Norfolk Island Renewable Energy Program

Project Description

In late 2021, Incite Energy were appointed to review the operations and systems within the Norfolk Island Regional Council (NIRC) electricity business unit (NI Electricity) and implement changes to transition the island to an electricity grid dominated by renewable energy, allowing electricity tariffs to be reduced.

Key Achievements to Date

• Assessed the revenue requirement for NI Electricity under multiple scenarios.

• Designed dynamic real-time tariffs that provide the required revenue as the island transitions to renewable energy. Put simply, when energy is abundant because the sun is shining, electricity tariffs are low, while they will remain high when the diesel generators are operating.

• Technical review of the network using DigSilent PowerFactory to ensure that safe and reliable operation of the system will continue with the addition of distributed solar and energy storage solutions.

• Developed actionable renewable energy roadmap

• Supported the preparation of businesses cases for stakeholder and grant providers to advance the transition.

• Implementation of dynamic tariffs using new billing software.

• Implementation of community solar and battery systems.

• Rollout of time-of-use metering technology across the island.

• Integration of Distributed Energy Resources using BESY Energy Platform.

• Integration of system operator controls over Distributed Energy Resources (equivalent of 2MW of controllable DER).

• Electricity billing system migration.

• Power utilities have reduced diesel consumption by 30%.