HORIZON POWER —
GRID-CONNECTED SOLAR AVAILABILITY — BROOME
1084. Hon KEN BASTON to the minister representing the
Minister for Energy:
I refer to grid-connected solar
availability in Broome.
(1) Is Horizon
Power actively working towards allowing more grid-connected solar places to be
available to residents and businesses in Broome?
(2) If yes to
(1), what does this work involve, and what are the approximate costs involved
in allowing more grid-connected solar places on the Broome electricity grid?
(3) If yes to
(1), can the minister provide an indication of when more places will be
available for residents and businesses to use grid-connected solar
installations?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following information has been provided to me
by the Minister for Energy.
(1) Yes.
(2) Horizon Power
regularly reviews solar hosting capacity for towns, including Broome, in its
service area. A recent review resulted in lifting the hosting capacity in
Broome by 2.1 megawatts since July 2019. Horizon Power also conducts detailed
technical studies to understand the available hosting capacity in each town.
Horizon Power is conducting several technical trials, such as those in
Carnarvon, Broome and Onslow, to identify a cost-effective solution for
orchestrating rooftop solar as a means of enabling greater renewable energy to
be connected to the network.
(3) The Broome
hosting capacity limit has since been taken up by customer applications. Within
the next 12 months, Horizon Power will conduct a further review once all resultant
solar connections have been completed.