 15-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
