Tarnagulla residents have the chance to take part in the three-year feasibility study being conducted in the town to examine whether it would be suited to going “off grid”.

Tarnagulla was chosen, along with Donald, for a three-year study into the technical, cultural and social elements of powering the two towns via microgrids.

The study will look at the benefits and risks of separating the towns from the main electricity grid and potentially using renewable generation, energy storage and backup generation to power the new microgrids.

Microgrids are a local energy grid that can disconnect from the traditional grid and operate on its own using technologies like solar panels or batteries, meaning it can continue to generate energy during emergencies like storms, bushfires or power outages.

Loddon Shire Tarnagulla Ward councillor Linda Jungwirth was the project leader of the Tarnagulla Resilience Action Plan completed last year, a study to increase the town’s resilience to climate change.

Cr Jungwirth said the success of that plan was the reason the town was considered for the current feasibility study.

“Our community was so engaged (with the resilience plan) that they felt we would make a good community to do the feasibility study on,” she said.

“I’m really looking forward to this study because one of the things we identified during our project was that we felt we had more power outages than other towns, and they were fairly regular.

“Sometimes we’d have our power shut off from 9 am to 3 pm, we’d get a notice saying it was happening but we didn’t know why. Then that might happen again in three or six months.

“With this study we’re really looking forward to understanding more about our power and what our issues might be.

“We will come out of it discovering whether there are other options available to us that might work well for our town.”

Funded by the Federal Government’s Regional and Remote Communities Reliability Fund, the project has brought together organisations including Powercor, Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance, Centre for New Energy Technologies and Ovida.

A community forum will be held in Tarnagulla this week to get residents involved in the study and Powercor head of network strategy and non-network solutions Greg Hannan said it’s a great opportunity for community members to learn about the project and how they can participate.

“The future of energy is being driven by customer choices and Powercor has a big role in enabling them,” he said.

“This study will look at how we can best plan and structure microgrids to get the best outcomes for customers, communities and our environment.

“Understanding what customers want, need and expect is a critical step in the planning.”

The Tarnagulla community forum will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, March 3 from 10 am to 12 pm at the Tarnagulla Public Hall.

A forum will also be hosted at Donald today, March 2 from 5 to 7 pm at the Donald Recreation Reserve.

More information about the project and the community forums is available at www.c4net.com.au/microgrid.