The AER has today published a consultation notice on an application for regulatory sandbox trial waivers submitted by Essential Energy through the Energy Innovation Toolkit.
The proposal would enable Essential Energy to test islandable microgrids across its network. These systems would normally operate as part of the connected electricity network but could temporarily supply local communities independently during outages.
The trial is intended to test whether islandable microgrids can improve reliability and resilience in remote or fringe-of-grid communities, while maintaining consumer protections, operational safety and market integrity. The trial would also test various configurations for generation and storage ownership, technical operation and market interfaces.
