Victoria’s Energy Resilience Solutions Program Complete

Community buildings with solar panels, batteries and generators are providing residents in a bunch of Victorian towns a safe place to access basic services during prolonged blackouts.

Two extreme weather events in 2021 caused havoc with electricity supply in Victoria. Following storms on June 9 2021, more than 297,000 customers were without power. Then on 29 October that year a wind event saw 526,000 customers lose mains electricity at the peak of the blackout.

It wasn’t just the scale of the blackout events that was huge, but also the duration for some affected that caused major disruption to their lives and considerable distress.

68,000 customers remained without electricity 72 hours after the June storms and 9,000 were still without power after 7 days. Following the October event, 23,983 customers were without supply three days later and just over 2,500 still didn’t have mains electricity at the seven-day mark.

The fallout from the storms put focus on the vulnerability of the state’s distribution networks to major disruption; particularly given the growing threat of extreme weather events (and fires) both in terms of frequency and intensity resulting from the influence of climate change.

The state’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) subsequently provided funding for energy resilience design studies in affected towns in areas including the Yarra Ranges, Gippsland, Dandenong Ranges and those scattered along the Great Ocean Road.

24 Towns Get Backup Systems Under ERS

The studies were completed in October 2022 and then $7.5 million was allocated for the delivery of energy resilience hubs for 24 towns. These hubs have been fitted out with solar panels, batteries and generators to supply backup power for essential services during prolonged power outages. They provide a safe space for community members to gather, get information, charge devices, heat food and access hot water.

Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio announced yesterday the program rollout was complete while visiting the energy resilience hub in Cockatoo, which is situated nearly 50 km south-east of Melbourne’s CBD and located within Cardinia Shire.

“By investing in local energy solutions and acting on the lessons of past outages, we’re ensuring stronger protections for local communities that experience power outages,” said Minister D’Ambrosio.

Some of the hubs have already proved their usefulness during storms in February 2024 that impacted neighbouring towns including Gembrook. The installation at Gembrook Community Centre (pictured above) is comprised of 20kW of solar panels, 100kWh of battery storage, a 45kVA generator and associated kit.

A full list of the towns with hubs and further information on the Energy Resilience Solutions program can be found here.

In addition to backup systems that have been installed under this initiative, there are installations in Omeo and Corryong, and a microgrid in place at Mallacoota funded through the Community Microgrids and Sustainable Energy Program. A microgrid is a local network of electricity generation and storage sources that can operate either connected to the mains grid or disconnected from it.

For Corryong, there’s more in the works – in June last year, $28.6 million was allocated for the construction of a microgrid. Expected to be operating in the summer of 2026, the microgrid will be able to power more than 900 local households and businesses for up to five days. The funding for this project is coming from the Federal Government’s Disaster Ready Fund, the Victorian Government and AusNet Enterprise.

Thinking Home Battery Backup?

It’s great to have a place to go when mains power goes out, but for many the most desirable place would of course be home.

Major blackout events and news of the same tend to get Australians thinking about the possibility of having their own battery backup system; particularly those households with solar panels. It’s important to know that not all home batteries can provide backup functions in the event of mains grid interruption; and among those that do, not all are equal.

Before investing what will be a significant amount of cash on residential energy storage, it’s important to know what to look for to ensure what you want/need is what you wind up getting installed.