Following on from previous MCN projects (SENSE - Solar Energy Node for Secured Electricity, and various MicroGrid studies), this project, with financial support from the AusNet Energy Resilience Grant – Round 2, was a collaborative effort between Murrindindi Climate Network and Taggerty Community Progress Group, to design and install a solar/battery system at the Community Hub at Taggerty (CH@T).

Located at the CH@T site in Taggerty, the proposed system will implement many of the objectives of  the SENSE project (Solar Energy Node for Secured Electricity) via the installation of a Solar Hybrid MicroGrid design, with facility to add a standby generator.

The rationale for this layout is that it should have the capacity to supply the needs of any community members who are adversely affected by the loss of the grid (e.g. during a bushfire or due to a severe weather event, etc.).

This design will easily cater to the needs of up to two hundred people for multiple days (using up to 60kWh/day) and allows community members to access refrigerators for medication and food storage, electricity for individual medical appliances, electricity for cell phone charging, an air-conditioned space on days of extreme heat, etc.

The system will be capable of supplying all of the existing loads (lighting and power) at CH@T (an average of 8kWh/day) via an integrated Gateway and External AC Bypass Contactor.

The full copy of the Technical Report for the project can be seen here: