Rooftop solar cap removed in Pilbara towns

Constraints which blocked Karratha residents and businesses from connecting residential solar to the North West Interconnect System grid have been removed, Horizon Power has revealed.

A technology upgrade delivered as part of the utility’s Smart Connect Solar rollout has removed capacity limits in the Pilbara town, abolishing a constraint which limited the amount of solar available residents on the main power network.

Karratha, alongside Port Hedland, South Hedland, Port Samson Cossack and Roebourne, is a Pilbara beneficiary of the technology rollout.  

Residents in these towns will now be able to install rooftop solar without restriction, in a move expected to add thousands of additional residential power sources to the NWIS.

A further 20 towns in the Kimberley, Mid West, Gascoyne, Esperance and Goldfields regions have also had capacity limits removed, including Derby, Wyndham, Halls Creek, Coral Bay, Meekatharra and Nullagine.

While all were impacted, Karratha was the only town among the 26 upgraded which had fully exhausted its hosting capacity limits according to Horizon.

Horizon chief executive Stephanie Unwin said the utility planned to lift solar caps across all towns in its service area – comprising the 2.3 million square kilometre zone outside of the South West Interconnected System – by 2025.

Ms Unwin said the technology would be a key contributor to the state’s net-zero by 2050 carbon emission target.

“…It equips Horizon Power with the necessary technical capabilities to fulfil our commitment to ensuring ‘zero customer refusals when connecting rooftop solar by 2025’ across our networks,” she said of the rollout.

Rooftop solar will allow customers to realise energy bill savings and improve the stability of the state’s electricity network, according to Horizon.

The caps have been a major bug bear for residents across regional WA for years, and previously hindered the ability for residents to capitalise on the sunshine at their disposal while incurring increased energy costs because of greater power use.

Western parts of the Pilbara average more than 10 hours of sunshine each day – the most of anywhere in Australia.

Horizon said it expected regional solar installation businesses to be a beneficiary of the move, with demand forecast to increase as a result of the rollout.

Smart Connect Solar was launched in Carnarvon last month, following a trial in Onslow.

Horizon received federal funding yesterday for a program to test zinc bromine and sodium sulphur batteries to support microgrids at Nullagine and Carnarvon. 

Lid off: regional towns no longer constrained by solar capacity caps
Karratha, Port Hedland, South Hedland, Point Samson, Cossack and Roebourne, Derby, Wyndham, Halls Creek, Lombadina, Kalumburu, Warmun, Coral Bay, Cue, Meekatharra, Wiluna, Yalgoo, Hopetoun, Laverton, Leonora, Norseman, Camballin, Ardyaloon, Beagle Bay, Bidyadanga, Carnarvon, Nullagine.