It’s known as ‘Paradise by the Sea’ but for long-time locals and regular visitors, it’s also known as the region where the power goes out - a lot.
For more than 30 years the electricity supply to Apollo Bay, Skenes Creek and Marengo has been unreliable. Data from the Direct Network Service Provider (DNSP), Powercor, shows in 2020 there were more than 70 unplanned outages averaging almost four hours duration per outage.
So, is it merely an annoyance? Or is it costing the region its reputation?
The towns have relatively small permanent resident populations (Apollo Bay: 1598), however, populations swell during busy summer months due to tourism. In the case of Apollo Bay, the population swells ten-fold to in excess of 15,000 permanent residents and holiday makers.
Such a population boom places increased stresses on the energy infrastructure and it’s exacerbated by the location of these towns. Apollo Bay, Marengo and Skenes Creek are all at the end of long network connections. To make matters worse, the power lines travel down through the steep forested terrain of the Otways which makes them extremely vulnerable to falling debri during strong winds, storms and other weather events.
It means these communities at the end of the line experience greater voltage fluctuations, system stability issues and power outages. The flow-on effects range from minor inconveniences to communication outages, service disruptions and blackouts. In the event of a major bushfire or storm event many locals are very concerned the townships would be cut off from power and isolated for days.
The Powercor data shows Apollo Bay has an energy consumption profile of 20GWh each year. Energy consumption swells during Summer but also during the Winter months as a possible result of inefficient household appliance systems, namely electric hot water units.
Frequent and unpredictable outages typically occur at times of peak demand. Outages at these critical times severely affect the earnings of local businesses, who rely on peak tourist visitation periods for a profitable full calendar year.
And now it seems our locally-based ‘repair crew’ are to lose their contract to be replaced by additional staff located in Colac. We are all wondering how that will reduce outage-times.
So how to rely less on the network and be more self-sufficient?
Powercor data shows Apollo Bay, Marengo and Skenes Creek all have a relatively high number of homes with rooftop solar. That sounds great but without adequate storage it can also cause problems.
Think bright sunny day, 12noon and homes producing more solar power than the network can handle. With no battery storage to soak up the excess solar there is a real risk of network congestion, so all that extra energy is ‘curtailed’ aka wasted.
For all of the reasons above, the Apollo Bay, Skenes Creek and Marengo coastal cluster of communities was deemed to be an ideal location to explore how a neighbourhood battery might help address the power issues.
In 2021 local community energy group, Southern Otways Sustainable (S.O.S), with support from the Apollo Bay Chamber of Commerce sought and secured funding from the Victorian Government and the Colac Otway Shire Council for a neighbourhood battery feasibility study.
Stay tuned for the next article to learn what was discovered.
And follow us on Facebook