Horizon Power has completed its Smart Sun pilot program with participating residents in Broome seeing a reduction of up to 70 per cent on their annual electricity bills.
The trial program is an industry-first for regional Australia, involving a virtual power plant and smart household energy packages for 15 households on the Waranyjarri Estate.
In a statement, Horizon Power said the packages included co-ordinated rooftop solar panels, a battery and inverter, and smart appliances, such as air-conditioning, pool filtration and hot water systems.
“These allowed customers to track their energy usage through our mobile app,” the utility said.
“While still connected to the existing network, each household used solar power to satisfy the majority of their energy needs, demonstrating the network’s ability to cope with increased solar energy in regional Western Australia.”
Minister for Energy, Bill Johnston said that historically, regional micro-grids had only been able to support a limited amount of solar, but the Smart Sun pilot had demonstrated this challenge could be overcome with great savings for households.
“The Government is committed to giving Western Australians greater control of their energy use to help reduce power bills, and reduce the impact on the environment,” Mr Johnston said.
He was supported by local MLA, Divina D’Anna who said the pilot project had successfully demonstrated that it was possible to reduce the costs associated with regional developments and keep the community standard of living high.
