A northern Tasmanian prime lamb producer has found a novel way around TasNetworks regulations, which restricts power generated on-farm to use in only one piece of plant, home or shed.
TasNetworks insists on a separate meter, for each point on the property using power.
That means electricity for most of the farm has to be purchased from hundreds of kilometres away, rather than using on-property generated power.
Simon Hackett has circumvented the regulations by linking an aircraft hangar, houses and shearing shed on his 70 hectare farm by cable to his 100kw solar system.
Mr Hackett, who produces prime lamb and has an airstrip at The Vale, Sheffield, said he estimated it cost about $250,000 in cabling alone.
That didn't include the cost of trenches so it was probably not viable for many farmers.
"These various buildings used to be separately metered - now we have a single meter on a shiny new 500KVA transformer on a pole," Mr Hackett said.
'"Everything across the farm is 'downstream' of it, on a privately owned underground cable.
"We used to have lots of meters but we have gone down to one."
He admitted it was an expensive way to address the equitable use of locally generated renewable energy across multiple farm meters.
"We have undertaken to do all the distribution within the farm itself, I have kind of avoided the problem, in a different way."
But he said it was an expensive way to address the use of locally generated renewable energy across multiple sites.
"It will be quite interesting for TasNetworks to appreciate someone has found another way to do it, which isn't directly scaleable," he said.
"It is a bit nutty to try to reproduce it, when you don't have to.
"The concept TasNetworks seem to be exploring - allowing meter aggregation across a farm - would be a really good initiative and would encourage greater use of renewable generation on farm sites in general," he said.
It would let farmers use their locally generated energy across all of their farm assets without creating their own private power network to do it.
He said he would be happy for TasNetworks to use his property as a useful "'simulation".
"I have put my own sub metering across the property, so I know where the power is going," he said.
"TasNetworks could decide to charge an carriage fee, to move energy between these meters, some fee for service.
"Effectively what you are doing is an accounting service, it doesn't require any technical change to what's in the ground."
He said his neighbour had asked to be supplied with power from The Vale, but that wasn't legal under TasNetworks rules.
"I am literally talking about 100 metres," he said.
"It would be great to see the network start to think more about a marketplace existing across the grid they build, so in more flexible ways than merely saying 'we sell, you buy' power.
"Except for the depths of winter, we are exporting power [to the grid] like mad."
Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
