Monash University was awarded $1.934 million for the ‘Active Energy Precincts: Building Stronger Regional Communities Project’ under the second round of the Regional and Remote Microgrid Reliability Fund. Monash University will use its microgrid, smart energy, storage, and commercial expertise to help two communities in each of the Yarra Ranges, Surf Coast, and Wodonga local government areas.
For the Yarra Ranges, Healesville and Yarra Junction have been selected as communities for this feasibility study. The locations include Council-owned facilities that can be activated as emergency relief and recovery centres and are close to other essential services such as banks, shops etc.
The project will run from late 2021 to March 2023, with community workshops planned for late 2022/early 2023 to encourage community input into the microgrid modelling. A final public facing report will be produced summarising the key learnings and identify next steps.
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