Community Microgrids and Sustainable Energy Program (CMSEP) Corryong
Mondo delivered a microgrid solution to support the Victorian Government’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) and AusNet’s Community Microgrid and Sustainable Energy Program (CMSEP) in enhancing bushfire and energy resilience within the Corryong community.
Location: Corryong, Victoria
Timeframe: October 2021 to June 2024
Enabling Corryong to generate local, reliable, renewable energy
About the project
After the devastating 2019-20 fire season, the Victorian Government’s Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action (DEECA) and AusNet undertook a feasibility study to investigate how new energy infrastructure can provide support for communities and households affected by extreme weather events.
The program supports the increase of distributed energy supplies that can keep participating Corryong businesses and residents connected during electricity disruptions. The Ubi platform is used to charge batteries when extreme weather events are forecast, providing increased resilience in the event of an outage.
Key deliverables
Stage 1 and 2
Essential services
- Solar panels
- Battery systems
- Diesel generator systems
- Mondo Ubi energy management platform
Critical businesses
- Solar panels
- Battery systems
- Mondo Ubi energy management systems
Stage 3
Corryong residents were invited to purchase subsidised
- Solar and battery systems
- Mondo Ubi energy management platform
Benefits from our solution
Frequently Asked Questions
A resilient local electricity supply can provide electricity services even when the grid experiences an outage.
After the 2019/2020 summer bushfires, AusNet, Mondo and the Victorian Government designed a microgrid solution that can support rural communities when the electricity network is impacted. Delivered in partnership with project partners RACV Solar, over 80 systems have been installed on both residential and community hub sites to support the local energy network when greater energy resilience is needed.
These systems vary from hot water heat pumps, diesel generators, solar PV and batteries. The microgrid systems are installed with Mondo’s Ubi, smart energy management system to sites to allow the microgrid function to be managed and controlled during events.
Each system that has been installed creates a ‘fleet’ of renewable energy solutions.
‘Fleet’ describes all independent systems installed coordinating into one central source – the townwide microgrid solution managed by Mondo.Day to day, each towns ‘fleet’ work independently on the property it is installed on providing solar and battery benefits. However, during weather or network events, project partner Mondo, will monitor each ‘fleets’ stored battery levels and control how the community can consume this locally generated energy to keep the lights on.
CMSEP site participants will be notified throughout the lifespan of the project when the ‘fleet’ is switched into the several microgrid functions by Mondo.
Solar panels generate power from the sun each day, and this powers energy use of the property, what is unused will charge the battery, and any excess is exported to the local electricity grid. The battery can then power the property when the solar generation fades (thick cloud or overnight) or can power dedicated emergency loads on the site – fridges, lighting for example.
The systems can run specific loads or possibly all loads during network outages but are not designed to disconnect the property from the electricity grid entirely.
Participating properties will have an ongoing supply for key circuits until the batteries have run out of power, and generators can then take over. This capability does not prepare the properties to permanently disconnect the from the electricity.
