Microgrid Ivanhoe

Over the past two years, we have worked closely with the communities of Ivanhoe, Tibooburra and Tea Gardens as part of the Smart Energy Communities trial. Our aim was to collect and provide valuable energy usage data and insights. So, we hope like us, you have gained a deeper understanding of the emerging needs and options for affordable and reliable electricity supply and services.

We are pleased to inform you that the Smart Energy Communities trial has now come to an end. Throughout we meticulously assessed each stage, gaining significant learnings and insights. This will help us in planning for future energy services and ensuring a safe and reliable power supply for all our customers.

We are now moving to the next stage of planning to improve reliability and resilience in Ivanhoe. The generator has been successfully commissioned and is providing backup power to the township. Plans for installing a battery are underway, with the project currently in the design phase and anticipated for commissioning in 2026.

Thank you for your participation and support in this important initiative. Your involvement has been crucial in helping us achieve these milestones. We hope you will continue your journey with us as we trial new approaches and adapt to the evolving energy landscape.

Keep an eye on our website for further updates: https://www.essentialenergy.com.au/our-network/future-energy.

We are pleased to announce that the Generator Automation project is now live. The new generator contains a 8,000 litre fuel cell and will automatically supply power to the Ivanhoe township in the case of an outage. Customers will experience an outage of approximately 3 minutes before the generator provides supply.

This is a significant milestone in our journey to provide a safe and reliable power supply to all customers across its footprint in regional, rural and remote NSW and parts of Southern QLD.

A huge thanks to the Essential Energy team for their efforts, and the Ivanhoe community for a warm welcome and hospitality.

We’d like to thank you for the warm welcome we received when we visited Ivanhoe in late June. We were overwhelmed with the knowledge, information and enthusiasm that you shared with us about the generator automation and microgrid projects. For more information on both projects please read the attached factsheet.

We are holding a community information meeting to update Ivanhoe residents of the improvements that are occurring to the local electricity network including the generator automation and microgrid. Please join us on Thursday 20 June 2024, 6pm at the Ivanhoe RSL. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

The Smart Energy Community Trial team would like to wish the Ivanhoe community a very Merry Christmas and here's to an amazing New Year!

We are providing the raffle meat trays for the Ivanhoe RSL on Thursday 14 December so support a good cause and hopefully win a meat tray!

Some of you may remember us coming up to Ivanhoe in late August and we were very appreciative of the warm welcome we received we are planning to come back mid next year to talk more about how the trial can benefit everyone in your community!

Watch this space!

Stay safe and see you soon.

The Smart Energy Community Trial team

We would like to thank the community for the warm welcome we received when we visited in August 2023 to launch the trial.

The people we met and the conversations we had were very valuable and will assist us in planning future visits, whilst providing us with a better understanding of the energy concerns of the community.

Please take a moment to read the information flyer we gave out whilst we were in town. Let us know your thoughts on the Community Chat section of this website or if you have a question post it to the Ask Essential section.

If you missed us while we were in town you can read about it here.

Exciting News! You may have noticed your Wattwatchers app looks different.

Wattwatchers released version 2.0.0 of the My Energy app which includes the new Flow feature (the new app home screen).

'Flow' will provide more insights to your power usage, please click and read the documentation for more information and support if needed.

Share your thoughts about the new look on the Wattwatchers devices chat in the Community Chat section of this website.

In August Essential Energy will launch the Smart Energy Communities Program in Ivanhoe. Please join us for a cuppa and a chat at the Ivanhoe RSL from 2.30pm Tuesday 29th August 2023 (view the invitation in larger format in the document area on the Ivanhoe community trial homepage). Our Smart Energy Communities program team will outline the Smart Energy Communities trial and what is means for Ivanhoe. Our supply partner Wattwatchers, will also be on hand to show you what information the recently installed Wattwatchers devices (installed in 50 homes/business in Ivanhoe between May and June) can give you and how we are using them in the trial.