CLEAN Cowra Ltd takes next step towards microgrid project

The devices will provide detailed data on energy usage by each business over the next 12 months.

CLEAN Cowra Ltd's Dylan Gower said the findings will inform how much electricity needs to be generated by the microgrid.

"They record that data every 15 seconds, so you get this very detailed profile of the amount of energy each customer is potentially using," he said.

"It allows us to understand exactly their demands over the seasonality of a whole year. By next week, they will be reading their own data."

The project received $1.03 million in funding from the federal government's Regional and Remote Communities Reliability Fund earlier this year.

Mr Gower said the funding has allowed them to install the devices, as well as proceed with the feasibility study and eventually get construction underway.

He said the team has started a network inquiry with Essential Energy, as well as regulatory framework for the project.

"What we are trying to do is not just get this through feasibility, but actually to investment ready," he said.

"It could be owned by a local consortium, some of the businesses may want to be owners in it or local organisations may want to be shareholders.

"You're not just doing a technical study that doesn't go anywhere, it has all the governance and commerciality around it as well."

The next step will be full technical design.

The microgrid will distribute electrical energy using a combination of solar and battery storage, as well as the ability to produce energy from the planned biogas facility, which will provide the businesses with electricity and heat.

"That will require the engineers to come on and design the actual poles and wires needed for connections to the microgrid although a lot of it will actually be underground," Mr Gower said.

"They will be designing the solar system and the storage system that goes along with it and also the interconnection to all those parties."

He said there has been positive feedback from the businesses involved.

"It's a good stepping stone for us, talking about the microgrid and what it means, and also the ability for them to interface with one another," Mr Gower said.

"Potentially if someone knows that they are going to have a big week of energy demand, they can trade with one another... It becomes a collective approach to it."

With the microgrid acting as a pilot program, Mr Gower said they will explore the opportunity for expansion.

"There's an opportunity to invite more customers to the microgrid itself or to potentially replicate the microgrid in other parts of Cowra or in other regional towns as well," he said.