Daly River Solar Research Project

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PWC owns and operates over 50 mini-grids across the Northern Territory, providing power to remote Indigenous communities. These mini-grids predominantly rely on diesel fuel for power generation, which is associated with high operational costs, significant risk exposure to future price increases and greenhouse gas emissions. PWC recognises the opportunity provided by solar technologies to reduce its reliance on diesel fuel for remote power generation.Integrating solar into diesel mini-grids is a niche application and involves different challenges to those associated with solar integration in large power systems. The key challenges associated with integrating solar into an existing diesel mini-grid relate to ensuring grid stability and quality of supply. This is largely due to the risk associated with the intermittent solar resource. A rapid change in solar output, beyond the diesel power station’s spinning reserve or the response capability of the control system, can jeopardise the stability of the overall power system and cause a power outage.The question for utilities and project developers is how to maximise solar energy penetration in mini-grids to achieve highest possible diesel fuel savings, whilst maintaining efficient power system operation and a reliable electricity supply.

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